'79 XS650 Special Low-Effort Resto

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here are the fruits of Sunday's labor.
  • New All Balls steering bearings installed
  • New triple clamp and rebuilt forks installed
  • Wheels mounted
  • Gauge bracket installed with new dampers
  • Handlebar mounted with new dampers
  • Taillight assembly rebuilt and bolted to the rear fender
  • Rear fender mounted
There was also a lot of cleaning, painting, swearing, searching for fasteners, consulting parts diagrams, and regretting ever having set eyes on this thing. I believe that I now have (or will have in a few days) everything needed to do a final reassembly. New head pipes are on the way from Mike's (along with grips and mirrors), but aside from that everything is just sitting in boxes waiting to go on. Next I'll put the gauges in with their new dampers and get the headlight assembly squared away. I'm going to spruce up the control binnacles a bit (they're super faded) and do some cleaning around the primary sprocket so I can fit the left-hand crankcase cover. If I'm very lucky and the stars align, I may be able to ride it this coming weekend.
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Oh, and yes, I've painted over almost all the chrome. The fenders, taillight bracket, chain guard, front engine mount (pictured below), gauge buckets, and headlight bucket were all ruined. Rust, pitting and the chrome peeling off in some places. I wasn't about to shell out for new parts or plating, so it was the rattlecan for them. Each of those pieces got thoroughly de-rusted, degreased, scrubbed with a wire wheel, cleaned again, and sprayed with two coats of self-etching primer and three coats of satin black lacquer with primer in it. Since the bike is Carmine Red, I decided on a cool red-black color scheme with hints of chrome here and there (headlight ring, grab bar, headlight ears, tappet covers, mirrors, shocks, etc.). Before final assembly, I'm going to attempt to buff the original paint out while leaving the dents and scratches. This thing is a survivor and I want it to wear its scars with pride.
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Sigh...

So, I did something at the end of last year that I knew I would regret in the future. The future is here now, and sure as shit, I regret it. I took the battery box all the way out to clean, sand, and paint it. When I did so, I removed everything from it. What I didn't do was take any reference pictures of where all the components bolt back on, and now I can't remember where things like the starter solenoid and regulator go. The parts diagrams in my manual and on Partzilla/Babbitt's/et al are no help either, since they just show blurry images of the parts and an arrow pointing to their general location on the bike. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that I pulled the whole loom out of the headlight bucket and back to about where the tank mounts to clean it and deal with any bad/broken connectors and now I'm not sure where the loom runs along the frame anymore.

Could someone shoot me a couple pictures of the top and sides of their battery box and possibly how the loom runs down the frame toward the rear of the bike? If not, does anyone know where I could find some pics online? A quick Google hasn't turned up anything.
 
If you don't have it already, download a copy of the '78E full factory shop manual that includes supplements for your '79 SF model. Near the end of the SF section, you'll find drawings showing the cable routing and wiring loom layout.

The voltage regulator mounts on the left side of the battery box and is the only thing there .....

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The right side has a couple components, the safety relay and the solenoid .....

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The only thing on top of the battery box would be the RLU, but most of us remove and eliminate that .....

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The light checker is a little rubber box and mounts on the rear of the battery box. Your rectifier will mount on the bottom. I upgraded mine to a Windy Nation unit .....

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I've also upgraded my voltage regulator to a VR115 .....

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You're a prince, Twins. I totally forgot that I have the shop manual PDF on my cloud storage, too. I'll consult that about loom routing. Again, thank you so much.

PS: Oh, I should mention, I've already cut the RLU out of the system, and I bought a solid state Reg/Rec for this thing from Rick's Motorsport Electrics. Also, I'm extremely envious of your factory tool kit.
 
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Oh, it's not the real thing, it came from my Honda lawnmower, lol.
 
Hahahahahaha, right on. It's not XS-related, but I recently rescued a pair of CB750 Supersports (a very early '75 and a '76) out of some guy's back yard where they'd sat, outside in the Michigan weather, for 30 years, and the '75 still had its tool kit and owner's manual in it. I was blown away.
 
Out of curiosity, what do we think about painting/rehabbing switch binnacles? This bike's switchgear is a shambles. I reckon I could strip them and lay some satin black on them, but what about the little red inset on the killswitch? I assume there's no bringing that faded thing back to life. Also, does anyone make repros of the various labels for the controls? Like the RUN-OFF-RUN for the killswitch and the HORN label?
 
My first street bike was brand-new red SF, so it's great seeing yours come back to life. Your photos are excellent. by the way.
 
Before bothering to refurb the right assembly, you may want to seek out an older replacement that has the headlight on-off switch in it. Yes, label decals are available, not sure from where. Someone who knows will probably chime in here.
 
