Ritchie
XS650 Member
Thanks gggGary. Thats all I wanted to know.
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What have you done to your XS today?
- Thread starter I am Carbon
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Thanks gggGary. Thats all I wanted to know.
Keywords: Clutch experimental calibrate tedious explode dain brammage
HWGA, love this stuff!
Spent 7 hours riding and fixing yesterday. But it was the H and new to me drawbar mount sickle mower. Mechanical stuff older than me and that isn't easy to find anymore.
JP has been hanging out here, and we exercised the 79's on the backroads several days. Swapping back and forth getting a handle on the resto-mod vs stock suspension, it's an improvement but I probably need to soften the front damping a bit, the cart emulator fork is a bit a harsher on rough pavement. More stable in the corners, worth the trade off so far.
Ritchie
XS650 Member
Took out the tacho mechanism and put a nice alu plug back in.
phil1rowe4
XS650 Addict
Almost finished repainting tank after finding pin holes leaking petrol fumes under the previous paint job.
![IMAG0543[1].jpg](https://www.xs650.com/attachments/imag0543-1-jpg.85803/ "IMAG0543[1].jpg")
buzzword
XS650 Addict
nice lookin' tank!!
This has been a few days work, but I have got it to a point where progress can be seen. I was buying some parts from a fellow and he says, hey I have a tank I will throw in, one look and I thought he was confusing in with out, but it had petcocks and a cap, missing key and it was free, so it came home with me. My locksmith cut a key from the number on it for 15.00, opened it and the inside was not rusty, so I started trying to undent it from inside, made no progress and switched to bondo then rattle can Tremco paint.
I had a silver Special tank that a fork leg had come in conflict with, (not me) and it got bondo as well, to see if I remembered any skills from my youth.
The result was two 15 foot tanks. Got some low sheen black paint and did them over, no real improvement, so I am thinking I will distress them with some sandpaper to see how they turn out.
/ATTACH]
I had a silver Special tank that a fork leg had come in conflict with, (not me) and it got bondo as well, to see if I remembered any skills from my youth.
The result was two 15 foot tanks. Got some low sheen black paint and did them over, no real improvement, so I am thinking I will distress them with some sandpaper to see how they turn out.
/ATTACH]
Attachments
Last couple of days; replaced an ear and straightened the headlight shell that got bent when a wind storm at Rockerbox blew the restomod over. Oil and filters, points, timing check on the survivor, comp. 144L 149R. Did a once over and mounted some small saddle bags, cause the resto will get a few hundred miles tomorrow.
Michaelo
650Mick
Did an oil change and filter clean during the week, rode today, nothing like fanging it in 3rd, 7500 rpm through the bends, my goodness I love this bike.....
My 78 special ,which I bought in 1982,actually traded a parachute for it.Is sitting out my front window all weathered.Upgraded to a dual disc set up,drilled my own rotors,flatter handelbars,It was great getting back on it this year.What can I say, you guys know it.Great bikes.
Took my rig shopping yesterday. Came out of the shop with my purchase and it was so effin' hot that I doffed my jean jacket, gloves and flipface into the sidecar and rode the rig home bare-handed, in my tee shirt and wearing my wife's half-helmet.
I'm aware that an XS650 engine should sound, as it's alleged Mr. Bugatti said about his cars, "Like a bucketful of ball bearings being poured onto an iron plate"
But without my flipface helmet's sound muffling quality I could really hear the engine and think "Those ball bearings are far too big and being dropped from too great a height!" So today I got around to adjusting the bike's timing chain. Must have been about a decade since the last time it was done. Bike sounds a lot nicer now.
I'm aware that an XS650 engine should sound, as it's alleged Mr. Bugatti said about his cars, "Like a bucketful of ball bearings being poured onto an iron plate"
But without my flipface helmet's sound muffling quality I could really hear the engine and think "Those ball bearings are far too big and being dropped from too great a height!" So today I got around to adjusting the bike's timing chain. Must have been about a decade since the last time it was done. Bike sounds a lot nicer now.
Once a decade whether it needs it or not?
Hi Gary,
yeah, a combination of sloth, the sound-deadening qualities of fullface helmets worn with earplugs and because I parked the bike for 5 of those 10 years rather than sort out a major oil leak. Um, add stupidity to that list. My son insisted on dragging the bike out of the back shed and he finally found the oil leak. One of the engine breather bolts was missing and the other three were about four turns loose. Took all of five minutes to fix. Well, ten if you include the time it took to find a replacement fastener in my bolt bin.
resto went 300 miles yesterday, started running poorly but with 165 miles on the tank switching to reserve cured it! Dang it was a warm one.
