What have you done to your XS today?

Couple of small projects I did over the last couple days.
1. Made a front stand for when I am working on the front of the bike. I needed something solid and dependable because as its been shown on the forum, as soon as the front of the bike is able to tip forward the centre stand will fold up and over she goes.

2. Made a pair of brackets for lifting the motor out of the frame using a block and tackle/endless chain. The verical parts of the bracket end up quite thin (to clear bits and pieces) so I reinforced them with 6mm flat bar welded on the horizontal. I have seen on the forum that the balance point is the rear top engine mount.

Excuse the shit welding - I recently sold my Inverter stick welder for a "you beaut" mig welder - I sucked myself in - I have never been able to do as good a weld on the mig, using flux cored or gas, as I did on my stick welder. Now, I know this shoudnt be the case, but Ive tried every setting and technique known to man to get a good weld but I cant crack it. I did spend 30 years perfecting my technique using the stick and was perfectly happy with it - then I got greedy and thought the mig would be the next best thing. Oh well - more practice I suppose or the mig is getting sold for a stick.
Regards Ray.
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Lemme get this straight...
You ... sold.. a welder?
That's nearly as bad a mistake as selling a bike.
You always wish you hadn't.
Unless it was an FT500, that was a p.o.s.
 
Noticed engine noise from the front of the engine riding home from work so I drained the oil thinking it could be the front cam chain guide had come apart.
Removed the sump filter and it looks as new, and no pieces of anything in the oil or sump. I then checked the cam chain adjustment and it's as it should be. Got to dig out the stethoscope to see if I can pin point the noise, the rings are not very old and it doesn't sound like loose exhaust valve clearance but I will be checking that as well.

The noise seemed to be getting worse so I thought I would check the cam chain adjustment ant the valve clearance. While rotating the engine counterclockwise with a wrench on the rotor nut I could here a rattle which soon stopped after a few engine revolutions, so I drained the oil and removed the sump plate and filter and found pieces of metal which was previously some type of thrust washer??.
Next step is to remove clutch cover and have a look in there although the clutch still works fine. Definitely doesn't look like a piece of piston ring and still have decent compression, 165 and 168.
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Found another piece in the bottom of the engine case when I removed the clutch otherwise everything seems fine with all parts working undamaged. Definitely not pieces of piston rings, it's wider and not high tensile because it's been folded up while floating around in the running engine. Seems to have at least one small pin through it???. Any ideas?
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Found another piece in the bottom of the engine case when I removed the clutch otherwise everything seems fine with all parts working undamaged. Definitely not pieces of piston rings, it's wider and not high tensile because it's been folded up while floating around in the running engine. Seems to have at least one small pin through it???. Any ideas?View attachment 233748
Looks like a ball bearing cage has fallen apart possibly. There's not much else that looks like that. There's one on one end of the crank that may be that size, most of the other bearings have smaller cages.
 
Looks like a ball bearing cage has fallen apart possibly. There's not much else that looks like that. There's one on one end of the crank that may be that size, most of the other bearings have smaller cages.
That's what I was just inspecting and it looks like the bearing on the right hand side of the crankshaft near the clutch has no outer cage and the ball bearings are held in by the clutch drive gear on the crankshaft. I replaced the complete crankshaft as an exchange unit about six months ago. Going to try and find some pictures of the crankshaft bearings to get an idea if it could be what the pieces are from. They don't seem to be strong enough to be part of a bearing cage though.
 
I think you're right Dunc. I just had a look at a new crankshaft bearing listed at Geoff's xs here in Oz and it looks like the pieces are the internal part of the bearing that holds the balls in place.
Looks like I will be removing the engine again and replacing the bearing or crankshaft and whatever else has been damaged.
 
I think you're right Dunc. I just had a look at a new crankshaft bearing listed at Geoff's xs here in Oz and it looks like the pieces are the internal part of the bearing that holds the balls in place.
Looks like I will be removing the engine again and replacing the bearing or crankshaft and whatever else has been damaged.
Bugger!
 
I noticed the different engine noise riding to work and was certainly concerned about it and rode very sedately there and back home.
It actually felt like it vibrated more since installing the new crankshaft a while ago. I am about to remove the engine now and I'll see what else I find while pulling it down to get the crankshaft out.
 
Today I got the motor out of the frame and got the crankshaft out of the cases. The cylinders and pistons look fine, but I'll give them a hone and see if I can get new 1st oversize rings .
Split the cases using two bolts, one each side of the engine and just wind them up, easy as.
So I'm up for head and base gaskets, rings , piston pin clips and crankshaft seal.
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I scored these mags and was in a rush…I just put the tires on and realized it’s a rear disc brake…I didn’t realize the rear mags or any rear wheel of the xs650 had a rear disc brake. I will say it was a pain to get on the wheels. Don’t get jealous of the pineapple valve stems🤣
 

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I took the bearing off the crankshaft and took the cylinders and pistons to a machine shop to get them measured up.
Turns out that there was not enough clearance from the pistons skirts to cylinders, .020 instead of at least. 050 according to the Haynes manual. So when I had the badly scored pistons last year and got the cylinders honed at another reputable shop to suit the new pistons they have not honed them to the correct size. 🤔😡.
I have new ist oversize pistons and rings coming and hopefully this time it will be right.
I don't have the gear to check it myself but I will be asking them to measure it while I am there.
 
Do yourseplf a favour, get on ebay and order some measuring equipment. Micrometers and calipes can be had quite cheaply from China. And don't be fooled, they are every bit as good and accurate as Mitutoyo. That's all I use on my machinery. I do have some Mitutoyo, but the Chinese ones are a fraction of the price. I've just ordered a 0-25mm micrometer from China for $16. At that price, they don't get kid glove treatment, they are just chucked around the workshop, willy nilly!
 
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