What have you done to your XS today?

badlegbill said:
Ok they appear ready to fit, they have been sitting for 2 hours in the image and both sides remain at roughly the same level when set within 1 or 2 mm of the book level.
I only hope that the bike agrees.
Along the way the left carb would sometimes shut off and sometimes leak at fast or slow rates.
As I mentioned above the fuel needle valve was a different length so that got blamed , new o ring, clean the seat, run a 2mm drill bit gently against the orifice and rebuild.
Four goes later leak reappeared, substituted valve seat, same problem.
Substituted float pin and hey ho no more leaks over 10 set ups, when left for 2 hours left carb elevated level at +2mm. I can live with that.

There are problems persistence won't solve but you won't know until you try.
Click to expand...
Bad leg bill, cool operation. how did you fit the tube on the bottom of the carb? did you make two adapters? Can you give us a photo of them tubes on the carb drain holes. jay
 
Tiggertoo said:
Not had to do much other than polishing some bits n pieces, oh and replaced the back wheel undertray screws that looked a bit chewed. Used a couple of stainless bolts instead as its much easier to get a socket on them than a screwdriver. One thing that may be of interest to others is that I came across a really good workshop manual for 74-77 models with excellent pictures (I've seen a lot of folks complaining about the picture quality in most online manuals).
Be warned though, it is a BIG (350+Mb) download so may take a minute or two. Probably because of the good quality images.
https://nealzkustomz.wordpress.com/...ce-manual-1974-77-tx650a-xs650b-xs650c-xs.pdf
These are by far the best quality pictures I've seen online.
Maybe a link should be added to the Tech Reference thread?
Click to expand...
thanks, tiggertoo, I downloadd it. to my xs file.
👍
 
jaybar6 said:
Bad leg bill, cool operation. how did you fit the tube on the bottom of the carb? did you make two adapters? Can you give us a photo of them tubes on the carb drain holes. jay
Click to expand...
either 5 or 6 mm clear plastic tubing, hold the 5mm in the hot water longer , then dish soap/washing up liquid and wire ties from food wrapping, not cable ties..
Simple enough on later carbs but centre drilling a couple of bolts shouldn't be problematic, check out the fuel tank cap- I just used acrylic to glue in the spout - recycled ball inflator. A more patient man might centre drill the bolts and tap them for the spout.
I do not endorse the statement entirely but I have a clever friend who says " The only actual job stoppers are lack of resources or lack of talent. " What you need is often hiding somewhere in your place. It has helped on numerous occasions
My middle girl refers to my working philosophy as "quick and cheap" I prefer "what can I recycle", I will not be showing images of my "occasional " flow bench but this setup should be safe enough - if you don't smoke.
I admit to buying the tubing.
 

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badlegbill said:
either 5 or 6 mm clear plastic tubing, hold the 5mm in the hot water longer , then dish soap/washing up liquid and wire ties from food wrapping, not cable ties..
Simple enough on later carbs but centre drilling a couple of bolts shouldn't be problematic, check out the fuel tank cap- I just used acrylic to glue in the spout - recycled ball inflator. A more patient man might centre drill the bolts and tap them for the spout.
I do not endorse the statement entirely but I have a clever friend who says " The only actual job stoppers are lack of resources or lack of talent. " What you need is often hiding somewhere in your place. It has helped on numerous occasions
My middle girl refers to my working philosophy as "quick and cheap" I prefer "what can I recycle", I will not be showing images of my "occasional " flow bench but this setup should be safe enough - if you don't smoke.
I admit to buying the tubing.
Click to expand...
thank you, bad leg bill.
 
bosco659 said:
I recently noticed the rubber stopper for my center stand had worn down and the stand was almost rubbing on the bottom of the muffler. Rather than replace it with what I had before, I tried cobbling a new piece to attach to the remnants of the old one. This summer I bought some fairly dense, double side foam rubber pads from China. They had 3M adhesive on both sides of the pad. One thickness didn’t appear to provide enough cushion so I doubled them up. I figured the one sticky side would adhere to the rubber on the kickstand, but what to do with the other sticky side which would rest against the muffler. I looked in my stash and found some 3M, high temp tape. It looks like a fibreglass material? I know it has great heat resistance. I stuck a few rows onto the rubber pad, trimmed it a bit at stuck it on the kickstand.

Looks ok and seems to cushion well. Time will tell if it wears ok.

View attachment 337604View attachment 337605View attachment 337606
Click to expand...

Just an update - major fail! The new “cushion” didn’t last a ride today. I’ll need to stick something better on there or maybe I’ll make a proper bracket and stop for it this winter.
 
badlegbill said:
either 5 or 6 mm clear plastic tubing, hold the 5mm in the hot water longer , then dish soap/washing up liquid and wire ties from food wrapping, not cable ties..
Simple enough on later carbs but centre drilling a couple of bolts shouldn't be problematic, check out the fuel tank cap- I just used acrylic to glue in the spout - recycled ball inflator. A more patient man might centre drill the bolts and tap them for the spout.
I do not endorse the statement entirely but I have a clever friend who says " The only actual job stoppers are lack of resources or lack of talent. " What you need is often hiding somewhere in your place. It has helped on numerous occasions
My middle girl refers to my working philosophy as "quick and cheap" I prefer "what can I recycle", I will not be showing images of my "occasional " flow bench but this setup should be safe enough - if you don't smoke.
I admit to buying the tubing.
Click to expand...
I think my carb is different. Mine has a bolt to drain the carb, where yours has a nozzle.
carb lower.jpg
 
