faster
XS650 Enthusiast
Hi all. Been lurking for a while and finally created an account after picking up my first XS. I have been looking for a few months for a candidate to rebuild and happened to stumble into one I had to have. While sitting in a bar on the last night of a work trip I was cruising craigslist and found a 78 Special. I sent the PO a text immediately and got a response within minutes. Apparently PO works nights and 2am text messages get responded to. 
So after about an hour of back and forth via text message I had purchased a 78 Special, matching numbers, with title, that "ran". And apparently after I've had a few beers I'm a decent negotiator. Perfect. Almost. Couple small details I needed to nail down... I wonder how pissed the 6 month pregnant wife is going to be that I just bought a motorcycle after smashing my last one and telling her I was done with motorcycles? Oh well, that could wait. Don't sweat the small stuff, right?
So a few days later I made the drive to Iowa and picked this up in the PO's driveway...
He helped me load it into the truck... Which seriously should have been on camera. Me, hungover after driving to Iowa in a rented pickup. Bought tie-downs from home depot on the way there and with no way to get this into the truck. We looked around for a while and found a 2x6 which would be ok if it was longer than 3ft. Ah well, work with what you got. I asked which end he wanted; bed of the truck or push the bike? He volunteered to hop into the truck while I backed the bike up to get a running start and maybe have a chance to get it up the "ramp" far enough for him to grab. All was going well up until the point the front tire hit the "ramp" and sent it straight up into his... uhm, yeah. He dropped
, I almost lost the bike and we took a break while I tried not to laugh too hard at the situation. 
After we regained composure, for our seperate reasons, we found a more suitable 2x12 that was about 10ft long, gracefully got her loaded and I made some smartass comment about "how painful it is to part with a bike". Yeah, I'm that guy.
Off we went, back to KC:
Now the fun part can begin! First things first, that seat and those things someone decided could be passed off as handlebars
had to go straight into the swap meet pile:
*whew* That was hard work. Should reward myself with a beer... or just keep tearing stuff off with reckless abandon. There's manuals that show how all this stuff goes back together. So day 1 in her new home had her looking like this:
Day 2... Drain the oil and start taking off some heavy stuff to pull the engine... hmm, all that metal dust/goop is a good sign, right?
Hrmm... Something mysteriously bad happened here:
So after draining the oil and pulling the side covers to discover lots of oily and metal death I moved on to other things to collect my thoughts. Removed the headlight ears to reveal shiny forks! Sweet, a positive moment:
Day 3... Remove the rear end, check. *Ding-dong* UPS shows up with my tank. Sweet, test fit time!
Looks like I will transfer the rear tab from the old tank and then put some rubber boots on the frame. That will have to wait.
Day 4... Carbs. Got them pulled, disassembled and cleaned up. All appears to be in good working order, some varnish in the bowls and on the floats needs to be cleaned up. Need to order a gasket/seal kit, might as well do it while I'm in here. Need to buy a bunch of jets too. Intake and exhaust plans I have in my head will definitely require a re-jet.
Next steps... Clean up carbs, reassemble and set aside. Pull motor and dive into that. Got a manual and been collecting all kinds of good reference material on that part. Probably go at that with a little less wrecklessness.
That's all for now kids... More to come as I slowly make progress.
Cheers!
So after about an hour of back and forth via text message I had purchased a 78 Special, matching numbers, with title, that "ran". And apparently after I've had a few beers I'm a decent negotiator. Perfect. Almost. Couple small details I needed to nail down... I wonder how pissed the 6 month pregnant wife is going to be that I just bought a motorcycle after smashing my last one and telling her I was done with motorcycles? Oh well, that could wait. Don't sweat the small stuff, right?So a few days later I made the drive to Iowa and picked this up in the PO's driveway...
He helped me load it into the truck... Which seriously should have been on camera. Me, hungover after driving to Iowa in a rented pickup. Bought tie-downs from home depot on the way there and with no way to get this into the truck. We looked around for a while and found a 2x6 which would be ok if it was longer than 3ft. Ah well, work with what you got. I asked which end he wanted; bed of the truck or push the bike? He volunteered to hop into the truck while I backed the bike up to get a running start and maybe have a chance to get it up the "ramp" far enough for him to grab. All was going well up until the point the front tire hit the "ramp" and sent it straight up into his... uhm, yeah. He dropped
, I almost lost the bike and we took a break while I tried not to laugh too hard at the situation. After we regained composure, for our seperate reasons, we found a more suitable 2x12 that was about 10ft long, gracefully got her loaded and I made some smartass comment about "how painful it is to part with a bike". Yeah, I'm that guy.Off we went, back to KC:
Now the fun part can begin! First things first, that seat and those things someone decided could be passed off as handlebars
had to go straight into the swap meet pile:
*whew* That was hard work. Should reward myself with a beer... or just keep tearing stuff off with reckless abandon. There's manuals that show how all this stuff goes back together. So day 1 in her new home had her looking like this:
Day 2... Drain the oil and start taking off some heavy stuff to pull the engine... hmm, all that metal dust/goop is a good sign, right?
Hrmm... Something mysteriously bad happened here:
So after draining the oil and pulling the side covers to discover lots of oily and metal death I moved on to other things to collect my thoughts. Removed the headlight ears to reveal shiny forks! Sweet, a positive moment:
Day 3... Remove the rear end, check. *Ding-dong* UPS shows up with my tank. Sweet, test fit time!
Looks like I will transfer the rear tab from the old tank and then put some rubber boots on the frame. That will have to wait.
Day 4... Carbs. Got them pulled, disassembled and cleaned up. All appears to be in good working order, some varnish in the bowls and on the floats needs to be cleaned up. Need to order a gasket/seal kit, might as well do it while I'm in here. Need to buy a bunch of jets too. Intake and exhaust plans I have in my head will definitely require a re-jet.
Next steps... Clean up carbs, reassemble and set aside. Pull motor and dive into that. Got a manual and been collecting all kinds of good reference material on that part. Probably go at that with a little less wrecklessness.
That's all for now kids... More to come as I slowly make progress.
Cheers!
Things I'm kicking around; dual disc up front, hydraulic clutch, electronic ignition, big bore kit, rephase, etc. Looking into swapping the headlight over to HID... Not sure if it's going to fit because of the giant inverter that's needed. Anyone seen this done cleanly? I also have been contemplating a front end swap with an r6 or r1... That's pretty far down on the list. I was going to do a swap for spoked wheels, but the more I see bikes on these mags the more I like the look. Who knows. Time is on my side... the longer it stays not running, the longer my wife stays happy. 
