Just got this lump of rust.. Have some questions!!

[triniriderz]

Yo

Just got this XS650H of 1981 vintage as far as I know, the story goes that it was stolen then recovered and also has had a small drop at some point after the recovery and this is what we have left..... Oh should also say it was sat outside without a cover for 5 years ..

More wires than a scud missile

More rust than the Titanic

More dirt than something reallllllyyyyyy dirty

The bike is now in bits with only the frame and engine still bolted together and having a minor clean

Carb wasn't to bad and have seen far worse considering the fuel wasn't drained and had sat for so long..

beginning of carb clean..

Im gona try and get it on the road for about 200 quid, it's going to be a rat bike forsure, I will not invest in a strip of the engine and blast of the cases until next winter (Thats if it runs ).. Frame will just be cleaned for now and if I like the bike I will do a full restore next winter inc powdercoating..

It will end up kinda, Rat flattrack/caferacery/shit kicker sort of thing...

Good thing rust is the new chrome!!!....

Anyway have a serious question ... I have had to ditch the old loom as it was hacked up by a axe murderer and looked awful, so I will run a very basic Loom with Kickstart only... Is there going to be any issues running a Boyer "Digital" Ignition with this setup as I heard a bad wisper about these unit's.. See Pic

 

[littlebill31]

For $199.00 I would ditch it and get a brand new Pamco igniton. I have an '81 with TCI and will be going Pamco soon.

 

[triniriderz]

And the reason for that would be????

 

[gggGary]

Run what she's got till it proves bad. I would keep the electric leg till I had it starting and running reliably. Things go a lot faster if you can just push a button during trouble shooting.

 

[triniriderz]

Im gona whack some new plugs in and a friend just happens to have a new coil so that will be fitted and I hope to get a harness made within the week.. Worst case it has cost me about 10 pounds in supplies and a few beers..

Just needed to confirm if the Boyer ignition would be ok to incorporate into the "chopper" Loom..

 

[Tech7]

I'm running a Boyer in my chop. It came with the donor bike. Works great.

 

[rhkansas]

I'm running Boyer ingnitions in both my '80 and '81 - both work perfectly.
rhkansas

 

[littlebill31]

My Tci works great and I deleted the starter, simplified wiring, but I'm also going PM so I will have to have a mechanical ignition. And Gary is dead on, keep the electric on 'till you get it running good. It's a pain in the ass having to kick every 5 minutes while making adjustments.
And the "chopper" loom is just simplified standard harness. There's nothing special about it, so you could probably save a couple more bucks doing it yourself. Plenty of diagrams on here.

 

[triniriderz]

No can do buddy, electrics are now in the bin The harness was a complete mess with broken wires and the like..

Can I run a standard XS coil with the this ignition box?? Electrics is my biggest let down "among other things" but i have never really got my head around it so I could speak up in the Pub when they are talking about this stuff..

 

[littlebill31]

Ya, don't use 30 year old wires. I got a stock harness and cannibalized it to keep the correct colors. Bad news using crummy, stiff wires. . I can't answer the coil. I'm not up to par on the Boyer.

 

[XSRob]

Hi Triniriderz.
According to the Boyer website the micro kit needs a different coil but maybe you should check it for yourself to verify what you have.
http://www.boyerbransden.com/micro_digital_ignition_kits.html

Hope this helps.

 

[triniriderz]

Will do..

 

[grizld1]

Trini, have a look at www.boyerbransden.com . You can fire up OK with the OEM coil, but your Micro Digital system will be happier with a coil with primary resistance between 3.5 and 4 ohms.

 

[triniriderz]

I have the Boyer Coil sat in the workshop and my pal has a standard one.. I will get the loom made and hooked up with the old/Boysen coil and see what happens, It would be a good idea to change plug caps come to think of it and see if it fires..

 

[triniriderz]

I would also add that I would like to put this style battery on to replace the standard battleship one:::

 

[angus67]

battle ship, indeed ! I use a security gate 12v battery. half the size, but give u chance to get home. that small battery wont get u very far when the charging system, acts up.
as far as the ignition, if it works , use it. my stock 80 ign works, but iff that ever so much as hiccups, im going Pamco pete. very few wires. and excellent tech help.

 

[jamesgs4]

If your charging system acts up you are screwed anyways, you can only go about 15 minutes on a stock battery if you arent charging. I have been running that battery for almost 2 years, and would never go back to the car size stock battery. Also, put a switch on your headlight so you can turn it off when starting and idling.

 

[xjwmx]

And if you don't have some way of knowing it failed, those 15 min. can be in the wrong direction (away from home base). Same with systems that claim running at low voltage as a selling point. I'm going to put a little meter on mine somewhere. It'll be fun to watch besides.

 

[triniriderz]

The bike is having a very basic hairy back cave man harness with a on/off headlight toggle switch..
Nuclear war head type with red safty lifty thingy and all ..

A list that "is" being fitted..

Horn ::Check
Headlight::Check
Tail Light::Check
Brack light switches f+r::Check

Dont need turn signals or idiot lights (or any other health and safty bullsh!t it's a motorbike for feck sack)

Ignition switch will be a toggle again, and I think thats it , Looking at that lot my Mountain bike has more electrics than that ..

Bet I still mess it up though

I will try the "cough" cheap little battery first as I really don't want to spend much on this project and see what happen's, worst case I will cannibalism one of my other bikes for a new(ish) battery..

 

[jamesgs4]

Your bike reminds me of mine when i got it, all rusty and a hacked wiring harness. I ran a simple toggle switch for my bike also, but finally put a key switch after leaving the toggle on and killing the battery one too many times lol.