What have you done to your XS today?

Today I changed out my bar end signals to some Motogadget M-Blaze Pins. I wasn't willing to shell out the $240 for the M-Blaze discs. That's just a little to steep. These were $80 bucks on Ebay. Still kinda pricey, but the light output is pretty crazy. I had bought a set of el-cheapo Chinese LEDs designed as bar end signal but were practically invisible during the daytime, not good. I turned a couple of aluminum adapters in the lathe so I could install these on the end of my bars. I like them. Super tiny and super bright and when the bike turns off, they disappear. They are only the diameter of a dime. I don't think they were designed to be used in this fashion, they are supposed to be mounted at 90 degrees to the direction of travel. Mine are angled back just a tad, but I think they will be fine. I have a few pics below. I also attached a video of them working. While you're on my YouTube channel, check out the videos of my bike. I have a few on there.
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Installed the replacement headlight I got today for the broken one I got Mon. American seller and great service for sure. I didn`t really want to cut up the $100 brackets but??
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Stock light-bucket would have worked with the original brackets but I shortened them up 2" and drilled a new mounting hole for 8mm bolts. I did not like the headlight sitting out from the forks as much as it did.
 
Today I replaced the cam shaft oil seals and ran it for about 20 minutes to make sure they don't leak anymore. I also worked on diagnosing a short that drains the battery. I was unable to find the short but will continue working on it tomorrow.

I am thrilled to own a 1981 650xs Special that will soon be a cafe racer!!!

-Gus
 
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Got my seat pan upholstered and mounted up. Mounted up my new mikuni vm34's I got from 650 central. Took my bike for a ride where my license plate bracket cracked and ate my plate and taillight, lesson learned need to mount everything with rubber washers of some sort. Picture was taken a few minutes before the plate got eaten by the back tire
 
Ahhh just my type of thread ! I mostly fiddled with the bike...nothing major ...but I did re-torque the head.
I also took the tach off vvverrrry carefully as the cable hookup had snapped the bottom screw in nipple off !
I managed to get it back in and seat but it would just pop out again like that so I started to hot glue it in place ...
that did not work even after I roughed up the surface with my pocket knife all around the hole.... so I Krazy glued it !
waited a good hour and put it back on without braking it loose again .... it's bound to pop off there again eventually but
it's worth a try.
I was reading in the posts last night where some guys had trouble with the throttle and clutch cables after once removing them so I figured sense I had the gastank off I'ed make sure they had enough slack in them not to bind up..... glad I did ! they are in good shape now I can turn the handlebars from stop to stop and no complaints from the cables !
I did make a discovery that may well have been my problem with the left cylinder not wanting to run.....
that DAMM Vaccuum line from the intake to the petcock had a crack in it on the back side !!!!
i replaced the line with the only line I had , some clear Vinyl tubing old and hard but better than sucking air !
I havn't ran it sense but I am hoping fixing that vaccuum leak will cure that cylinder from dropping out at idle !
......
Hay ! How do you guys make those side plates shine so good ? mine are in bad shape and beg attention but nothing seams to touch it
i've used steel wool on it to get them better than they were but still not shinnie like a mirror ..... what do you do to shine them up like that ?
....
Bob...........
 
that DAMM Vaccuum line from the intake to the petcock had a crack in it on the back side !!!!
i replaced the line with the only line I had , some clear Vinyl tubing old and hard but better than sucking air !
I havn't ran it sense but I am hoping fixing that vaccuum leak will cure that cylinder from dropping out at idle !

That tubing laying around is usually from a 12 volt battery vent, if so it has SLITS cut in it. go spend the big bucks and buy a foot of yellow tygon fuel line at the local lawn & garden dealer. It also lets you see if a leaky petcock diaphragm is sending fuel straight to the intake manifold!
PS vacuum will collapse that cheap vinyl tube stopping fuel flow to the carbs..........
 
LOL no it wern't from the battery it were a very old fuel line off my old dodge truck I had built a Vaporizer on.... its old and hard but it finally made the connections.... and I put an in line filter on the gas line too ! WOOO HOOO up town man !!! LOL
and yes I thought of that if it's leaking that stupid petcock is coming off there and a on /off valve will replace it ! LOL......
what was that about a bike is a statement of it's owner ? oh man tell me it's not true !!!!!
LOL
Bob................
 
Finally got around to replacing the original steering bearings with new tapered bearings (Pyramid Brand). Also remembered to file in those two slots to allow for future removal of the bottom race as suggested on this forum. Found Delboy's Garage video to be an excellent guide for this work:

 
Well this might need a double heading
1 What did you do to your XS today
2 What did your XS do to you today

#1 I adjusted the floats in the carbs then installed them about three kicks and it was running and sounded pretty good. The patched up original equipment mufflers seem to be working good. I had it hooked up with a temporary gas tank , actually off a old Tecumseh snow blower motor and no seat but figured I make a pass down then back up the driveway an it seemed pretty good until........

#2 Until as I got near the garage I applied the front brakes that I had just bleed a few days ago. Well they worked good. The problem is the 20+ year old tires on the bike decided they did not want to grip the 30º blacktop driveway! In a blink of the eye bike was down on it's side and I was doing a face plant on the pavement. A couple things I noticed right off was the large amount of red stuff coming from my face and the somewhat shorter right upper front tooth.

Well I got up and with a some help from wife managed to push bike back into the garage then spread some oil-dry on the oil I'm assuming came out the crankcase breather while machine was laying on it's side.

Due to the aforementioned red liquid coming from the face wife decided a trip to the Urgent Care Clinic was in order. After taking a shower to make it look a little less like I had walked into the prop on a Cessna getting ready to take off we were on the way. Actually 98% of the leaking from face had stopped by then. After some in-depth questioning and inspection by nurse and NP they decided to take some pictures to be sure no critical parts were broke inside, besides the 1/2 missing tooth. Seems the worst damage was the upper lip getting torn up by the front teeth.

Also made an appointment to see dentist in the morning, she will probably smile and shake her head when she hears the story!

Now for the more or less good news part. I have not really looked over the bike very close, wife for some reason feels that can wait a few days, but like I said the bike was running on a temp tank so no damage to the good tank. I had been in a bit of a hurry to see how this rebuilt engine would run and had not got around the install the signal lights or head lamp. So all those parts were safe on the bench in the garage. The exhaust system on this bike is a very rusty original system that I was only using to see how the bike runs so if it sustained any damage it will not be a problem.

Moral of this story is when reviving a bike that has set in a barn or shed for 20+ years with the same tires on it treat any test ride like you were riding on glare ice old rubber has VERY LOW coefficient of friction under the best conditions and at below freezing temps it is even much worse.
 
Ordered a custom sprocket so I can run this rebuilt GS1000 wheel on an XS650. Still sourcing a rotor I like.
 

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Ack ! that's no fun at all ! sorry to hear of the face-plant at least you wern't doing 60mph !
look at the bright side you learned something ! that is a hard earned lesson ! but worth remembering don't use that front brake unless your really desperate !..... i've done that on the dirt farting around...but not on pavement
I doubt the bike is even scratched their tough beasts and it will take more than a flop over to hurt one bad...
( maybe I should consider new tires for my machine before I get out there and start hanging the corners ! Hummm)
take care... hope your not too sore tomorrow ! !!
Bob.........
 
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