Old XS, new member !

After a bit of a health-related interruption, I'm finally back in the workshop. Still working on the front.

Thanks to the awesome tech section (again), rebuilding the front was a breeze.

01-before.jpg


02-after.jpg

Even though I was not really planning to paint anything in this first pass, I took the opportunity of replacing the neck bearings to also paint the triple tees.

21. top-before.jpg
23. top-after.jpg

So the bike is back on two wheels :)

03-two-wheels.jpg


... and I was planning to remount the front brakes. However, when mounting the caliper holders, the right one is fine but the left one is really off-center versus the brake disk, which can't be right. On the picture it looks like it's touching the disk, in reality there is ~ a millimeter of room on the outside.

04-off-center-caliper-holder.jpg

I thought that maybe I was missing a washer on the left side of the axle, but the parts list doesn't show one. This is all I have (no pic after cleaning, sorry).

05-front-axle.jpg


Do you have any insight ?
 
MrQ said:
After a bit of a health-related interruption, I'm finally back in the workshop. Still working on the front.

Thanks to the awesome tech section (again), rebuilding the front was a breeze.


Even though I was not really planning to paint anything in this first pass, I took the opportunity of replacing the neck bearings to also paint the triple tees.


So the bike is back on two wheels :)

View attachment 353820

... and I was planning to remount the front brakes. However, when mounting the caliper holders, the right one is fine but the left one is really off-center versus the brake disk, which can't be right. On the picture it looks like it's touching the disk, in reality there is ~ a millimeter of room on the outside.


I thought that maybe I was missing a washer on the left side of the axle, but the parts list doesn't show one. This is all I have (no pic after cleaning, sorry).

View attachment 353824

Do you have any insight ?
Click to expand...
did you test that the fork tubes are straight?
That's the most likely reason they don't align.
The axle floats on the LH lower until you tighten the axle clamp bolts. So loosen those bolts pump the fork up and down several times (not using the brakes, tire against a wall or some other stop. Now snug the bolts recheck the rotor - caliper clearance,
forcing alignment will make for terrible fork action.
Straight is best but like in the video if they are out "just a little" orienting the tubes so the bend faces forward will have you back on the road.
Tube straightening isn't bad. Honestly, I rarely find fork tubes on a 50 year old bike that don't have a little bend in them.
 
Hey, interesting test!

Unlike the video, I get no perceptible wobble. So I've checked with feeler gauges. In my previous post I was wrong, it was around .85mm. When rotating the left tube 180 degrees, there seems to be a 0.2mm difference. I now have about 1.15mm on the right disk (outside), and 1.05 on the left disk (outside), which looks OK to me. Twice as much room on the inside of both disks, which looks wrong but is no problem, I suppose.

Anyway, thank you very much, Gary.
 
Jim said:
Yes. I've never measured before, but I'd guess about a half inch of "float".
Click to expand...
So it might just need to be positioned correctly?
If I remember right when I did one. I just pushed the piston in all the way, with the pads installed mounted the caliper and installed the 2 mount bolts.
 
I got lucky and found a nice second-hand lift table nearby, should be easier on my back.

01. lift.jpg

And ... the front brake system is back on the bike and seems to be working great, with a nice firm feeling.

02. brakes.jpg

The switch is shot, though. Does anybody know where to find these ?

03. switch.jpg
 
I have also started rebuilding the petcocks. No idea why they were this bad.

10. petcocks.jpg


One of them lacks one of the tiny washers, and has some traces of previous sealant. Any suggestions ?

11. missing washer.jpg


12. former sealant.jpg


In both cases, the rebuild kits (xs650shop) look OK except for the paper-thin main gasket (left), so I'm tempted to keep the original one unless there is a store somewhere selling better ones. What would you do ?

13. thin replacement gasket.jpg


The rest is ready for re-assembly. I view this as kind of a practice run before starting on the carburetors.

14. disassembled.jpg
 
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Before ordering replacements, I've tried to rebuilt the old ones. In spite of the really thin gaskets they don't seems to leak so I'll give them a try. The dark stuff is a two-stroke mix, which makes it easier to spot leaks.

20250815_083522.jpg

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... and I've started working on the first carb. Tech section (again) looks so good I don't expect to run into any trouble it can't help me with.

20250817_104125.jpg

My biggest problem so far was to find regular generic fuel lines. Not a single store around here sells these anymore, unbelievable.
 
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