What have you done to your XS today?

Its been a long time said:
. . . shocks being a bit longer made fitting the front wheel a little more tricky as it doesn't rock as far back now on the centre stand . . .
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Probably quickest bodge for that situation is place a thin plank or wood, half-inch is ideal, under where the centre stand will go, slight extra heave to bring 'er up, space under rear wheel is restored.

I find thin planks, wood blocks, wedges come in handy for jobs like that, similarly for getting rear wheel at the height you want for a job. The wedges and blocks can support the weight of the rear wheel so you're not straining to lift the wheel one-handed, attempting to line up chain adjusters, spacers and the wheel spindle with the other hand and rehearsing your favourite litany of cusses as you realise you're gonna have to put it all down again coz you need the mallet and it's just out of reach . . .
 
Raymond said:
Probably quickest bodge for that situation is place a thin plank or wood, half-inch is ideal, under where the centre stand will go, slight extra heave to bring 'er up, space under rear wheel is restored.

I find thin planks, wood blocks, wedges come in handy for jobs like that, similarly for getting rear wheel at the height you want for a job. The wedges and blocks can support the weight of the rear wheel so you're not straining to lift the wheel one-handed, attempting to line up chain adjusters, spacers and the wheel spindle with the other hand and rehearsing your favourite litany of cusses as you realise you're gonna have to put it all down again coz you need the mallet and it's just out of reach . . .
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions. Snag this morning was I had both wheels out but had already fitted the longer shocks. So a piece of wood under the stand would have been a good idea before fitting the shocks but I didn't think that far ahead! I hadn't even thought about fitting the Hagon shocks when I dropped the wheels. Lesson learned. But the new chrome dome nuts on the top of the rear shocks look nice and shiny in place of the chewed up rusty originals :)

Some more cleaning, rust treatment and paint touch up now while the rear wheel isn't in the way.

Next on the agenda, remove and short the reserve lighting unit.

I think the bike has a light bulb checker according to the wiring diagram. I would like to get rid of that but I don't know where it is on the bike yet.

The indicator self cancelling unit and probably the starter safety relay are for the chop too eventually. But I know where they are.

I don't want 47 year old non essential electronics to be the cause of being left by the road sometime ;)
 
There we go. Nice little jumper wire crimped up. Blue/black jumpered to blue/yellow as per information on t'internet. Reserve lighting unit goes in "items removed" box :)

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ROAD TEST DAY:When I bought my bike it was equiped with some of ther right sized BS38 carburettors but they dont appear to have originated from the XS650 The needle jet holder and the needle itself appears to be entirely different and those carbs also used a single cable operation as the later XS650s had.I bought a cheap pair of BS38s and swapped the good bits from my existing carbs combining them with the right sized new jets for the XS650B and I also fitted some inlet manifolds with vacuum spigots so I could ballance the carbs. I also , now have two throttle cables. I did all this in the garage over the winter time and today is the first 30 mile ride on the new set up. Its amazing. I hadnt expected that my garage set up would translate into a good road set up since in the garage, the air isn't moving, the oil never gets hot enough and the air cooled engine gets a bit too hot et.c. Its brilliant! Tick over is a steady 1000 rpm, pick up is instant, acceleration from any speed is seamless and pick up from any speed is also seamless...its hard to believe that this bike isnt fuel injected.
Like a lot of places, the inhabitants of some of the local villages think that limiting speed to 20mph makes everything safer ( safer? for them to dash across the road in front of the traffic whilst the people who used to do 60 in a 30 limit now do 60 in a 20 limit! Yeah, right !) I discovered that the bike will handle 20mph in second and will easily pull all the way up to 60 in the same gear. During the winter, I also deturmined that a previous owner had fitted my bike with 17/31sprockets...so its fairly tall gearing.
 
When I rebuilt my ‘75 the right fork tube had some pitting from sitting outside for years but I was hoping it was high enough on the tube to not plunge past the seal. Well it was too low and everytime the forks compressed those pits were like an oil reservoir everytime they came up. I’ve had a pair I sourced from a parts bike sitting on the shelf for awhile and due to a shoulder injury I can’t ride right now but with the weather being nice in the garage I decided to get to it. IMG_7071.jpeg It was an easy swap since I had internals as well. I just pulled everything apart and cleaned it.IMG_7072.jpeg. I could at least test it rolling forward and hitting the brake. Everything appears A-OK.IMG_7076.jpeg
 
Some sympathetic paint retouching this morning. Mostly on the battery box that's been badly corroded by battery acid fume. Also front engine mount where it's been blasted by road gravel. The Jenolite rust converter works extremely well and gives a nice base to take a coat of black hammerite (smooth) paint.