Before bothering to refurb the right assembly, you may want to seek out an older replacement that has the headlight on-off switch in it. Yes, label decals are available, not sure from where. Someone who knows will probably chime in here.
Diablo Cycle
 
Thanks, Jim. Those are perfect. As for the right-side box, I have one off an XS750 with the on/off switch, but I'm not cutting any of the other lighting relays out so I'm gonna stay with the '79 box.
 
This week's been productive. Lots of fiddly work, painting, and test fitting in advance of final assembly. Here's what I did:

Electrics

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Got the headlight bucket mounted and began plugging everything back in. The turn signals went on with only a little issue, and they have new mounts and rubber isolators. I stole the ground wires off this bike for my XS850 last year, so I rigged up some new ones with old wire, clean washers, and a soldering iron. With 5Twins' help, I got everything bolted back to the battery box and looking pretty sharp. I test fitted the new Rick's reg/rec on the left side. There's just enough clearance with the airbox installed (not pictured because I was in the middle of painting them) but it needs some fiddling to get it just right.

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As you can see, there was a bit of an electrical issue at some point in this bike's past. That melted connection is for the old rectifier. y i k e s. At least that's the only damage in the loom that I could see. I also disassembled the left-hand switchbox, stripped it, painted it, and reinstalled it (along with Biltwell grips and a new black clutch lever from Mike's). Labels from Diablo Cycle are on the way. I ended up splurging for a brand new right-hand switchbox from Partzilla because there was no way I was making either of the ones I have look presentable enough. Cest la vie.

Body and Engine

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I popped the tank back on just to make it look a bit more like a motorcycle again, then I took it back off because it was in the way. It needs some real sprucing up (heavy detailing) and a second interior cleaning (for good measure) but is otherwise ready to go. The side covers are in rougher shape and need de-rusted and treated on the inside as well as wet sanded, cleaned, and polished on the outside.

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As you can see, the rear fender is mounted but the front is still a work in progress. The underside was super rusty as well as still coated in fossilised mud after three scrubbing/soaking sessions. I de-rusted it with a coarse wire cup chucked into my ancient Milwaukee drill, scrubbed it again with soap and water, then hit it with three coats of rust coverter/covering. Now that it's dry it's going to get the same treatment as the rear fender - two coats of self-etching primer, two coats of filler primer, and two or three coats of black, semi-gloss lacquer.

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Last, but not least, I test fitted the new exhaust. I picked up new head pipes and new EMGO silencers from Mike's and I think they look pret-ty good on the bike. They're clearly not permanently mounted in the picture, but you get the idea. With the new exhaust and the UniFilter-wrapped stock airbox pods this thing will breathe a little easier and (hopefully) sound great, but nothing too radical and hopefully I won't have to rejet. Also, it lost roughly 10,000 tons by ditching the stock exhaust setup (which was smashed/rusted/ruined).

There's still a lot to do, though. I need to mount the rear turn signals, finalize loom/cable placement, wrap the reg/rec's cables and adjust its position, finish painting and mounting the airboxes, reinstall a bunch of other small parts (foot pegs, front engine mount, brake pedal, kick starter, etc.), get a new H4 headlight bulb, etc. etc. I also, of course, need to double-check the torque on all the fasterners I touched, scrub the area around the primary sprocket, give it an oil change and replace the sump filter... man, yeah, there's still a lot to do before this thing comes off the lift. I'll be doing most of it today and tomorrow, however, and hopefully it'll be rideable by early next week. That depends on when my right-hand switchbox gets here from GA, though.

So, yeah. That's where we are so far. Like I said, hopefully I'll be riding this thing early next week. Stay tuned.

PS: Anyone got any recommendations for plug wires? The only thing Mike's sells are those ugly yellow ones.
 
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I bought bulk wire that looks like cloth covered. I think it is pretty cool.
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For plug wires, for many years now I've been using the EMPI silicone wire kits for VW Beetles .....

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You get 5 wires in a kit, enough for 2½ twins, lol. You'll need to add NGK plug caps. Latest install is combined with a Honda MP08 coil on my '83 .....

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If you have the original plug wires still, you can remove the protective sleeve from them, cut it in half, and install a piece on each new plug wire. You only need protection really along the short area that exist from beneath the tank. No need to cover most of the wire like the factory did .....

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If you're sticking with points then you don't need resistor plug caps. NGK makes a nice non-resistor cap, the LZFH .....

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It's nice and small, more compact than their resistor caps .....

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Oh, thanks! Yeah, this bike has the OG plug wires it came from Japan with so I'll just slip the sleeves off. Also, what is that gauge you guys have in your oil filler? Is that a temp gauge/dipstick? Where'd you get such a thing?
 
Hey, Twins, did the Heritage Specials come with the engine and carbs blacked out like that, or is that a custom job?
 
The oil temp dipstick came from forum member Dogbunny, but I don't think he makes them anymore. The blacked out carbs and motor were stock on the '82-'83 models. The P.O. repainted the cylinder but did a terrible prep job so I have some touching up to do, lol.
 
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