Replaced fuel lines with 3/16" Tygon. Also playing with jet needles.
Early model swing-out carbs make this easy...
Early model swing-out carbs make this easy...
mikeh36
XS650 Enthusiast
2M, is that just generic fuel line meant for lawnmowers etc? I need to pick some up and would prefer not to get the ugly black hose but I've been nervous about using anything not automotive rated.
buzzword
XS650 Addict
is the gas in mowers different somehow?
/sarcasm
I am using the same yellow tygon and it works great! it's rated for ethanol fuel and it's totally fine so far.
mikeh36
XS650 Enthusiast
Hehe, I was more worried about it not standing up to the heat from the motor which is why I asked. Found some listed at the local Home Despot so I guess I'll stop in this week to big some up.
buzzword
XS650 Addict
didn't do ANYTHING to my XS today!
However...
I spent a couple hours tearing down the top end on my buddy's '78 SR500. The motor was seized, now I know why! Took the exhaust off and found this:
Yeah, that's a broken and bent exhaust valve, and a broken head casting.
I got the rocker box off and discovered this:
I'll point out to the uninitiated that the rocker arm closest to us - the one for the intake valve - is convex on the cam end, and the exhaust valve rocker is concave. What this tells me is that the exhaust valve rocker was not getting appropriate lubrication - something that's a known problem in these particular engines - and the cam lobe basically wore a concave surface into it. Gnarly! The forces and friction involved in doing that are pretty wild to think about.
Digging further, I took the actual head off, and I discovered this:
Holy moly! That IS a very broken exhaust valve, and a demolished combustion chamber. This thing is gonna need a new head! But wait,
there's more:
Yep, that's exactly what you think it is - the business end of the exhaust valve buried in the top of the piston. Wow - again, the forces involved! From the looks of it, there was some
bouncing around that took place before the embedding happened. Here's a close-up of the piston:
Yep, the valve busted a hole clear through the piston. Wild, right?! Another couple of views:
Luckily the bottom end seems fine, with minimal side to side play on the conrod. Spins freely, seems OK. Gonna have to spend some serious time cleaning out the crankcase since there is most assuredly a ton of metal bits in the case, but compressed air and diesel will get the bulk of it out hopefully. I reaaaaally don't want to split the cases!
Once all the cleanup is done, it's probably gonna get some mild headwork, a 535cc kit, and an aftermarket top end oiling setup that will hopefully prevent this kind of baloney in the future.
I celebrated my success with this jammer...
Delicious!
However...
I spent a couple hours tearing down the top end on my buddy's '78 SR500. The motor was seized, now I know why! Took the exhaust off and found this:
Yeah, that's a broken and bent exhaust valve, and a broken head casting.
I got the rocker box off and discovered this:
I'll point out to the uninitiated that the rocker arm closest to us - the one for the intake valve - is convex on the cam end, and the exhaust valve rocker is concave. What this tells me is that the exhaust valve rocker was not getting appropriate lubrication - something that's a known problem in these particular engines - and the cam lobe basically wore a concave surface into it. Gnarly! The forces and friction involved in doing that are pretty wild to think about.
Digging further, I took the actual head off, and I discovered this:
Holy moly! That IS a very broken exhaust valve, and a demolished combustion chamber. This thing is gonna need a new head! But wait,
there's more:
Yep, that's exactly what you think it is - the business end of the exhaust valve buried in the top of the piston. Wow - again, the forces involved! From the looks of it, there was some
bouncing around that took place before the embedding happened. Here's a close-up of the piston:
Yep, the valve busted a hole clear through the piston. Wild, right?! Another couple of views:
Luckily the bottom end seems fine, with minimal side to side play on the conrod. Spins freely, seems OK. Gonna have to spend some serious time cleaning out the crankcase since there is most assuredly a ton of metal bits in the case, but compressed air and diesel will get the bulk of it out hopefully. I reaaaaally don't want to split the cases!
Once all the cleanup is done, it's probably gonna get some mild headwork, a 535cc kit, and an aftermarket top end oiling setup that will hopefully prevent this kind of baloney in the future.
I celebrated my success with this jammer...
Delicious!
Whoa!
