Mailman’s XS2 a full on restoration

[Mailman]

You won't need to remove your tripknob extension shaft, it's not visible to the outside world, being covered by the rubber boot and knob.

But, if you must, here's how I had to do mine.

First, wrap some protective tape around the aluminum shaft extension, and clamp a small vicegrip on that thing.

Then remove the trip shaft's retainer c-clip.
View attachment 115034

Skootch the tripmeter to the left, exposing the shaft's right end.

View attachment 115035

Using small, serrated jaw, needle-nose pliers, get a death-grip on that shaft end.

View attachment 115036

The extension shaft uses left-hand-threads. The factory used threadlocker on the threads, and it is really locked on there. I had to twist one way, then the other, several times before it started to loosen up. Not a *pop* release, more of an imperceptibly slow yield. Eventually it unthreaded.

*Dayum!*
View attachment 115037

As an afterthought, maybe heating that extension with a soldering iron would have made it release sooner...

Thank you so much for all of the effort you made on my ( and future others) behalf!
That is a terrific write up and your detailed photos really help to make this easy to understand. You da man!
I’ll shoot you a PM about those spare parts.
Never turn down spare parts!
Thanks Again!
Bob

 

[MrBultaco]

The parts I want to keep are the guts, needle, lighting, and boot...

alright, another project for us to guess...

Great 'how-to' posts again, 2M

 

[MaxPete]

Wow. That’s all I’ve got.

Pete

 

[mrtwowheel]

Imagine going to a garage and explaining your problem disassembling something, the guy brings out the very part that you are working on and disassembles it before your very eyes. Nah, that don't happen!!!!!!!

Scott

 

[Mailman]

Imagine going to a garage and explaining your problem disassembling something, the guy brings out the very part that you are working on and disassembles it before your very eyes. Nah, that don't happen!!!!!!!

Scott

It does here Scott......in the magic forum. Ask and you shall receive. The generousity and kindness of the members of this forum is humbling.

 

[MaxPete]

)

It does here Scott......in the magic forum. Ask and you shall receive. The generousity and kindness of the members of this forum is humbling.
View attachment 115048

Indeed.

 

[Mailman]

Doctor! Doctor! tell me the news!
Dr. 2M came through when the chips were down on this one!

I took another go at the speedo this morning with MUCH better results!
I soon had the bezel removed and could’ve stopped there, but the good Dr. Is sending me some replacement parts so further disassembly was required.

Here the E Clip has been removed and the odometer assembly shifted to the left as per 2M.

Now comes the cool part! Or should I say the hot part, I used a soldering iron on the part of the stem that threads on, and in no time it just spun right off! Great suggestion, it melted the thread lock , like butter baby!

Now I was able to remove the entire mechanism from the housing.

It was very clean and dust and corrosion free in there. However I could see some old dried out grease, so I wiped it off and applied a light coating of grease on all the gears and a little silicone on all the shaft bushings.

I put the odometer mechanism back in and the E Clip re attached and then realized something wasn’t right. These little teeth are supposed to grip the mounting bracket.

So ....I had to pull it all apart again and fix it. There, that’s better!

I can now re install the mechanism into the housing and secure it with the E Clip.

The faceplates have chrome bezels around various openings that have to be removed before wet sanding the faces so the new decals can be applied.

They are glued in from the back, you have to cut the glue line to remove them.

Be very careful with these because they are extraordinarily thin and fragile.

Now I just have to wait for my decals to arrive from Diablo! I sure hope these instruments work! I have not had a chance to see in operation.
Once again, BIG shout out to Steve ( 2M) for saving the day for me on this one!
I’ll be back!
Bob

 

[robinc]

Awesome work Bob!
Man. 2M's turning you into a watchmaker too!
Amazing what he did here.

Well done getting into that fine finicky stuff. Good on ya buddy!

 

[Mailman]

Awesome work Bob!
Man. 2M's turning you into a watchmaker too!
Amazing what he did here.

Well done getting into that fine finicky stuff. Good on ya buddy!

Thanks Robin,
It was pretty challenging and fun! I sure hope it all turns out nice!

 

[Jim]

It was pretty challenging and fun! I

Yeah.... a little touch of OCD don't hurt either...

 

[Mailman]

Yeah.... a little touch of OCD don't hurt either...

Haha! Guilty as charged!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

...Doctor! Doctor! tell me the news!
Dr. 2M came through when the chips were down on this one!

