correctomundo Frederick.
WE ARE CANADIAN - the world's leading experts in sh!tty weather and shortened riding/fun car seasons.
dammit
Hi Pete,
OTOH, if there's too much cold & snow to ride your bike it's most likely just right for firing up the snowmobile, eh?
And to think I volunteered to live here. Plus there were skill-testing questions before they'd let me stay.
Although, to be fair, they did let me pay income tax right away.
 
I will be ordering a New Electronic advance from XS650 Direct here in Canada, if the funds are good this summer.
I will advise if the 3 5ml pins come with the kit.Thats why I like this site so much, u get a heads up on issues
that your not expecting. When I got my Pamco from XS650 Direct I though it was strange that there were NO Directions,plus no connectors
of any kind.The coil does not fit properly and u have to make for nvent your own way of securing it to the frame.
It works great once installed correctly BUT don't expect a direct bolt indue won't be happy!
 
Hi Pete,
OTOH, if there's too much cold & snow to ride your bike it's most likely just right for firing up the snowmobile, eh?
And to think I volunteered to live here. Plus there were skill-testing questions before they'd let me stay.
Although, to be fair, they did let me pay income tax right away.

Yes Fred - and we really do appreciate the help with our national nanny-state programs from the "Canadians-by-Choice" crowd and we're sorry about all of those recruiting brochures in which we lied to you about the weather, the waving palm trees and the friendly natives wearing nothing but grass skirts and smiles....:D;).
Instead, you got snow, sleet, hail and Don Cherry....:cussing::wtf:

Of course, the Aussies probably don't mention the drought, floods, spiders, snakes, crocs, sharks or killer ants & bees, let alone the cyclones that periodically blow through flattening their northern towns.....:rolleyes:

As for snowmobiles, I used to own a sled, but the noise got to me and so I sold it. Now all the squirrels and chipmunks rejoice.

Ahhhh - what a wonderful world!

Pete
 
Never have drought when it's flooding. Spiders and snakes make interesting pets. Crocs only eat Northern Australians and there are no sharks on netted beaches, along with no dolphins, humpbacks, turtles or sunfish that kind of thing - still who wants to be in the water with a 12' Great White? Lot's of them in Western Australia unfortunately. Those Wankers are brave! For ants and bees we've got Baygon and cyclones rarely hit the Gold Coast - had a big one in '67, another in '76 and the remnants of one last month. Still those are the wages of living in paradise. 26 degreesC at the moment and it's late Autumn.
 
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That totally sums up my day.
First the GOOD.
Last week I installed the Pamco E-Advancer and after the installation I noticed that it was running a little rough and occasionally it would cough back through the carburetor. So today I checked and re set the timing and sure enough I had the timing too retarded. Today I got it spot on and everything fell into place. It is fully advancing like it should, it starts good and has a super steady idle.
So then I checked and set the carburetor balance and fuel mixture screws without using a manometer using the technique described in this thread by Dogbunny.

http://www.xs650.com/threads/simple-carb-mixture-screw-and-sync-adjustments.33791/#post-342503

Then I took it out for a test ride. It is running better than ever now. I'm very happy with it.
Then I took a look at all my instrument lights. I have a few of them that don't work. All the bulbs that I pulled , looked like they were original and exhibited a lot of wear.
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I have decided to replace all the bulbs with new.
The BAD
Months ago I had gone through all the wiring connections. I did everything except what was in the headlight bucket. So I pulled the headlight and what a mess I found!
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For whatever reason the PO cut and added extensions to the wiring harness. I really don't know why.
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The UGLY
Electrical tape everywhere. Multiple bare spots.
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And check out what I found under the electrical tape. Clearly the guy couldn't solder, just look at this chicken shit. How was this thing even running?
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And what the hell kind of connection is this?
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I am going to have to pull all this wiring out and unwrap all this tape and remove all this bodged up crap and get rid of all these Rube Goldberg connections. I have to print out a wiring diagram for all the connections inside the headlight bucket.
I'm thinking it might just be easier to remove the headlight bucket and get all this wiring out in the open where I can work.
Of all the places to tamper with the original wiring , why did he have to do it in the one place that's such a bitch to work in? How the heck has this bike not had a short and left me stranded?
I'm not riding it until all this is sorted. Have I mentioned before how electrical is not my strong suit? Yuck!

