My 60th birthday present

[TimeMachine]

Watching too ! Fantastic work you do.. 77 is my Fav year , tho I own a 78.. Its like picking a fav child . Your shop is fantastic and those plastic bags of goodies are as good as gold.. Tire selection ? I went TT100's. Let me hear about that ? RT

 

[MaxPete]

Wow - I hadn't realized you are a brain surgeon too!

I haven't had a workbench that clean for......hmmmmm....errrr....ummmm.

OK - I've never had a workbench that clean.

 

[Mailman]

Wow - I hadn't realized you are a brain surgeon too!

Yes...yes I am.

 

[MaxPete]

Too bad the colour of your tie doesn't match your tank......

 

[Mailman]

I made some pretty good progress today. I tackled my crankshaft seal. R+R ing seals is new to me and this is the second one I've done on this bike so far. The video in the tech section was a great help. This is the first time for me using a seal removal tool and I learned a couple things. It works well but you have to be careful prying against the case. I nicked it and had to use my chamfering tool to smooth it out. Next time I will put something behind the tool head before prying on the seal.

I bought a brand new seal driver set at the outset of this project and so far haven't been able to use it. I didn't have a deep socket large enough so I made a seal driver out of PVC parts from Lowes for $2 and it worked great.

I got the rotor back on and shined it up with some steel wool and cleaned the face up with contact cleaner and installed new brushes and as long as I was in there why not put a little white paint on my timing mark?

Then I hit the left case cover on the buffer again. I had two new buffing wheels and new buffing compounds and finished it up with a little Blue Magic. Pretty happy with the results.
I then installed the new case cover gasket, hooked up the clutch cable and adjusted the worm gear and the clutch lever.

Then I went to install the new fuel line spring clamps I bought the other day and realized that since the carbs are now installed I have zero room to work so, off come the air boxes and carbs just to install two clamps. However thanks to this forum I've learned to R+R them pretty quickly.
Next weekend, the plan is to go get my new tires installed.

 

[retiredgentleman]

Very good workmanship

 

[DanielBlack]

'Tis true. By the time you're done, Stella's going to be the homely cousin. That cover looks great!

 

[mrtwowheel]

Doesn't it feel great to do this yourself? You know how much this specialized labor would have cost you. After doing all of this, I have never sold a bike, and I don't think I could.

Scott

 

[MaxPete]

Looks grrrrrreeeeeaaaaaatttttt! <insert Tony the Tiger voice here> - you've really done a nice job on this old gal Mailman!

Pete

 

[Mailman]

One other thing I noticed yesterday. I have a Harbor Freight M/C jack that I've never used on the Yamaha, so yesterday I was trying it out to see how hard it would be ( and it is, not a lot of frame space for the jack to get under). Anyways while I had it up in the air I was turning the front wheel back and forth and noticed the steering is super rachety. Get it near the center and let go of the bars and it literally snaps into place on center. So...the hits keep coming. Another job on the to do list,
Steering head bearings. My bike must be the poster child for every ailment known to XS650's. It's a good thing I enjoy working on this thing.
I do intend to take 5Twins advice though, and get this bike running and do some of these repairs over time. One at a time. Instead of having my bike in perpetual dis assembly.

 

[MaxPete]

Be sure to strap it onto that jack before you start driving out the old bearings Mailman.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[lakeview]

Great and instructive narrantive, thanks for taking the time to document this. You are an exemplar, in my view.

 

[Mailman]

Be sure to strap it onto that jack before you start driving out the old bearings Mailman.

Pete

Roger that! I do use tie down straps and make sure everything is rock solid before doing anything. Years ago I had a bike tip over while I was working on it and I learned a hard lesson. It not only did an amazing amount of damage to my bike but it also fell onto my new car and the clutch lever put a long crease down the door! Doh!

And thanks to everyone else here that has offered encouragement ,information, and help, it gives me the confidence to keep trying new things. Often I'm a little out of my comfort zone.

 

[5twins]

Yes, it sounds like your steering bearings are toast, lol. A cleaning and re-greasing may put some life back into them but if you get it torn down that much, you might as well make the switch to the tapered roller bearings. That will fix it for good with just an occasional re-lubing to keep them like new. I advise installing a grease nipple on the side of the neck while things are apart. That will make future re-lubes a simple task. I recommend you get the All Balls bearing kit. Not only is it much cheaper than Mike's offering, it also comes with additional grease seals (Mike's kit has none).

