OK - enough joke posts for a while. I’ve been retired for three months now and have finally gotten my little consulting gig under control enough that I was able to get a little quality barn time with my gal Betty (a beautiful 1978 XS650E - and Miss November in the 2023 XS650.com calendar).
She runs like a top but continues to eat taillight bulbs like they’re going out of style. I have tried various brands of incandescent bulbs and a couple of LEDs but they either blow within a few hours or in the case of the previous LEDs, the difference between the tailight and the brake light brightness is insufficient for safety. I recently bought a pair of Sylvania ZEVO 1157 LEDs and the first one worked great ….for about 200 km and then it simply disintegrated. I mean, my taillight warning started to blink and I found the collection of debris pictured below inside the taillight lens cover. It looked like someone had hit it with a hammer. I am really disappointed as I thought I had finally found an LED that was XS650-rated. Anyhow, I have contacted Sylvania and they are sending me a new pair of bulbs as I am now on #2 in the original set and these puppies have a lifetime warranty.
I then moved on to checking the air (all good), chain (clean and smooth-running) and other key points and then it was time the change the oil and two (count ‘em - 2) filters: the little kidney shaped one in the RH engine case and the much less obvious one down in the engine sump.
I drained the oil (NOTE - TWO drain plugs each requiring a 27 mm wrench) and the sump cover plate came off easily after removing the six 6 mm screws. The sump filter looked very clean with just a small amount of goo on the magnets (same as on the drain plugs) which indicates that all is well in the engine room. There was no sign of major plastic bits - which can come from the timing chain guide shoe - DAMHIK or any evidence of significant collapse of the filter screen around the sharpish end of the element.
The sump plate itself was nice and clean and while I usually don’t do this, the Yamaha OEM gaskets were in such pristine condition that I just wiped them off and reused them after bolting a new sump filter element unto the plate.
The little kidney shaped side filter was also really clean and the OEM gaskets were good there too so I popped in a new element and reinstalled the little round filter cover plate.
After all that, a new load of Castrol 20W50 and we’re underway again!
Cheers all,
Pete
She runs like a top but continues to eat taillight bulbs like they’re going out of style. I have tried various brands of incandescent bulbs and a couple of LEDs but they either blow within a few hours or in the case of the previous LEDs, the difference between the tailight and the brake light brightness is insufficient for safety. I recently bought a pair of Sylvania ZEVO 1157 LEDs and the first one worked great ….for about 200 km and then it simply disintegrated. I mean, my taillight warning started to blink and I found the collection of debris pictured below inside the taillight lens cover. It looked like someone had hit it with a hammer. I am really disappointed as I thought I had finally found an LED that was XS650-rated. Anyhow, I have contacted Sylvania and they are sending me a new pair of bulbs as I am now on #2 in the original set and these puppies have a lifetime warranty.
I then moved on to checking the air (all good), chain (clean and smooth-running) and other key points and then it was time the change the oil and two (count ‘em - 2) filters: the little kidney shaped one in the RH engine case and the much less obvious one down in the engine sump.
I drained the oil (NOTE - TWO drain plugs each requiring a 27 mm wrench) and the sump cover plate came off easily after removing the six 6 mm screws. The sump filter looked very clean with just a small amount of goo on the magnets (same as on the drain plugs) which indicates that all is well in the engine room. There was no sign of major plastic bits - which can come from the timing chain guide shoe - DAMHIK or any evidence of significant collapse of the filter screen around the sharpish end of the element.
The sump plate itself was nice and clean and while I usually don’t do this, the Yamaha OEM gaskets were in such pristine condition that I just wiped them off and reused them after bolting a new sump filter element unto the plate.
The little kidney shaped side filter was also really clean and the OEM gaskets were good there too so I popped in a new element and reinstalled the little round filter cover plate.
After all that, a new load of Castrol 20W50 and we’re underway again!
Cheers all,
Pete
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