Home market tx650 going to SOIR

Mailman said:
I know on my XS2, those breather hoses used to blow a lot of oil out of them, enough that it kept me busy with a rag to keep the undercarriage dry. You might recall I epoxied a couple small machine nuts inside the outlets to reduce the output. This only reduced it to the same size as the later model breathers that had those rubber restricted plugs in them.
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Thank you for the validation!
So far this morning (re)set valves. (none were tight using .006 and .003") It still sounds very quiet. :heart:
Removed, cleaned, lubed, advance rod. Cleaned old grease off points cam
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cleaned, lubed the wicks. Sanded, cleaned, set points, set timing with a timing light, checked both sides, then:
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Timing good both at low RPM AND at full advance now.
Old factory manuals have you bending in the stops on the plate to limit advance but a Yamaha SB said to stop doing it, the bend is brittle and likely to snap off if bent later.

Off to the Badger Steam and Gas Show and swap meet. (For TX testing purposes only)
 
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So the ride to the steam and gas show didn't go well I had put a circuit breaker in place of the fubar fuse holder that was on the bike. It had "acted up" a time or two but got in more than 60 miles. But it tripped three times before I was a mile from home, got it back to the lift, and took the Buell.
Some shots from the show.
Some of these old steamers are HUGE
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The crane and rock crusher (belt drive, powered by a tracked gasoline engine) were in constant motion, they turned a lot of rock into gravel!
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My mailman's McCulloch, a go kart motor chain saw. He really cuts down the competition with that animal!
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From old steam to "modern" gas, Case was the featured brand this year Must have been 50 in the parade.
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This is a big show must be in the top ten nationwide for steam and gas equipment. Most of it makes our XS's look positively futuristic!
Steam, and hit and miss gas, powering about everything you could imagine before the days of universal electricity.
 
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gggGary said:
This is a big show must be in the top ten nationwide for steam and gas equipment.
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Oh man, I love tractors and antique motors shows! I used to go to one here in Arizona every year with my dad who grew up farming in Missouri. He knew every antique motor and tractor he saw, used some version of most of them back in the 30’s thru 50’s.
🙂
 
Got a good charge into the battery via shore charge and rode it some more.
The lectric start lever works but it won't start the engine, it fires off easily from the kick starter. A handlebar voltmeter is showing up to 15.4 volts at the few months old battery. So next up is an R&R of the main and kill switch contacts and then adjusting the voltage regulator. It runs out strong, saw over 80 on the speedo. That suspension is stiff. Need to look/see if the rear preloads are jacked up. Fork seals aren't leaking! so haven't gone into them yet.
I replaced one float, the LH still has some backfiring on trailing throttle. Guess I have to look at that float too. Still need to go through points/ timing etc. Those are still "as I got it".
It's getting close to reliable runner status.
I think a round of exhaust swapping will get a set of baseball bat muffs on it for a bit more sedate exhaust note and a better look.
At some point I may have to beg Jim, see if I can get a place in the conga line.
 
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With a little voltmeter/USB port on the bars the voltage was consistently above 15 at 3-4000 RPM
A HUGE amount of work ;) to remove the RH side cover, remove the voltage regulator cover and adjust the charging level screw. After couple adjustments and runs around the neighborhood I slowly reduced the 3-4,000RPM charging voltage, I ended up going out better than a full turn on screw #5 in the diagram. I do have an LED headlight on this bike which may affect the desired setting.
early regulator internal diagram.JPG
note this screw faces forward with the regulator on the RH side of the bike in 73. it has a lock nut that must be loosened to adjust then retightened.
turn out to reduce charging voltage, in to increase. Do this with a known good, fully charged battery installed.
I normally find these early voltage regulators are pristine inside and adjusting that screw is the only maint needed. It's now charging at 14.2 to 14.6 volts on my typical rural roads.

Reg Adjust.JPG
 
gggGary said:
With a little voltmeter/USB port on the bars the voltage was consistently above 15 at 3-4000 RPM
A HUGE amount of work ;) to remove the RH side cover, remove the voltage regulator cover and adjust the charging level screw. After couple adjustments and runs around the neighborhood I slowly reduced the 3-4,000RPM charging voltage, I ended up going out better than a full turn on screw #5 in the diagram. I do have an LED headlight on this bike which may affect the desired setting.
View attachment 337131
note this screw faces forward with the regulator on the RH side of the bike in 73. it has a lock nut that must be loosened to adjust then retightened.
turn out to reduce charging voltage, in to increase. Do this with a known good, fully charged battery installed.
I normally find these early voltage regulators are pristine inside and adjusting that screw is the only maint needed. It's now charging at 14.2 to 14.6 volts on my typical rural roads.

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Interesting. I always thought that everyone upgraded to a solid state regulator as a matter of course. That's what I've always done on non-TCI XS650s. EXCEPT on the Super RustBucket. Left the original voltage regulator on it, as part of the goal to spend as little time and money on it as possible. Never touched the original VR, and it works just fine.
I've got a box full of original VRs, they're probably all perfectly good.
 
DogBunny said:
Super RustBucket. Left the original voltage regulator on it, as part of the goal to spend as little time and money on it as possible. Never touched the original VR, and it works just fine.
I've got a box full of original VRs, they're probably all perfectly good.
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Yup I've used a lot of the original VR's with no problems and replaced a few beat up VR's with good units from the parts bins.
My experience is the mechanical VR's are more reliable than the OEM solid state VRR's that at 40 years old more often than not fail internally. shrug
Difference between a fully developed technology built by quality conscious manufacturers and as yet untested (in 1980) long term in the real world, solid state innovations?
 
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DogBunny said:
I've got a box full of original VRs, they're probably all perfectly good.
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If you understand them, the mechanical VR does not violate the KISS principle. Learning them isn’t too difficult if you accept that.

All but one of my XS650s are solid state. I can only carry spares.
 
gggGary said:
THIS! It worked thnx GLJ!
exhaust swapping in progress, exactly which bike gets which pipes still a bit unclear.
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forgot to post a pic with commandos installed,
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it's more civilized sounding now. took away a bit of high RPM power, or at least being quieter, it didn't FEEL as fast....
don't have pics but welded fabricated brackets that slip in the slot on the back of the commandos and bolt to the passenger peg mounts. don't even have bolts to the muffler slots they are very secure, so far.
Still some carb/running issues, think I need to change the other float, but which side is already done? :umm:
Need to install turn signals, and the LH handlebar control is still funky.
Riding season's coming to a close here.
 
When you reset the VR, did you check the core and points gaps? When I did mine, I found both were off. Resetting them put the output back where it belonged (it was a little low), no need to adjust the regulating screw. It seems this is a maintenance item, even though it's not mentioned in any 650 manuals. I found this in a 750 triple manual ......

XS750RegAdjust.jpg

So, it looks like you need to check it every 8000 miles. I also found the part about playing with the core gap to adjust the voltage fluctuation interesting. One more thing to "tinker" with, lol.
 
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