I want to buy an old bike! I said
It'll be fun! I said
Hahaha Silly Gringo!
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Bob it is actually surprising that after all the fantastic mods you have achieved you have just discovered that birds nest ? It seems common that previous owners have butchered wiring in the head light. Even my previous 78e had similar butchering to yours to repair. I actually highly recommend now before purchasing a used bike to look in the headlight bucket.I won't buy again without doing so. Hang in there, its cheap to fix, just a little more time. Been there :cheers:
 
looks like fun to me!

Ha! I've seen the rusty crusty stuff you restore. This probably looks easy peasy to you, I know!
I'll figure it out. Just be careful and methodical.
Either that or I'll just tape everything back up and pretend I didn't see anything.
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Ahhhh, the headlight bucket.
Where the magic happens.
And the smoke is stockpiled....

Oh man! I know, I was looking at all those bare spots on the wires and shoddy connections and thinking, at the very least it could leave me on the side of the road, at worst it could start a fire.
 
There is nothing orderly about the wiring inside a headlight bucket, even when these bikes were new. These connections are even dreadfully exposed to the elements. :eek: Good insulated connections are not hard to accomplish with what you have. Some people find this a good reason to "rip out the wiring harness". Insert friendly but crazy emoticon here.

Scott
 
In defense of electrical tape, it just gets a bad rep that it doesn't deserve. I've seen corrosion under shrink tube that would not have happened with a well taped job that didn't disappear. Self fusing Devcon tape is a good insulator and is less apt to disappear.

Scott
 
Haha , I'm not ripping anything original out. Just the crap!

I'm not above using electrical tape. My bike has its share. It's the mess that's underneath that has to go.
 
2M - THAT made me snort!

Mailman I'm just getting back from a busy week on the road and, yeah, I've been there too with Lucille's harness. I found some solid copper house wire and twist-on Marrette connectors in there. :yikes::wtf:

Stick at - be methodical and apply garage lubricants internally when things get tense....

Pete
 
Mailman, one question you asked is why did the previous owner add extensions to wiring? I've seen this before. Ready ? I believe you XS perhaps had a fairing such as a Windjammer which needs longer wiring ? Do you see any other indications such as rub marks on the frame paint where mounts would have been ? Thats my best guess .. Enjoy that spaghetti ugh, and caution on the dark grn & brn matching them up. My ol eyes have tricked me on those ... -RT
 
Maybe had a fairing on there, now that's an interesting idea! I'm going to have to take a look at the frame. That would explain the extensions.
 
Yes, the mess you found is typical, except maybe for all those wire extensions. I would eliminate all those, they aren't needed, especially if you implement the "fix" I'm about to outline. Just eliminate the extensions and connect the original wires back together using inline "Western Union" splices (soldered and shrink wrapped). The reason for all the extensions may have been due to the harness's tendency to sag and pull out of the bucket. The main harness splits in 2 by the coils and a slightly smaller harness runs along each side of the neck up into the bucket. These 2 looms tend to sag way down over time, from their own weight and from constantly turning the bars back and forth. They usually end up all the way down and sitting on the reflector mounts. They'd probably sag even lower if those mounts weren't there to stop them. This sagging pulls them out of the headlight bucket. Many times the protective sleeve that should be passing through the bucket grommet no longer does. It has pulled out and just the individual wires coming out of it go through the grommet. That's not good and wasn't the way this was designed to work.

So, what we need is some way to hold the harness up, support it from sagging and pulling out of the bucket. Yamaha inadvertently provided us with a way to accomplish this. On the neck gusset plates, just in front of the tank puck holders, you'll find some 1/4" holes. Using two 8" or 10" cable ties, a "harness sling" can be made up to support the looms on both sides. Stick one cable tie through both holes from the left side, the other from the right side. That will give you a male and female end from each tie on each side. Pass them around the loom on each side and connect the ends together. Snug them up enough to lift and hold the loom up under the tank puck holder .....

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Unfortunately, the sharp edges of the holes will cut through the cable ties and they'll break every couple of years. To help protect against that, I've come up with what I call the "harness sling ver.2.0", lol. I stick rubber grommets in the gusset plate holes now before I stick the cable ties in.
 
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