While the paint dries, new HT leads made ready to fit later with a set of new Daiichi points. NGK plug caps, 7mm copper wire. New condensers were fitted while I had the top engine mount off. Only the coils haven't been changed, but they test OK.

The points fitted look new/unused but are Chinese made. I like the Daiichi made in Japan ones better. Probably last the duration of my ownership. (What a morbid thought). :(

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My xs hasn’t seen much love in a while so I picked up an extra set of trees to try and clean up the front of my 77 project. As much as I’d love some billet trees I think I’m going to give a shot at shaving down some stock trees. The bottom tree was easy, it’s steel so I just used a 4” grinder to cut off the headlight mount bosses with a cutoff and flap wheel. I smoothed everything out and finished with my palm sander and 320 grit to even it all out. There are still some threaded holes that I’ll likely just fill with JB Weld and paint over.

The top required quite a bit more work. The gauge mounts are quite a bit beefier. Once I hacked them off I used the grinder and flap wheel to smooth it out. It was a little tougher to get the lines right, but I’m happy with the results. I washed them down and hit them with a coat of silver paint just as a protectant layer. Still need more work but happy with the start.

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Had a good ride with the '78 xs650
Took it out with friend on his '76 BMW 75/6
I rode the BMW for the 2nd half of the ride and he took out my Bonneville for the first time.

I have a cheap battery in my XS650. Who makes a good quality AGM that won't drop voltage as much when starting?
Battery in this one drops to well below 10V making the starter clutch clatter. Jumping with a spare auto battery it sounds much better.
IMG_9837.jpg
 
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Melnic said:
Had a good ride with the '78 xs650
Took it out with friend on his '76 BMW 75/6
I rode the BMW for the 2nd half of the ride and he took out my Bonneville for the first time.

I have a cheap battery in my XS650. Who makes a good quality AGM that won't drop voltage as much when starting?
Battery in this one drops to well below 10V making the starter clutch clatter. Jumping with a spare auto battery it sounds much better.
View attachment 323276
Click to expand...
Yuasa has long been my go to battery brand. I have used Motobatt too but they're getting very expensive now. Look out for the highest CCA (cold cranking amps) for the best electric starting capabilities.
 
Its been a long time said:
Some sympathetic paint retouching this morning. Mostly on the battery box that's been badly corroded by battery acid fume. Also front engine mount where it's been blasted by road gravel. The Jenolite rust converter works extremely well and gives a nice base to take a coat of black hammerite (smooth) paint.

While the paint dries, new HT leads made ready to fit later with a set of new Daiichi points. NGK plug caps, 7mm copper wire. New condensers were fitted while I had the top engine mount off. Only the coils haven't been changed, but they test OK.

The points fitted look new/unused but are Chinese made. I like the Daiichi made in Japan ones better. Probably last the duration of my ownership. (What a morbid thought). :(

View attachment 323218
Click to expand...
Dreadful weather today, hail, horizontal rain, wind, cold. Unusually bad for mid April, even for England.

So not much done on the bike. Just finished the mount plate for the voltage regulator, fitted it, fitted the rectifier and put the screws back in the battery box. More progress tomorrow, hopefully.
 
I have used this battery for the last 8 years almost every day. PTX14AHLBS-FS. No issues and still going strong

Bought it from mikexs. I remember that the first one they shipped was a dud. Then they replaced it and since then the battery has been worry free for 8 years.

Melnic said:
Had a good ride with the '78 xs650
Took it out with friend on his '76 BMW 75/6
I rode the BMW for the 2nd half of the ride and he took out my Bonneville for the first time.

I have a cheap battery in my XS650. Who makes a good quality AGM that won't drop voltage as much when starting?
Battery in this one drops to well below 10V making the starter clutch clatter. Jumping with a spare auto battery it sounds much better.
View attachment 323276
Click to expand...
 
IMG_7079.jpegIMG_7080.jpegIMG_7081.jpegAnother small task done. Replaced the muffler gaskets on the ‘75. The threads on the cap or on the mufflers was barely holding but it worked well enough to fit the gaskets. Been procrastinating that little job for a long time and it only took about 30 min to do both sides. I was lucky because on some bikes I’ve had there was no getting that threaded cap off.
 

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