Betty gets some maintenance including changing her oil!

MaxPete

Lucille, Betty, Demi, Gretel & Big Sue money pits.
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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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After all that, a new load of Castrol 20W50 and we’re underway again!

Cheers all,

Pete
 
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OK - enough joke posts for a while. I’ve been retired f3 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).

View attachment 337857

She is Ule a 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 LEDs, the difference between the twilight and the brake light brightness is insufficient. 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 have contacted Sylvania and they are sending my a new pair of bulbs as I am now on #2 in the original set.

View attachment 337858
You might want to take a good look at the rubber mounts for the fender to frame and fender to tail light.
My XS2 ate tail light bulbs back in the day. When I rebuilt it a few years ago I used all new rubber mounts. No problem since.
 
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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 ...

Cheers all,

Pete
Even if the gasket leaks a little it shouldn't be a big deal to park on card board (Brit bike owners know the drill) in the garage for the next two weeks when your next 1000 mile oil (1500 km) change comes due.
 
Even if the gasket leaks a little it shouldn't be a big deal to park on card board (Brit bike owners know the drill) in the garage for the next two weeks when your next 1000 mile oil (1500 km) change comes due.

Indeed - but I've been watching and not a single drop has fallen in the last few days - not one.

This '78E that I "bought / inherited" from the late RobinC truly is a very, very nice bike.
 
Sitting in a bike queue behind another BMW R80 or 100, I was alarmed to see how much vertical oscillation there was on the tail light unit just off the idle. The G-forces on the filaments were probably high enough for failure to be a frequent occurrence.
It certainly illustrated to me how important it is to check tail lights frequently, as the damn things get up to stuff you don't know about.
 
It always brings a smile.

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🥹

Yes, I am sure that it does. It was absolutely delightful having fuel p!ss all over everything - but I did get it solved.

What twit ever thought vacuum petcocks were a good idea anyway!

An engineer could probably work out the math on why that tail gets shook so hard.... :sneaky:

Yes - as a matter of fact, I could - but I'll betcha it boils down to those two big pistons going up and down and that heavy crankshaft going round and round.

....do you really wanna see the math? :devilish:

Pete
 
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