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What did I do today.... I logged in to this site for the first time in about a decade... So I'll summarize. I now have three completeish XS650s. Acquired a survivor chop last week. Thing had been in a storage unit for at least 22 years. '72 engine. Solex BS38s. Good compression, transmission and...

Took the new project bike in to the quarter car wash after a few soaks of purple power. Threw away nearly 60 lbs of junk parts, wiring and tabs that I took off of it. Put the tank on. Starting to look respectable.

I picked up a new project bike. It's a 1980. Not terribly pretty for now, but the frame is registerable and the engine turns over by foot and feels good. It's going to be a scrambler type thing when I'm done. Got all the stock wiring and junk off of it, and started trimming off the tabs and...

Well... Showing us the charging system may not help us answer any questions about ignition. That appears to be a stock pre-80 stator. Pull the two chrome covers on either side of the head. They should be held in by phillips head screws. Take pics of what you find underneath.

Not a longer stroke. Early (256) engines had slightly longer rods, and a bit more aggressive cam grind.

Pull the carbs and go through them well. Inspect diaphragms for holes. Check carb holders for cracking. Adjust cam chain, then valves. Think hard before riding on old tires. Clean out and inspect your fuel tank. Put an inline fuel filter in before running gas to your newly cleaned carbs...

Lol. No, you are correct that this would be much much easier with the engine out of the frame!

In the interest of this thread being potentially useful to someone else down the road, let's just pretend that my bike is still fully equipped. I can easily ignore things that don't apply to my ride. I think TMXS1Bs gets it. I'm looking for the stuff that is drastically easier with an engine...

All good ideas. Some don't apply to this particular bike (kick only, hardtailed, etc), but I'm glad they are included, as I think this might be a good reference for the future as well. Any other ideas?

I'm about to swap my old, at least partially destroyed engine out for a donor with a fresh top end. I pulled the donor today and am soaking it with simple green overnight. I will likely do the starter delete tomorrow. Is there anything else that any of you can think of that would be simpler...

Welcome back! When you left the key on, you allowed the coil to destroy itself looking for a way to ground all that voltage. Thus, you killed the coil. Sounds like time for an upgrade.

Also, what jets are you running? You aren't even dealing with the needle or main jet yet, but an overrich pilot will just continue to flood the engine. Read the carb guide.

Careful with that guitar string voodoo, unless you are using nylon strings! The steel core strings are harder than the brass jets, and will easily deform or open up the holes. This will screw up your jetting. When you pull the carbs off, are the bowls full of fuel? If they aren't getting...

Your first pic doesn't work because you didn't put the [img] brackets on either end of the link. I second the motion to build your own wiring harness. Even if everything was wired correctly, which it isn't, you are dealing with 30 year old wires that have likely been exposed to the...

I'm going to just post my entire bike.... Cause :wtf:

Sounds like there might be a wiring issue. If your battery is good, the Pamco is good, and the coil is good, then the only thing left is wiring. Check every connection. Then, check every single section of every wire for continuity. Check each one for continuity to ground as well. Good...

Pricing that out makes me think that perhaps I should just invest a little more and get the XS performance 750 kit. Of course, that would put me at about $1,400.00 in parts with the rephase and od 5th.

I haven't torn it down yet, but my best guess is that the cam chain jumped a tooth. One minute I was riding along without a care in the world; the next, I was going 65 mph without a headlight at eleven o'clock at night on a dark country road listening to my engine do an impression of a trash...

Hoffman9000, thank you. That is the type of discussion I'm after.

Simmer down there, gentlemen. There are a lot of factors at play here. Sure, the stock XS was and is a great machine, but even Yamaha sought out improvements. Brakes changed, TCI replaced points, clutches went through model year changes. We spoke earlier of Axtell and Lillie. They...