New addition to the garage

That metal polish works well eh? Nice work Bosco. Looks great. I was thinking of swapping the head washers from the rubber ones as well. Did you just do them one at a time and torque down the spec or is it necessary to back everything off and redo in sequence like first assembly? I won't do it immediately but may do so this year.
Yes the Autosol works fast to get a quick shine. Even doing it by hand is pretty quick. Lots of guys use Blue Magic and I found it is great to maintain chrome. For the head washers, mine were under torqued anyway so I loosened them off, lubed and retorqued them one at a time.
 
Here’s the video.


Turning over kickstarter by hand. Whooshing noise is from open spark plug hole. Tensioner nut off. Tensioner not adjusted properly in this video. Increasing or decreasing tension doesn’t affect noise very much at all.
My 78xs is making the exact same noise as this but if I put the slightest bit of pressure on the tensioner/plunger with my finger while kicking it over the noise goes the noise is also there when I first start from cold but goes after about 30/40 seconds and then sounds super quite so if the noise goes the copper washer must be there so any ideas what’s going on?
 
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My 78xs is making the exact same noise as this but if I put the slightest bit of pressure on the tensioner with my finger while kicking it over the noise goes the noise is also there when I first start from cold but goes after about 30/40 seconds and then sounds super quite so if the noise goes the copper washer must be there so any ideas what’s going on?
Not sure about your particular situation but I’d recommend removing the threaded tensioner assembly and check to make sure all the bits are where they should be. One version has a copper washer and the other a rubber coated damper as 5T explained above. If your noise goes away when the motor warms up perhaps it just needs a slight adjustment when cold. I’ve adjusted mine while running and warm, then checked when cold and the plunger movement is within spec.
 
The plunger movement seems to be within spec when cold but I will wind it out to have a look someone did suggest it could be the rubber starting to separate and goes quiet once the oil reaches the tensioner but it sounds too metallic for it to be that and I really don’t want to pull the engine apart as it’s running lovely and sounds like a sewing machine once warm.
 
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So I took the tensioner out today and all looked ok apart from an indentation in the copper washer so I turned the washer round put it back and adjusted the chain and the tappetty metallic noise has gone.👍
 

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Well good then. That's probably all it was, the adjustment set too loose. That's what it sounds like when it's too loose, it ticks like loose valves. That's the beauty of adjusting it while the motor sits there idling, you can hear the difference it's making. You can also demonstrate to yourself what too loose sounds like. Just loosen the adjuster up a whole lot and you'll hear the motor start to "tick".
 
Didn’t take a good photo of the fender before I sent it into a vinegar bath. Challenging because of the dimensions - needed to clean 3 sections, one at a time. In the first photo if you look closely, you’ll see lots of flakes of loose chrome. These were sitting on top of the rusted metal beneath. About 2-3 days immersed in 10% acetic acid (cleaning vinegar), with a scrub with a brass brush every 24 hours (I found this is a critical step in rust removal). Once removed, I rinsed it well and gave it a bath in baking sofa and hot water to neutralize the vinegar, that could be trapped behind the reinforcement plates. Gave it a good cost of POR15 and will probably spray it with a top coat of black, or chrome in a spray can, that I’ve had forever. Running out of this to do on the bike so I polished some of the carb bits. Waiting for spring so I can ride this machine.

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Top coated the inside of the fender. Popped off the left case cover and was happy to see how clean everything was - confirmed the motor had been recently worked on and very few miles. Lubed a few things up, secured the wiring harness and buttoned it back up. Now I just need to get it running 100%. Just looking at the pics, the end of the clutch rod looks crooked?

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Pulled the cover off and checked the rod… dead straight. Must have been camera angle? Did notice though that I’m missing one of these locating dowel things. Anyone close to me have a spare I could purchase? Dim’s 12mm dia x 16mm long. Or any suggestions what I might McGyver to make one? Oh if I only had that lathe…

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Did notice though that I’m missing one of these locating dowel things. Anyone close to me have a spare I could purchase? Dim’s 12mm dia x 16mm long. Or any suggestions what I might McGyver to make one? Oh if I only had that lathe…
Still available from Yamaha. Got a dealer close to you? Prolly have 'em in stock.


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There appears to be quite a bit of wear on the end of the pushrod where it contacts the ball. Check the other end too. It may be one of those aftermarket rods from MikesXS/XS650Direct. On some, they skipped the hardening process and they wear quite quickly. Here's what mine looked like after about 10K miles. I'll only use originals now .....

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If you still have the two piece rod, the older type long one piece rod is a nice upgrade. You can still find N.O.S. originals on eBay pretty easily. I see you also have the long arm worm gear. That will give easier clutch pull but at the expense of less travel and less clutch plate separation. You may experience hard-to-find-neutal-when-hot issues. An upgrade for that would be the "1L9" XS400 worm.
 
There appears to be quite a bit of wear on the end of the pushrod where it contacts the ball. Check the other end too. It may be one of those aftermarket rods from MikesXS/XS650Direct. On some, they skipped the hardening process and they wear quite quickly. Here's what mine looked like after about 10K miles. I'll only use originals now .....

View attachment 207322

If you still have the two piece rod, the older type long one piece rod is a nice upgrade. You can still find N.O.S. originals on eBay pretty easily. I see you also have the long arm worm gear. That will give easier clutch pull but at the expense of less travel and less clutch plate separation. You may experience hard-to-find-neutal-when-hot issues. An upgrade for that would be the "1L9" XS400 worm.
The outer end of the rod does show a good depression where the ball contacts, it but the inner contact surface shows a very small indentation. Yes it’s the old two piece rod. I’ll look for a replacement. I should have the old two piece from my ‘76 somewhere.
 
There appears to be quite a bit of wear on the end of the pushrod where it contacts the ball. Check the other end too. It may be one of those aftermarket rods from MikesXS/XS650Direct. On some, they skipped the hardening process and they wear quite quickly. Here's what mine looked like after about 10K miles. I'll only use originals now .....

View attachment 207322

If you still have the two piece rod, the older type long one piece rod is a nice upgrade. You can still find N.O.S. originals on eBay pretty easily. I see you also have the long arm worm gear. That will give easier clutch pull but at the expense of less travel and less clutch plate separation. You may experience hard-to-find-neutal-when-hot issues. An upgrade for that would be the "1L9" XS400 worm.
I’ve been keeping an eye open for the 1L9 worm assembly but haven’t found a reasonable deal yet. Shipping costs usually kill the deal. Could the pivot hole in the stock worm assembly arm be welded in and the hole redrilled closer to the center of the worm, or is the Xs400 arm clocked differently?
 
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