Just another XS2

After getting the tank and side covers on I rode it a few hundred smiles and then parked it, went to riding my other XS2. Last week got it out. Needed to go to Post Office. Started good and ran good going there. Got done at Post Office and decided to go for short ride. When leaving it developed a miss when accelerating. Hmm. Decided to not venture out of town and stay close to home. Miss got worse and then started going away. After a couple of smiles it was gone, bike back to normal. Went for short ride out of town where I could get it up to 60 it seemed to run ok. But something didn't seem right. Went home and parked it.
I'm thinking this bike doesn't like me. Last Friday I received a NOS headlight bucket. Saturday went to put it on. Old one came off ok, new one bolted up fine. Hooked wires up, we all know how much fun that is but it went ok. Turned key on and started checking things that's when things went south. Had right turn, ignition and E-start. Brake light, tail light and left turn no joy. Fudge. The wiring harness is new but the control wires are original. Blues, browns and pink fade. Rechecked wires and found a few mistakes because of faded colors. Now I had both turns but no lights in the back. Double fudge. Now I'm pissed off. Changed a few wires around and made it worse, lost the turns. Time to step back. By then was getting late in the afternoon and past beer thirty. Called it a day. Ponder it while drinking beer. Tomorrow is a new day.
Went back at it Sunday. Went back over the wiring and hooked them up as I thought they should be. Turns, horn, ignition, E-start worked. Good progress. I realized I had made a very bad error. I assumed everything was working because I had checked my lights before I rode it last. I had not checked them after I finished the ride or before I changed the bucket. Time to get the Fluke out and be a electrician. To shorten a long story it had a broken ground wire connector at the tail light. Enough for this post, shortly I'll post about the carb issue.
New head light bucket does look nice tho.


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This brings me to today. Yesterday I took it out for a ride. Ran well for about 10 smiles. Then developed a miss on accel. Got where I was going did what I needed to do. Leaving the miss got worse but at 3,000 or so RPMs it went away. Figured just something in pilot jet. Boy was I wrong! Few frowns later miss came back at highway speed. Then a cylinder died. Left side died. Nice thing about dual throttle cables is you can manipulate each side independently and see which side is not working. Only one more town to go through then 12 miles home. Decided to limp it home. Didn't let it idle at stop signs or lights. Accelerated sorta/very slow but it would still go 60 on highway. Got it home. Parked it!
Today pulled left carb. Sure enough something in the pilot. Explained the accel/low speed miss. Cleaned the pilot, could not tell what was in there. Checked the main jet. Could not see clearly through it. Poked it with a strand of wire and got a piece of something out. I know the pics not good. I could not tell what it was. I rinsed the tank out with gas before installing and had rebuilt the petcocks.
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That solved the mystery of the dead cylinder at highway speed. Decided since I had the carb off to flush out all the passages. Then the mystery deepened. Not sure why I normally don't do it but I shot carb spray into the seat to flush out the fuel rail. Something came out of the carb body into the fuel line. WTF.
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A piece of a bug! WTF WTF. How the hell did that get there?
Flushed some more and no more parts of it to be found. How did that get there? Couldn't have come from the tank as there is a screen type filter in the petcock fuel fittings going to the cab. I checked and both sides were there.
Reassembled carb, put it back on. Bike sounds good again.
I needed a beer!
 
Back from Westby. Bike ran very well. Waiting for me were my new Ikon shocks. They showed up last Monday when I was up North.
Had to mount them today. They look good. Fit pretty good. Left on does touch chain guard. Couple of washers makes guard stand straighter does put it close to sprocket bolts, should be ok. Need to go to Wally World later thought about test riding it then. Think I'll leave it on the lift and clean it up and check it over. You could say that its a "seat of the pants" decision.
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You are going to love those shocks Greg. When I put a set of those on , they not only improved the comfort, but to my surprise they made a big difference in the handling. Especially noticeable was when you had the bike leaned over going through a corner and the road was a little bumpy. Before I would have to back off the gas because the bike would start to get squirrelly, but with the Ikons you can just glide right through that stuff.
Also regarding the chain guard clearance, what I did was massage a gentle curve into the guard, to give the shocks a little clearance. You couldn’t even notice it when the guard was mounted.
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Mailman said:
You are going to love those shocks Greg. When I put a set of those on , they not only improved the comfort, but to my surprise they made a big difference in the handling. Especially noticeable was when you had the bike leaned over going through a corner and the road was a little bumpy. Before I would have to back off the gas because the bike would start to get squirrelly, but with the Ikons you can just glide right through that stuff.
Also regarding the chain guard clearance, what I did was massage a gentle curve into the guard, to give the shocks a little clearance. You couldn’t even notice it when the guard was mounted.
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I remembered you did that. I didn't feel like taking the chain guard off today. I will do that in the future. Today is a rest and recovery day. :rolleyes:
 
Got a few smiles on the new Ikon rear shocks. They are better. Seems like if they were a little softer might ride a little better yet. They did seem to loosen up as I got more smiles on them. Bike is running very well. Planning on riding up to the Slimy Crud run Sunday if the weather stays nice. Stopped at a State Park for a few pics.
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Did either of you guys check the laden sag on those springs? I’m guessing the sag on the front exceeds that of the rear. I’m sure the springs on those shocks can be replaced if necessary. Same for the front. There’s nothing like a dialed in suspension (says the guy riding an XS650 with bone stock suspension.)
 

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