But Raymond chicks dig it
What vendor are you guys getting that harness from ?Mice chewed on the wiring. Get the $60 new wiring harness. It was plug and play for me.
You better off doing than wasting time trying to fix the old wiring....
I got one from MikeXS for 60 bucks. There were a couple minor issues with it where a couple wires were not pinned correctly but it was definitely worth the 60 dollars.What vendor are you guys getting that harness from ?
@Vee I would also to encourage you to keep that bike original. It looks like it has some really good bones. I just went through this same decision recently when I bought mine. It was cheap but it needed a lot of attention. I bought it with the intension of doing a full nut and bolt restore. I first figured I'd get it running good then tear it completely apart and do the restoration, but then I started realizing just how nice the old bike was. I ended up keeping it's patina and just like @Niels B said with a little buffing and polishing and rounding up some parts I had a good running awesome looking bike and I didn't have to break the bank to do it. I get enjoyment rounding up the parts and bringing old things back to life (still working on the wife..) and find it very rewarding. Whatever you ultimately decide to do we love the pictures of the journey! Start you a build thread and flood us with pics! Good luck and have fun with it no matter what you decide to do with it!but everyone here is starting to persuade me to try and give it a go on the restore.
I know there are different view on MikesXS and some of the products, however, I purchase from more or less all the vendors, depending on what I need, how fast I need it, and who got it in stock. The harness from Mikes is actually a nice quality and it fit perfect. I got two '75 so far from XS and no issues at all.http://www.nichecycle.com/ncs/categ...main-wiring-harness-tx650a-xs650b-1974-7.html
Looks like a better one than Mike's
Hijack over
BTW nice bike !I have a weakness for keeping these old ladies original as possible, looking at your model - it looks like you have less work laid out finding parts as it all seem to be there. Here is a pick how the bike looked when I bought it and two after I restored it. I honestly spend very little money getting it to look nice, a lot of polishing / buffing and time. Had to find side covers (non modified) airbox, carbs and exhaust. Rebuild carbs, new gaskets new oil tires and seat cover plus a few other rubber / plastic parts. Was lucky to get a brand NOS gas tank among a bunch of parts and bikes I bought, otherwise no new paint or chrome - all cleaned up.
The previous owner had plans of making a cafe racer - I feel lucky to have spoiled that attempt.
Unfortunately you are almost as far north as I’m south on the east coast otherwise I would have entertained the idea of helping it off your hands or trade you for another ‘75 have sitting around however with quiet a few missing original parts . Good luck whatever you do - did I mention “ nice find”
You might not want to hit anything with sand paper unless your going to paint itFinally back in my shop able to take pictures after 2 days of snow removal. Gas tank is pretty rusty. Savable? As you can see by the exhaust picture, I think most of the rest is sandpaperable with 150 grade. As you can see I attached a picture of two batteries; one being the old battery that was in the bike (the big one) and the other one coming out of my 2023 Honda XR 150. Obviously there's quite a size difference, can I use my new battery to test out the bike? So going forward my plan is going to be similar to what melnic said. Hook up a battery see if I can get power flowing, give it a good carb cleaning, hook up a cheap eBay brand new gas tank that I already have and try to kick it over?
Sound? Any thoughts or concerns?
Also just a heads up I'm going to be selling off some parts from my 1979 XS650 special that were taken off before my chopper build.
Yeah I'm just going to try a 3 stage fuel tank restoration kit from AutoZone and hope for the best.Your fuel tank may be fine. Even if it has pin holes, a Caswell epoxy liner will fix it.
tank look pretty rusty, however, if there are no pinholes underneath along the edge and around the petcocks it should be possible to clean it out, nothing else on the pictures to scary it can all be refurbished to look nice again. The battery will likely not support the electric starter (if it works)Finally back in my shop able to take pictures after 2 days of snow removal. Gas tank is pretty rusty. Savable? As you can see by the exhaust picture, I think most of the rest is sandpaperable with 150 grade. As you can see I attached a picture of two batteries; one being the old battery that was in the bike (the big one) and the other one coming out of my 2023 Honda XR 150. Obviously there's quite a size difference, can I use my new battery to test out the bike? So going forward my plan is going to be similar to what melnic said. Hook up a battery see if I can get power flowing, give it a good carb cleaning, hook up a cheap eBay brand new gas tank that I already have and try to kick it over?
Sound? Any thoughts or concerns?
Also just a heads up I'm going to be selling off some parts from my 1979 XS650 special that were taken off before my chopper build.
Wow vinegar goes a long way!You could start out cheap and get as much rust out first by putting sheetrock screws in it and shake the hell out it and then vacuum it out
I used just plain old vinegar to clean out the tank on my 81 and it worked great I just filled it to the brim and let it soak
I'll post a few pictures one is of the tank before the vinegar soak and one after the soak and the other is what happens after you dump the vinegar out rinse with water and then use a hair dryer to dry it out
Flash rust
Thanks god I saved the vinegar for the second soak
This is what I did on 3 tanks in the past couple years.You could start out cheap and get as much rust out first by putting sheetrock screws in it and shake the hell out it and then vacuum it out
I used just plain old vinegar to clean out the tank on my 81 and it worked great I just filled it to the brim and let it soak
I'll post a few pictures one is of the tank before the vinegar soak and one after the soak and the other is what happens after you dump the vinegar out rinse with water and then use a hair dryer to dry it out
Flash rust
Thanks god I saved the vinegar for the second soak