I'm going to assume your new brushes came from Mike's. They look to be the ill-fitting (bracket too tall) ones they sell. I guess they work OK, just don't fit down into the holder as tightly as originals. I've taken to watching eBay for N.O.S. ones. They can usually be found for about the same price as the not-quite-right Mike's item if you're patient. If I was going to try aftermarket ones, I think I'd be more inclined to go with these from Rick's Electrics .....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/73-74-Yamah...f4d49ff&pid=100005&rk=1&rkt=6&sd=401153688468

Even if they turned out to be the same ones, they're lots cheaper. A note on your brush mounting. Note the little notch in the holder on each outer side. That's there to route the brush wire through. I noticed on mine recently that my left (outer) brush wire was done wrong. I've since corrected it .....

And another tip on seal replacement. An old mechanic's trick is to clean and dress the shaft where the seal lip is going to ride. Believe it or not, a rubber seal lip, over time, can start to make a bit of a groove in the shaft. Buff it with a Scotchbrite pad. This won't remove any material but will thoroughly clean and smooth out the shaft. This will give the new seal a fresh surface to work upon. Since implementing this little trick, I've had near 100% success with my seal replacements.

 

[Mailman]

5Twins,
We are on the same page regarding the steering head bearings. It's a rediculous amount of work to NOT just do it right the first time. I have already been searching the forum for info.

The brushes are indeed from Mikes and it's funny you mentioned it, I was struck by the thought that they didn't fit particularly well. In fact I took them out and re installed them twice because I thought I wasn't doing something right. And thanks for the heads up about wire routing, I'm going to have to check how I did mine. Edit: Just looked at photo. They're wrong, dang it!

And as far as seals go, so far on my bike, it seems it has worn everywhere possible to be worn, I think I have more seal replacements in my future. Haha! Thanks for the tips.

I have benefited so much from all the photographs. "A picture is worth a thousand words"
So I have tried to take a lot of photos as I go along.

 

[David Toll]

Thirty two degrees here (that's Centigrade) and I've been sweating my way around my garage for the last month trying to make sense out of my Clymer and making things up as I go. Just discovered this thread and have found it to be fascinating reading as you engage in many of the same issues I am addressing on my '78 SE. Please continue assured that your efforts are appreciated as we cheer from the sideline and allow you to spare us the necessity of reinventing the restoration wheel and making expensive errors. Your bike is looking a treat. Well done!

 

[Mailman]

BABY NEEDS SHOES
When I first got my bike I was happy that the tires looked good and had a lot of tread on them, but after checking the dates on them I realized they were ten years old and hard. So today I jacked up the bike and pulled both wheels off and took them to Moto Tire here in Phoenix and had them mount a set of Michelin Pilot Active tires, size 100/90/19 for the front and 120/90/18, they are really nice. I had considered going with a vintage style tire for appearance ,but I like the modern profile better.
Thank you Daniel Black for recommending both the shop and the tires. Happy with both!

Before re mounting my tires I installed my new 33 tooth rear sprocket . I then dis assembled and cleaned up my rear brake as per 5 Twins excellent write up. You can see that here. I have it bookmarked.

http://www.xs650.com/threads/how-difficult-is-it-to-replace-the-rear-drum-brakes.25632/

After cleaning my brake assembly I sanded the drum to remove the glazed surface , greased all the moving parts and installed my new brake shoes.

After re assembling the brakes and mounting my back wheel up I was concerned by the amount of friction the new brakes were causing. I had a hard time turning the back wheel. I took it off and inspected everything and saw nothing wrong so I put it back together again and it was still tight. I just kept spinning the tire forward and backward and eventually it loosened up. It had me worried for a moment.
After finishing the backend I moved to the front. I noticed when I removed the front wheel that the speedometer drive was stiff to operate and the grease in it looked petrified, so I dis assembled it and cleaned it up and put fresh grease in it and re installed the front wheel.
Here are some before and after pics
Before

And ready to go back in

All in all a good days work!

 

[MaxPete]

Beautiful - you're really doing such a nice job on this bike.

Pete

 

[Mailman]

Thanks Pete, you know I did a couple of restorations before, ( a 1976 Triumph Bonneville and a 1977 BMW R100/7) and on both bikes I reached a point where I had as much invested in them as they were worth, and that's where I stopped. I always regretted that I never really felt like I finished them or gave them the amount of detail they deserved. This one , I'm not thinking about resale value. This one is for me to keep and I plan to do it right.

 

[David Toll]

Looking good Mailman. Your pictures are worth framing. Don't suppose your planning on doing the front brakes as well or having the rotor drilled? Even if only for instructional purposes, if you take my drift.