Jimlovelady
XS650 Member
Hey everyone,
I have a 79 special that needs a new engine because the right piston has an ugly hole in it caused by the spark plug. (Sad day since I'm poor and love my bike!)
Anyway, I am looking at two engines. One is a 78 with unknown mileage and the other is an 80 with 10k miles (supposedly) but it has CDI rather than points. My bike has points and the guy selling the one with cdi is telling me that it is easy to just put the points from my old, dead engine onto the engine that had cdi. Is this true?
I'm by no means a mechanic so this has been an adventure!
What advice can you give me? Would you get the 78 motor, which is about $100 cheaper and seems to be a straight up swap but of uncertain quality? Or would you get the 80 motor which has cdi, comes with a 30 day guarantee and is about $100 more? If you got the 80, would you convert back to points or make the bike compatible with cdi? And how would you go about doing these conversions?
Thanks!
Jim Lovelady
I have a 79 special that needs a new engine because the right piston has an ugly hole in it caused by the spark plug. (Sad day since I'm poor and love my bike!)
Anyway, I am looking at two engines. One is a 78 with unknown mileage and the other is an 80 with 10k miles (supposedly) but it has CDI rather than points. My bike has points and the guy selling the one with cdi is telling me that it is easy to just put the points from my old, dead engine onto the engine that had cdi. Is this true?
I'm by no means a mechanic so this has been an adventure!
What advice can you give me? Would you get the 78 motor, which is about $100 cheaper and seems to be a straight up swap but of uncertain quality? Or would you get the 80 motor which has cdi, comes with a 30 day guarantee and is about $100 more? If you got the 80, would you convert back to points or make the bike compatible with cdi? And how would you go about doing these conversions?
Thanks!
Jim Lovelady