New Heritage Special owner

[Eotnak]

So here's a little story:
Dan, a long time friend of the family, one of my other fathers you could say, gave me a '82 or '84 (can't remember off hand) Heritage Special. I haven't gotten around to nailing down the exact model, but I will. I got it in boxes, put it together, and got it to fire up. The maintenance book that I was given is a step above useless, but I digress.

The bike was bought new from Dan's best friend at the time, who very tragically died maybe 2 years later in a fire. He was a volunteer firefighter in his 20's. Dan didn't want to see the bike disappear, so he bought it and rode it for a while. He lost interest in the bike eventually, and gave it to my sister, who ended up giving it to me. I'm going to ask Dan what he thinks about me doing a custom build to it, but for now, I want to get it back to good condition and commute with it for a while.

This is my first bike, but I'm no stranger to grease. I've done a few 4X4's, hot rods and customs, and have plenty of friends with plenty more know how. First order of business is a new battery, electrical inspection, and to figure out why it is so hard to start with newly rebuilt carbs.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi Eotnak and welcome,
my '84 Heritage has a handlebar mounted choke control that I think was an '84 only thing but there's a chart in the stickys that'll tell you what year yours is if you look up it's frame ID.
Haynes or Clymers? (AKA worthless and useless but that's harsh; imprecise and incomplete is closer, there's some good stuff in both of them)
Hard start? How many times did you clean the carbs? (3 times for an expert, more for a beginner)
Didja pay special attention to the slow running and enrichener circuits?
Or perhaps low battery? 12.4V on the multimeter is one thing but how low does it drop when it's cranking? Below 10.5V and the ignition don't work.
How well does it start on the kicker? Or when boosted from your car battery?
First thing before you ride anywhere, how old are the tires?
Old tires don't grip too well.
And if it's still using the stock rototiller handlebars, do yourself a favour and fit lower straighter ones.

 

[gggGary]

Handlebar choke; Heritage Specials 82 on

 

[Eotnak]

There's a stamp on the neck 5v4-00 so I looked that up and I think that it is a 1982 (title says 1982) XS-J Heritage Special
There is a choke on the left handlebar.
The book is Clymer's...just about all the pictures and descriptions are for a different motor.
The battery would not take a charge, so I jumped it from my el camino. I did not isolate the circuit from the bad battery, but I'm off to get a new one anyway. My dad rebuilt the carbs about 3 years ago and they just sat in a box. when I first put fuel to them they both dripped non stop...until they stopped--20 minutes later. That's when I tried starting it. When it did start, I ran it for about 5 min. Then shut her down and it was just as hard to start...I repeated that about 4 times and figured it was time to do some investigating. Starter runs, then a sputter, then the starter just spins free from the crankshaft. I do that a bunch of times, then I can get it started by trying full choke, then half choke, then if I catch it just right on the sputter, I can bring up the rpm's to keep it running

I did some searching and plan on pulling the carbs and looking at the enrichener circuits, thanks for the info!
Didn't even try kick start, it was hard enough with the electric starter.
tires look great, but I'll take the advice and get new ones.
That's funny you said that about the handlebars. Many years ago, he let me ride it and it was actually my first ride on a street bike and I remember how awkward the handlebars felt. I just figured it was because I was used to riding dirtbikes.

 

[fredintoon]

There's a stamp on the neck 5v4-00 so I looked that up and I think that it is a 1982 (title says 1982) XS-J Heritage Special
There is a choke on the left handlebar.
The book is Clymer's...just about all the pictures and descriptions are for a different motor.
The battery would not take a charge, so I jumped it from my el camino. I did not isolate the circuit from the bad battery, but I'm off to get a new one anyway. My dad rebuilt the carbs about 3 years ago and they just sat in a box. when I first put fuel to them they both dripped non stop...until they stopped--20 minutes later. That's when I tried starting it. When it did start, I ran it for about 5 min. Then shut her down and it was just as hard to start...I repeated that about 4 times and figured it was time to do some investigating. Starter runs, then a sputter, then the starter just spins free from the crankshaft. I do that a bunch of times, then I can get it started by trying full choke, then half choke, then if I catch it just right on the sputter, I can bring up the rpm's to keep it running

I did some searching and plan on pulling the carbs and looking at the enrichener circuits, thanks for the info!
Didn't even try kick start, it was hard enough with the electric starter.
tires look great, but I'll take the advice and get new ones.
That's funny you said that about the handlebars. Many years ago, he let me ride it and it was actually my first ride on a street bike and I remember how awkward the handlebars felt. I just figured it was because I was used to riding dirtbikes.

Hi Eotnak,
my 7th edition Clymers has a separate section showing the 1981 models and it's all the same engine back to '73 or so, anyway.
Later models have transistor ignition, different carbs and an oil sight glass but all those things will swap back and forth.
Most likely your existing battery is dead and using a new one may vastly improve things.
Try the kicker anyway, without the starter trying to suck all the power out of the battery there will be a fatter spark to run the thing.
And yeah, nobody likes the rototillers. Except Marty but he's really tall and they fit him.
I say all they are fit for is to be the tenor note in a backyard windchime.

 

[Eotnak]

Yup everything's a lot better with a new battery. Starts OK with the starter, first kick when warm. Needs finesse with the starter, and kicking when it's cold. It stalls when I put it in gear with the clutch in. So I came back here and found this gem:

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showpost.php?p=377934&postcount=5

thanks for the great source of info that you guys have put together here! I shorted the side stand safety switch and off I went. Put-put-put it chugs along until I get to about 15mph then it hits a power band and the front wheel almost comes off the ground.

So I've got lots more learnin' to do!

 

[scabber]

Welcome. Nice bike like the black painted fenders. Have fun ride safe.

 

[weekendrider]

FYI the 82 was the only model all dressed in black.
Fork lowers, fenders and turn signal stalks.
Welcome to the site.

 

[aldo5468]

Except for the rear rack, it looks exactly like the '82 I bought 4 years ago. Take good care of those lower side covers - they are pretty rare now. Follow the carb guide closely - it may take a couple of tries, but you should be able to get the carbs working properly through the entire rpm range. New O-rings, Viton or some other ethanol-resistant material, for the needle valve bodies and the idle air screws are good to have. Float level settings need to be dead-on before you can succeed with any other tuning.