Hahaha, that first pic was a real chuckler.

...Now comes the cool part! Or should I say the hot part, I used a soldering iron on the part of the stem that threads on, and in no time it just spun right off! Great suggestion, it melted the thread lock , like butter baby!

Absolutely fantastic there, Mailman!

Really glad at your success with the soldering iron. Sometimes you have only one chance, one go, at these kinds of things. Your exploit is like having an extra life in a video game. Step on a landmine, go back and try it again.

I love it when collaborative efforts meet with success.

This definitely goes into the "book of tricks"...

 

[cra-z1]

I want to see the new faceplates go on.I have a spare set of gages that could be updated. The numbers look very nice on your speedo. Nice work

 

[MaxPete]

This is a superb example of how to do a complex task and how to collaborate. Nicely done Bob and Steve!

Pete

 

[jradvantage]

My speedo and tach hands on the 1978 jump all over the place, giving me only a rough approximation of speed and rpm's. $500.00 bucks to have a pro refurbish. After seeing 2M's write up and your stab at it, I may just try fixing them myself and save some bucks. Thanks for tackling this and chronicling the event!

 

[Mailman]

I want to see the new faceplates go on.I have a spare set of gages that could be updated. The numbers look very nice on your speedo. Nice work

My speedo and tach hands on the 1978 jump all over the place, giving me only a rough approximation of speed and rpm's. $500.00 bucks to have a pro refurbish. After seeing 2M's write up and your stab at it, I may just try fixing them myself and save some bucks. Thanks for tackling this and chronicling the event!

That's excellent guys! That's the beauty of this forum, sharing experiences so that these old bikes can be preserved! If I ( the shadiest of shade tree mechanics ) can pull this off, then you can too. You just have to take your time and be methodical. We all learn from those who went before.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

...I have a spare set of gages that could be updated...

...I may just try fixing them myself and save some bucks...

That's great, cra-z1 and jr. Maybe you guyz would like to pioneer version 2.0 of this procedure.

The trip odometer has an indexing leaf spring that fits into a notch of the shaft's nylon stop wheel. This provides the momentary *bump* that you feel when turning the trip knob in the backwards (unscrewing) direction.

It may be possible to remove this shaft extension earlier in the disassembly stage, right after removing the knob and rubber boot. The aluminum extension is quite accessible, and could be easily heated with the soldering iron trick.

The trick here will be to rapidly heat the extension, before the main threaded steel shaft gets too hot, and turn the extension with a tool that won't sink all the heat out of it.

Whutcha think?

 

[Mailman]

2M said

"It may be possible to remove this shaft extension earlier in the disassembly stage, right after removing the knob and rubber boot. The aluminum extension is quite accessible, and could be easily heated with the soldering iron trick.
The trick here will be to rapidly heat the extension, before the main threaded steel shaft gets too hot, and turn the extension with a tool that won't sink all the heat out of it."

Yeah, I definitely think it would be worth trying. Having to pry that bezel open while fighting the chrome housing was a pain. I applied the pre heated soldering iron about 1/8" from the end of the shaft extension, fairly briefly , turning the shaft and applying heat in three different spots around the shaft.

 

[MaxPete]

What about hot-gluing a little piece of wood (like a popsicle stick) to the jaws of your vise grips. Wood is a very poor conductor of heat so the grips wouldn’t cool down the speedo parts too fast.

 

[Mailman]

Today I continued stripping the bike down. I am slowly filling up three big Tupperware tubs, bagging and tagging as I go.

I continue to be amazed at the condition of the wiring, every connection I have pulled apart has been clean and shiny.

The worst stuff still appears to be the condition of all the rubber. Every grommet, rubber washer and unique rubber mount is either hard and dried out or rotten and crumbly.
And pretty much all of the frame that lies below the battery has been damaged by battery acid and is rusted.

I’ve also been wondering about the stock charging system. I know it is charging because I took along a multi meter and checked it when I first heard it run, and the bike is very low miles (5500) , but I am trying to decide, should I just run things as is until the stock charging system gives up? Or should I try to get in front of this and install a modern solid state regulator and rectifier? Lord knows I wouldn’t mind saving a little money.
Pretty soon I shall be placing some large orders and getting the ball rolling on refurbishing parts, but lots and lots of cleaning needs to be done first.
It’s a good thing that this is my idea of fun!

Bob