So git 'er Done

DaveO

XS650 Addict
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After posting photos some time ago about a repair to my tacho I was asked "how is this holding up?". I had to admit that since doing it I had made little progress. In fact the repair probably was part of my prevarication. (No-one needs a tacho.) I was also shocked to find out how long ago it was.

In my defence I have moved from Newcastle to Devon (in the UK), bought a house and spent a long time getting it liveable. I've divorced in that time too so the bike has been in a successions of garages and lock-ups. Anyway, less of the bleeding heart stuff …

Thanks to @MaxPete for saying "C'mon Dave you can do it!!" and "get at ‘er and git ‘er done!"

Dave

 
"Please post pictures - we like pictures."

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There's been a slight delay as I had to retrieve the bike from the garage and get rid of the accumulated builder's tat. I'm afraid that its spent a lot of time in the company of bags of sand, cement and plaster. Most of my mates who have a garage, if it hasn't got a car in it, have that sort of stuff.

Its a 1975 XS650B. I bought it ages ago (I'll look that up), rode it for a couple of summers and then stuck it at the back of the garage. I've had several offers for it over the years but I knew from past experience that if I sold it I would regret it.
 
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I should have photographed it "before" and after. This is after a wash and a good hose down. The good bit is that its not as bad as I'd feared. The bad bits are that lots of the frame is showing signs of rust and what was a nice front mudguard is pitted. Some of the white on the cases rubbed off with a bit of WD40 on a rag.

I think I'll put a big note up in the garage though that says "NO COSMETICS" in an attempt to concentrate on getting it running and stopping.
 

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I like to work on mechanics but when things don't go well or I'm getting tired, I'll switch to cleaning rags and polish. Many times I catch and correct "little things" while cleaning. Shiny bits also encourage further work and the urge to get 'R going.
 
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I love the original bars and the chrome seems to have survived in acceptable (to me) condition.

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The tank doesn't seem to have gotten much worse over the years. I don't mind a bit of patina.

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The seat is largely intact on the sitting bit. There's a large tear on the side which was there when I bought it. The rear mudguard is pitted but it was when I bought it and includes a small rusted through portion - also an original feature.
 
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Its a credit to the Japanese manufacturers that the bits that seem to have suffered worse at the hands of my neglect are the British bits. These are Alf Hagon shocks. No discredit though to Alf Hagon. I'm sure even a wipe over with an oily rag over a period of twenty years let alone some polish might have seen them in better shape. I put them on the second year I had the bike as the MOT guy pointed out that the weep of fluid which resulted in an "advisory" the previous year "hasn't miraculously gone away". So they haven't really had much use. Fingers crossed.
 
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More of the "Hall of Shame". These are aftermarket two-into-ones. The originals weren't original, I don't think. They were some sort of two-into-two (maybe Dunstalls. I don't recall.) I do recall that they made a lovely sound, especially when slipping into second and opening it up. But they were tatty and "opening her up in second" meant when I was leaving the nice cul-de-sac that I lived in then. So the neighbours needed to be pacified and I bought the two-into-one. Its a well known make but I can't (as I type) remember what. The chrome is pitted and again they were new. They might look acceptable after a rub with Coke and cooking foil


We Catholics have mountains of guilt. :)

Edit: The exhaust is a Motad
 
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To get it back on the road ...

Item one
- Originally the brakes were twin disks. They were unsurprisingly jammed on. It all came apart easily enough but unjamming them became a problem. Each calliper has a piston each side, so pumping it results is one side coming out and not the other. Never mind, try the other calliper. Same thing. Cobble together a few bit of mild steel to hold the freed side in while pumping the other; the master cylinder started to leak really badly.

The solution was throw it all in a plastic box in the corner of the garage.

But after some advice from you wonderful chaps I've decide that if American versions have only one brake disk, then so can I. I've bought a new master cylinder from YamBits https://yambits.co.uk/ and after struggling for a second time with both callipers I bought a remanufactured calliper for my year. Later callipers don't fit. I'll post up the details later if anyone is interested. Had to sit down for a cup of tea after spending out for both of those and I still need a brake line.

Actually both parts were a bargain.
 
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Good looking bike, Dave! Thank you for all the pictures! The '75 was probably one of the sharpest looking of them all. And yours is in a helluva lot better condition than mine was when I bought it (hence its name "The Basketcase"). Those bits will polish up just fine. While some here have done restorations that make their bikes look fresh from Japan (you know who you are! :wink2: ), most others would rather just keep them functional and ride as much as possible. Don't worry about taking your time. It took me nine years (!) to get "The Basketcase" and two others ('79 and '81) into a proper shop where I can work on them. Now if I could retire already, I'd have the time to work on them....
 
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Item two

The carburetors are gummed up. I like the 75 model but it comes with carbs that aren't linked. So, there are two throttle cables. After a lot of fiddling and cleaning I discovered that the tick-over adjuster screw on one side was not a nice fine thread screw but a nasty wood-screw which someone had forced in. (I'm exaggerating for effect here, but you get the idea.)

The only advantage of these carbs that I found was that, being unlinked, they are easy to get off.

But some years back I bought a pair of EX500 carbs off eBay. So that's the idea. I just have to find them. (and read the 45 page post on the topic).

There's more (I have actually made a start, not just taken photos) but I'm hungry now.

Cheers m'dears

Dave
 
Some small progress is the past few days.

I've hunted down the bits that I have stashed away.

New lever and master cylinder (Yambits) (A bit of a sweat on there. I had put them in a safe place. Turned out to be so safe I couldn't remember where it was.)
New brake calliper (also Yambits, remanufactured for the 75 model)
EX500 (Keihin CVK) carbs (bought off eBay quite some time ago)
BS34 carb boots (apparently the 75 ones weren't going to work)
inline fuel filter

Borrowed a micrometer measured up the various spigots on the carb and bike and the fuel filter. The Yamaha taps, carb boot spigots, fuel filter, and the CVK spigots and the inline fuel filter are all 5mm. The vent and the fuel intake on the CVK are 8mm. So, by my reckoning I need some 5mm ID fuel pipe and some 8mm stuff, 4 blank-off spigots and some way of tying 8mm fuel pipe to 5mm pipe.

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Found some t-pieces like these on eBay. So Its all on order.

Oh, and a battery … My Optimate charger has a recovery mode for batteries so I tried it out. But it appears that it can't do miracles.
 
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