mtnmason

Thanks guys. Didn't get a chance to mess with it yesterday with the daytona 500 being on and the insobriety that typically occurs. Drewps - I had to pull the ignition switch off a while back to have a key made but it worked fine after that. Problems is prob due to having the poor thing sitting on the sidewalk under a cover since November.

Hello all. First off just wanted to say I've been lurking around on this site for a few years since I got my little xs in '08 and I have learned more about the bike (and bikes in general) than anywhere else. So thanks to all you mechanical gurus on here that help keep all of us amatuer tinkerers straight! So........ the headlight works when the switch is turned all the way to the right (the parking light mode). Switch the key to the middle, or "on" position - no headlight. I took the ignition switch off and dis/reconnected everything. The problem is obviously not in the handle bar switch. Havent pulled the headlight off yet. Any ideas? Thanks a million.

AAAAAAAH!!! foook me! I lost my only set of keys to my bike. Whats worse - the bars were locked since it is sitting on the street. I am having trouble finding anyone in my area who has a blank key. I tell them that the bike is a '77 and I get the the 'oh sh!t' look. Several folks say they will make the key if I bring in the ignition but I would have to provide the blank. Anyone know where to get the key codes as this might make my search easier. Yam dealership here in Richmond VA is USELESS!(joint yam/honda dealer that only works on hondas) the only full service yam dealership went under a few months ago.

STANCHION! Thats the word I was looking for. Wow! I got replies from some real pros. Thanks Drewpy and ol'git. I could tell that the caliper mounts looked to be the same. I'm not expecting anymore replies on such on old post - but if you happen to revisit - about how much height difference am I gonna get? When parked, the bike already looks slightly higher in the front.

Thanks, Speedshop. I'm well aware of the things that COULD cause the forks not to fit (bore, fender brackets, length, etc.) I was simply wondering if anyone had done this before or new off-hand whether or not Yamaha used the same forks on these two year models. As for the refinishing, I need to figure out how to refinish the receiver part (or female piece) which has the kind of micro-ribbed(?) finish. Theyre scratched all to hell. Thanks anyway, though! And happy motoring.

i was about to do a painstaking fork rebuild plus resurface/polish (somehow) until I found a set on fleabay for $20 USD! for both! why work on it when you could be riding? so..... why would a '79 (xs4Special) not fit a '77 (xs4d)? I wanted to check with the all-knowing yama-geniuses on here. Any response to my noobish query would be much appreciated.

I heard about this dreaded affliction awhile back on another forum. I wondered if anyone here was familiar. The beautiful cocktail shakers on my 77 rotted through after 15 years dormancy in a barn. That is the only rust whatsoever on the bike. There is one hole in the bottom of each one, the left being worse. I patched that with Quicksteel and it worked to some degree. It pops and spits in quite an unbecoming way when I pull to a stop - sounds great under load. I cant bear the thought of having to replace them, but they need to go. I dont have the equipment or technical ability to cut them open and weld them back together. Has anyone used these? They're a tad pricey and not too attractive. I havent been able to find any originals in good shape for sale. Suggestions? Comparable experiences?

sweet ride ya got there! i slapped some clubman bars on mine and wow - rides like a whole different machine. i bet yours rides nothing like the original. have you ever considered swapping your tank out for a '77 tank? that tank had a real squared-off euro look. i think it would compliment your cafe mod quite well. i found a banged-up, resto needed replacement for mine on ebay for like 35 bucks

that - and helps keep 'em a bit cooler!

i think you may be a bit amiss here, blades. who is thinking about Bush? he is gone thank God. Bush was a fiscal socialist himself who started this whole bail out business. secondly, i'm not exactly sure what you are inferring by saying that it is good for most Americans to have a black man in the white house. a.) Obama's mother is white, which makes him as much a white man as a black man b.) the half of him that is black is not the same lineage of black as 98% of black Americans who are descendents of slaves. If his name were Reginald Tobias Fitzgerald and NOT Barack Huessein Obama there would be no real problem. Barack Obama has never shown his birth certificate from hawaii, thus it has not been proven that he is even an american born citizen. his ties to the nation of Islam are deeper than they appear on the surface. cast aside your politcal correctness and admit that radical islam has declared war on the west and its people. if i remember correctly - you kind folks over there were visited by the violent favors of radical islam. An American president has NEVER bowed to a king no matter their nationality. yet obama has bowed to several muslim kings as is his custom as a Muslim himself. While giving a speech at Georgetown U, Obama and his people found it prudent to cover with a black cloth a stained glass image of Jesus - so how is that for "celebrating religion"?

I didnt catch any of you folks making mention about jacqui smith banning a radio talk show host (of whom I am a very big fan) putting him on a list with a bunch of legit terrorists. I thought that was big news over there. Our state-owned press never mentioned it. You guys over there have been living under a quasi-socialist regime for a while now. Our new Muslim socialist president is an unabashed Marxist himself. His favorite pastime of late is travelling the world over apologizing for America having been such a bully for so many years and saying it wasnt his fault. By now I believe he has bowed to every Muslim leader out there aside from ahmedinajad. Shit is gettin' bad. How about if we send you guys all our legal guns before they're taken from us. Y'all can overrun parliament, hand them back to us and we'll go storm washington. then things may go back to the way they once was ... ahhhh....

I stopped by the local shop today to grab some oil and the only yamalube they had was the semi-synthetic 20w50. Mechanic said that that was all they use when doing oil changes (ironically, the place used to be a combined yamaha/honda dealer but yamaha just moved out a few months ago and they still use yamalube) Anyhow - my dad told me not to use any synthetic oil in my bike ('77 xs400d) but he rides a Victory and doesnt work on it himself so he knows nothing. When I got back home I noticed on the bottle that it said it was formulated especially for v-twins (like how in the hell is the oil supposed to know if its in a V or parallel or inline?). Is there any reason I shouldnt use this stuff? Tell me now, otherwise I'm dumping in 2000cc's of the "semi-syn" tomorrow and giving her a good flogging around the city. Thank God it finally warmed up a little.

congrats on your new bike GZ! I just bought a '77 xs400 (my first bike), same color as yours back in July. First off, these are GREAT little bikes, take good care of them and you can ride it to the moon and back with no problems. This will allow for a well placed "I-told-you-so" for all your dads buddies! I bought mine with a little less than 6K on the odo- it had sat in storage for about 15 or so years. All I had to do was take the carbs off and clean them, replace bat. and air filters (check yours as these things corrode over time into tiny little flakes) and since then I have put about 1500 trouble free miles of fun on mine. I intend to keep mine completely original BUT - there isnt a more perfect bike for a cafe project than the '77, mainly due to the shape of the tank. Only the 77 and 78 had that squared shape for the tank before they switched to more of a teardrop shape. Check out this example <www.bikepics.com/yamaha/xs400/77/pics.asp> Keep us posted on your project.

I am thinking about buying a 550 seca that needs some work. The ad for it states that it needs a new clutch. Can anyone tell me about how much it would cost for a new clutch assembly and how easy/difficult it might be to find one for this bike? Any help would be much appreciated.

Oooooh. Sorry Bill - damn those rotten America haters. Try visiting ol' Virginny sometime. despite our democrack governor we're usually pretty red through and through. To everyone else - thanks aplenty for the help. Guess i'll yank the carbs off once again this weekend (hopefully for the last time for a while). Happy riding. FALL IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!