It's past time to start XS2 Resurrection

Weldin' with flux core is like sanding paint with water and beach sand... you can do it, but there's a better way.;)
Do yourself a favor. get the Stargold bottle.
What mix do you recommend? 75/25?
 
What mix do you recommend? 75/25?
Yeah, that's the most common. Good general purpose gas for MIG.
I run pure Argon in my TIGer

Untitled.png
 
A good day. Welder drop in and wired. Decided to take it for a test drive. The weld weren't real pretty. I don't think it's the machines fault. It works better than I can weld right now. I just need to practice. I can see a bottle of gas in the future.
View attachment 130278 View attachment 130279
And to make it a better day the Bears won. :yikes:
Now I have to do fire watch. Time for a beer.
i shook walter payton's hand once...one of my fav athletes... "Sweetness"
 
Not a lot of progress, but I did get a few things done.
Rear wheel is laced with new spokes. I think I got it correct. Needs trued.
24.PNG

Speaking of truing, I worked on a truing stand. No close up of the welds, I'm still using farmer wire.
23.PNG

Need to make a couple more parts for it. Ordered some stock and tooling for my lathe. Speaking of lathe got it anchored. Took it for a little test drive and it seems to work.
27.PNG

One other thing I did get done was got the calipers apart. Had to soak them in rust repentant for a week. Then used air to get pistons out. Did it the way we used to get stuck pistons out of car calipers. If they didn't want to move press them in with a c-clamp. Then use air to move them. Press in use air to move out. Use c-clamp to keep them from flying across the room.
22.PNG

There is a small amount of rust on pistons. I'm thinking of using reusing them. I'm sure they will function, at worst they might seep a bit. If so they could be replaced. It looks worse than it feels with my fingernail.
25.PNG
 
Got parts made for truing stand. Got both rims pretty straight and true. Probably plus/minus 10, 20 overall.
32.PNG
Cleaned up some more of the small parts. Mailman inspired me to get to work on getting the old paint and rust off of the frame.
One good thing about cleaning the frame yourself is you see every inch of it. Found another place where the frame is broke. Damn. Oh well, won't be bad to fix. Any other bike I would be thinking of throwing the towel in on it. But I rode it for the first time 43 years ago and I'm sure I had something to do with the cracks. Plus when I do get it running it should not get the abuse it did get at one time.:D
33.PNG


34.PNG


35.PNG
 
Wow! That’s a rather surprising area for the frame to crack. It’s heavily boxed. It must’ve been some wild young guy with his hair on fire riding it. Oh wait....... was that you? :D
Maybe yes maybe no.:rolleyes:
Lot of events of our youth probable come under the heading of "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
When I got my first bike the only thing my Dad told me about bikes was there's 2 things that are going to happen. " Your going to fall down and your going to get wet. Best to get wet more than you fall down".
 
When I had my first XS650 back in about ‘77, There used to be this road that ran next to a field. At one point there was a sudden elevation followed by a drop. I used to hit that every single day at about 50mph and do my best Evil Knevil impression and fly through the air. It was thrilling and I was young and I’m sure I didn’t do that nice bike any favors! :laugh2:
 
Another week with not a lot of progress. I'm not on a time schedule so I keep plugging away. De-greased and cleaned some more small parts. My plan for this week and next was to break down 4 parts bikes I was going to pick up last weekend. That went to hell in a hand basket. Monday I went to see an old friend that said he has some 650 parts. He does. I needed an engine to strip down to bare cases to put in my frame when I weld up the breaks. He told me he has a parts motor. Low and behold it's got a decompressor on it. Bought it and a few more things from him. He also has a bare frame and a roller with titles. Plus another motor and a crate full of other parts. I'll probably get more from him sometime in the future. Anyway the serial numbers on the motor are inconclusive, it's either a 72 or 73. Don't care. Monday afternoon started building a motor stand so I can start tearing down the motor.

40.PNG

Finished it Tuesday morning and got the head off. Motor looked better from the outside than the inside.
41.PNG

2 and a half days later using anything and everything I have for rust to soak it in and a 5lb hammer I finally got the pistons out. So today I built a stand to hold the engine upside down. The stands are functional but not pretty. They will get painted in the spring.
42.PNG

Probably not the best designs but had to use what I have for steel on hand.
GO BEARS
 
So today I built a stand to hold the engine upside down

Are you gonna make me look bad by splitting your cases and going through your bottom end? Man if I wind up with problems down there after doing so much other work, I’ll never hear the end of “ I told you so!” :D

Another week with not a lot of progress. I'm not on a time schedule so I keep plugging away

All progress is good progress. :thumbsup:
 
Are you gonna make me look bad by splitting your cases and going through your bottom end? Man if I wind up with problems down there after doing so much other work, I’ll never hear the end of “ I told you so!” :D



All progress is good progress. :thumbsup:
This engine will get split. I want empty cases to put in my frame for welding purposes. My original engine will get split to see if the crack in them can be fixed. I wouldn't worry about yours. It looks like it has pretty low miles on it. If the crack in my original cases can't be fixed to my satisfaction I'll use these.
 
1 step forward 3 steps back. Put empty cases in my frame to start fixing it. Got the broken pieces back in alignment. Thought I was in good shape. Motor mounts bolts were not binding. Tack it in 5 or 6 places, tack off clamps, weld it up and grind back flush. I've got a tube with the correct inside radius to make a patch to weld over existing tube. Then I decided I better make sure swingarm bolt will still fit. Now is where I go backwards. Old bolt goes in fine. Old bolt is pretty rust and beat up. New bolt does not want to go into the second side. No matter how I try to flex things it doesn't get into alignment. I had cleaned the inside of the frame to where I can slide the new bolt in and out by hand on each side. It's close enough that it will tap in using a 1 lb hammer chocked down to a few inches from the head. I got to thinking I may better check it another way. I was able to pull the bolt out with a pair of channel locks so it's not in a major bind. I got the new tube and found the seals and put those in with the new bolt.The new tube with just the seals feels fine in there, with no bolt it's not binding but not sloppy. I think the new bolt may be a 1/2 a hair (red) bigger that the original, I had to open up the seals a bit to get them to slide over the new bolt. Put it all back together and again had to use a small hammer to tap the bolt in. It's been a long time since I had to replace swingarm bushings in a bike. I think the last one I did was on a Penton Jackpiner. My question is does anyone see a major problem proceeding on and welding up the frame?
43.PNG

44.PNG


45.PNG
 
You did all the right things, bolting an engine case in place and clamping everything into alignment. It is the nature of welding to kinda pull metal one way or another. You can still get the bolt through with a little gentle tapping, so that doesn’t seem too scary to me. I see you have the swingarm tube mounted up , so that’s a good sign that things are fitting alright. Once the bolt is in , it doesn’t move.
If it were me, working on my own bike. I’d finish the welding. Are you planning on keeping the engine case bolted in while you finish your welds? I would, and clamped as good as you can get it.
My two cents.
 
Back
Top