$200 Special

5t I upped the clip one so second from top and no more cold break up and no surge with WOT and roll back so a winner there!
Just on the oil/fuel for the pods. I live in a very dusty place her in Australia so can I up the oil content 60/40 70/30 and how often should I do it? Instead of fuel would isopropyl alcohol work. Just don't like the smell of fuel and I know it will go away. Just a thought.
 
I keep a mix of motor oil and mineral spirits (odorless Stoddard solvent) in a pump spray bottle, makes it easy to get an even coat without over oiling. Much safer than gasoline, works pretty good as a machining lube too. Green Uni filter makes it easy to tell when it's getting dirty, wash and re-oil as needed.
 
Last edited:
I don't think the weight of the oil you use will matter much, nor will what you use to thin it out. The important points here are to use motor oil as opposed to the normal foam filter oil, and to thin it out. These tips actually come from your Australian UNI web site. Apparently the black foam used on the pods is much finer than the green foam used on their other filters. I guess their normal foam filter oil which is very thick and tacky can clog them.

I'm not surprised you had to lean your needle settings a step. The "fixed" (no adjustment) needle we get in the States is the 5HX12. It measures about 50mm from it's one clip slot down to the tip. Your needle is probably the 5IX11, and it measures 50mm from it's top clip slot to the tip. That means set in it's middle slot, it would be the equivalent of 2 steps richer than our fixed 5HX12. Larger mains could very well make your midrange too rich and require leaning the needle to fix that. That's the usual scenario and routine on the older BS38 carbs with their adjustable needles.

The way our 5HX12 needle comes set so lean, we usually don't run into the problem of larger mains and/or pilots making the midrange too rich. Actually, they just sort of make it right, richen it up some from it's lean factory setting. At least that's been my experience so far on the couple sets of U.S. spec BS34s I've fooled around with.
 
From the uni site;
2019-09-09-10-25-unifilter.com.png

The black comes in fine and coarse grades. But the green is slightly finer than any black. IMHO for street use single layer green is the best choice, it's easier to judge how dirty the green is.. The 3/8" (but black) is a bit easier to work with.
 
So, I've done a bit more carb tuning. The additional 1/4 turn in on the mix screws (now at 2.5 turns out) didn't have much effect on plug color so I decided to go ahead and change the air jets. The plugs were looking pretty good but the mixture or "smoke" ring was rather high up on the porcelain, covering a good 1/2 to 2/3 of it. That's a sign of running rich. So I increased the air jets one step to a 132.5. 135 was stock and I had 130s in there. This seems to have done the trick, moving the "smoke" ring back down to the bottom of the porcelain. It also caused the idle speed to increase and I had to dial it back down a little. That could be a good sign, indicating that I'm getting the circuit tuned better. I think I'll run it like this for a while, maybe trying different mix screw settings.

I'm curious as to just how far in I can go with the mix screws before they get too lean. I know that 3 to 3.5 turns out is the usual norm for these carbs but I'm thinking that only applies to stock or near stock machines. Richen up the pilot circuit by changing it's jets and it seems such large screw openings aren't needed anymore. It would be interesting to see if 2 1/4 or even 2 turns out may work even better than the current 2.5 turns out setting.
 
Me and my buddy picked up the bike. Title says it's an '83, build date is 9/82, so it could very well be an early '83 build. Has a few issues of course (dirty carbs, not charging, sticking front brake), but nothing we can't deal with for the price. I think it will come back to life readily and clean up fairly easily .....

COykyrk.jpg


SLTB9xT.jpg


My buddy was after a parts bike or just a spare motor, but this is too good for that. It's like 99% original (tool kit, owners manual, security chain) and pretty much unmolested. The tank is clean as a whistle inside and it has very few oil leaks. Of course there's some oil coming from under that left cover, and one valve cover looks to be leaking bad, but that's it really .....

7uj7f7W.jpg


A7wJJFi.jpg


qzNGPW0.jpg


We're not sure exactly what we'll do with it yet, fix it up and keep it, or flip it. But, it is getting harder to find such unmolested examples. I guess we'll decide once we tear into it and see just how good or bad it really is. It has just over 29K on it. Oh yeah, tach is pooched too, lol. .....

LYw9mib.jpg
COOL! I GOT A 1979 XS650SF for FREEEEEEEE!!!! :)
 

Attachments

  • 20211008_094642 (1).jpg
    20211008_094642 (1).jpg
    328.5 KB · Views: 104
Well, it's probably time for some updated pics. Changes since the last pics include an '80 seat (less humped), fork brace, newly built front wheel with a slightly wider than stock 2.15" rim, and reverting back to the original 16" rear wheel .....

NewWheelMounted3.jpg


NewWheelMounted4.jpg


The "new" front wheel includes a freshly drilled disc as well. I feel the 16" rear wheel looks better on this bike, going better with the Special styling (more angled side cover and seat). I originally swapped the 18" on there because I had read it handles better. I didn't find that to be true, there's very little difference, at least no negative ones. But on the plus side, besides looking better, I find the 16" rides better, especially in a straight line at higher speeds. It feels more stable. The bike really isn't any harder to toss into corners, which is one of the negative things I had read about the 16" rear. So, I'm keeping it.
 
rjb9A8i.jpg


zclj7ID.jpg


But as you can see from the baffling (or lack thereof), they really "bark", lol .....

ZIRX5hs.jpg


You could drop golf balls right through the things, lol. So yes, they're louder than the Commandos, but not straight pipe loud. They only really "bark" under heavy throttle, they're pretty quiet at idle and while cruising. I think I can learn to live with them, lol. The fact that they're beautiful will help with that ..

Is this even considered a muffler? Would a pipe of equal length do the same thing? Just curious?
 
Well, all the louvering inside does muffle things a little. I did add baffles to quiet them down more. Initially, the full end cap quieted things down too much, so I went to a couple bolts .....

83Baffles.jpg


Next time the mufflers are off, I think I'm gonna pull one of those bolts.
 
Back
Top