A word of warning for anyone buying Daiichi ignition points!
So today the weather was lousy and I decided to do something that had been bugging me for a while, namely swap out the chinesium points for some Japanese better quality ones. I had ordered these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325377252452 a few weeks ago as every time I checked the timing I would find the dwell had changed or something was not quite the same as when I had last set them. Even if it was only a day or two since I last did them and the engine had not been run in between checks, also when using the strobe light the firing point would wander between the F marks. Not far but enough to bug me.
Anyway, what started out as a quick 20 minutes swap out turned into a whole afternoon as when I went to fit them the screw holes would not align. At first I thought maybe I'd ordered the wrong parts but as you can see in the ebay link above they are listed to fit the xs650.
So I ended up carefully filing out the screw holes, making sure that there was enough “hole” to adjust the gaps.
Images below of the new contact set, second image is of the screw hole alignment on the back plate. Third image showing the difference between a new one, a modified one and the chinese one (purchased from Yambits.co.uk). Points are now in and timing all done.
I was planning on fitting a new stainless front brake hose today as well but that has now been postponed for another day. Oh well.
 

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Tiggertoo said:
A word of warning for anyone buying Daiichi ignition points!
So today the weather was lousy and I decided to do something that had been bugging me for a while, namely swap out the chinesium points for some Japanese better quality ones. I had ordered these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325377252452 a few weeks ago as every time I checked the timing I would find the dwell had changed or something was not quite the same as when I had last set them. Even if it was only a day or two since I last did them and the engine had not been run in between checks, also when using the strobe light the firing point would wander between the F marks. Not far but enough to bug me.
Anyway, what started out as a quick 20 minutes swap out turned into a whole afternoon as when I went to fit them the screw holes would not align. At first I thought maybe I'd ordered the wrong parts but as you can see in the ebay link above they are listed to fit the xs650.
So I ended up carefully filing out the screw holes, making sure that there was enough “hole” to adjust the gaps.
Images below of the new contact set, second image is of the screw hole alignment on the back plate. Third image showing the difference between a new one, a modified one and the chinese one (purchased from Yambits.co.uk). Points are now in and timing all done.
I was planning on fitting a new stainless front brake hose today as well but that has now been postponed for another day. Oh well.
Click to expand...
They are not correct for XS650. They only fit XS1 and XS2. I bought them too and found they don't fit. I told the seller but he doesn't change the listing.

So that's at least two of us who bought those and can't use them.

In the end having had both bad points and condenser, Chinesium, I gave up. You can buy original points and condensers. But they are crazy expensive.

I bought a Boyer Bransden ignition kit instead.
 
 
Bike has been sitting a week and wanted to take a short 30mi ride. When I went to start it, it did not start in the usual one or 2 kicks from the kick starter and I used the electric start couple seconds of starter to get it to start. Just figured not starting in a while, I did not leave the PRI on long enough. 1 mile from house was headed down hill and lost power. Was not sure if it was fuel or ignition. Coasted to a safe place as I was going down hill. Set petcock to PRI then it started. I then went home and changed bikes. Tonight, I ran the petcock into my big measuring cup and sucked on the vacuum line and pulled just over 1 gallon from it. Well, thinking about it more, I think it was losing ignition.
New Cam chain has about 600 miles on it so figured I'd check timing. Timing is a tad retarded. About 1/16 to 1/8" to the right of the right of the 2 idle marks. It was idling with some misfires. Will try to reset that this week and take a ride in the neighborhood staying at pushing distance.
 
jaybar6 said:
I think my carb is different. Mine has a bolt to drain the carb, where yours has a nozzle. View attachment 337705
Click to expand...
It may not be as difficult as you think to make adaptors.
You do not need to repeatedly open and close the drain during the process. You simply need to seal the bottom of the bowl with the drain open.
So if you can source 2 bolts of the same size and thread as the drain bolt you can cut them to the same length as the drain bolt , do so with a nut fitted even if you have to grind the nut down a bit then you can clean the thread with the nut and you won't damage the thread in the carb bowl, and then drill a hole through the middle so that you can glue a basket ball inflator in the hole, to which you can attach a drain tube.
You already have sealing washers and these are easily sourced.
Thinking about it, it may be better to drill first and then shorten the bolts.
If you go to the trouble keep them in a drawer or a box, other people will be happy to borrow them and you may need them again.
Good luck with it.
It occurs to me that these items might be commercially available on your side of the water where more bikes are still being run, if anybody knows please give a link.
That may seem a bit of trouble to go to but you will find the ability to check and set the carbs fuel level on or off the bike very useful.
 
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I drilled a new set of handlebars, ran wire through internally and installed micro buttons and bar end signals. I have done it once before but this time had all kinds of blunders. In the end I found it humorous. I thought about writing a thread about it (what not to do), but don't know if it should go here or in the lounge
 
Fitted my daytime running lights
I was ran into the back of not too long ago on my BMW chop
It's made me more conscious of being seen
 

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Hi! I'm still mid-process of breaking down the 1980GII. I have everything stripped off the middle of the bike an the next thing to go is the engine.

The engine has been drained of oil but the bottom of the engine needs some serious cleaning. Is it ill-advised to put the engine on its side once removed? I'm struggling to think of another way to get to the bottom of the engine. In a similar vein, it looks like the reg/rec is located underneath the engine as well, is that correct? If so I'm inclined to move it somewhere else on the bike.
 

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