KFunk
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Posts posted by KFunk
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You need to remove the plastic cap, and push down the metal button while removing the circlip with a couple screwdrivers. It takes a lot of force to push it down. I wedge in a 3/8" drive ratchet with 1/4" adapter and tiny metric socket between the handlebar and the button, and it'll sit there solid while you work around it:
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It's my first bike and I got it for 900 bucks with only 11,265 miles on it. The guy I bought it from said that the back tire had a slow leak and my dad rode it about five miles back to our house with no problems. I wanted to get an idea of how bad the leak was so I filled the tires up to the pressure indicated in the Haynes shop manual (26 in the front and 28 in back). A little over one week later I checked the pressure and the front was down to 19 and the back was down to 23.
I wasn't planning on having to replace both tires and I was wondering if somebody could give me an idea of how much the tires are and about how much it will cost to get them put on and balanced.
See if you can find my old thread where I was asking about tires.
I ended up paying about $100 total for both from americanmototire.com and having them shipped to me, then having a friend's shop install them for $20 each (I just took them wheels, it might cost more if they have to take the wheels of your bike.)
I did tubeless since the original tires on my '81 xs400 were tubeless (cast wheels, not wire wheels).
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it shouldnt matter about the push thingy,they should still self cancel any way, its a combinaition of speed + time laps mi-thinks.
Yeah, that doesn't work so well either..... occasionally it'll kick off, but not that often. At least its better than hand signals, which I've been using since I bought it.
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My friends' '79 KZ650 has the indicators on all the time, so apparently other companies have done it for a while. If it requires a full rewiring, then I'm not gonna worry about it.
As for the push-button turn signal off, I dunno what the problem is. The switch is greased up inside and it slides around fine.
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Depends.... A lot of American bikes DO have the indicators on continuously as running lights.
But then it seems to be variable.
So long as it works how you want and flashes when it has to, I'd not be too worried.
Well, I'd kinda like to have the running lights if its not too hard to get them working. As it is with just the headlight, at night my bike could be confused with a car with one headlight out (a common sight here in Appalachia...)
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I've noticed on other bikes the turn signals stay on all the time solid during just normal riding, kinda like 'running lights.' I figure its a good safety feature. Is my xs400 supposed to do that? Right now they only blink when I flip the switch.
By the way, I just got a new left control assembly on ebay and hooked it up, and its the first time I've used the signals. Is pushing in on the switch supposed to turn the blinker off? Mine doesn't seem to want to do that. I just have to lightly push it the opposite direction to get it to turn off.
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Tried all sorts of wiring bypasses on the Green Machine, and no joy on the headlights. Tach lights work fine, so I think the last speedo light finally burnt out. Best I can tell, I have several options.
1) Replace lights in extant gauge
2) Used gauge
3) NOS gauge
I have a line on both used AND NOS XS400 speedo gauges, so finding a new one ain't a prob. I don't mind spending moeny on this bike as I like it. Question, though, is is it even possible to replace burnt out illumination bulbs on the gauges? Not worried about 'em being hard to find; if they exist, I'll find'em. I am busily launching a hard-to-find bike parts business here locally.
It's easy as can be to replace the bulbs, like 5 minutes or less. A couple nuts on the back and the big nut on the speedo cable, and the guage slides out and you can pull out the bulb. It's a standard shaped bulb you can get for a couple bucks at any auto parts store. The same bulbs are used for the neutral/oil lights, license plate lights, high beam indicator, etc.
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Thanks for the reply. I remember you posted on some other thread about this seat, but like the other poster it does not really fit me. I was thinking about fiber glassing the seat myself. But I am more concerned about registering the thing than anything else. Anyone know if I will be slapped with late fees? The bill of sale said has the date july 3rd and the 20 day limit is coming soon i think?
We have no idea where you're located... so we have no idea about your registration laws..
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Very nice, I'm probably going to do the same thing soon. I've polished valve covers and such on my cars in a similar way. I prefer to use some 0000 super fine grade steel wool for most stuff. It's more flexible than sandpaper for getting in the nooks and is extremely fine.
For some very nice final polishing, try to see if you can find someone with a DA air sander and put a polishing pad on it along with some of the polish. It works surprisingly quick to get the nice mirror finish.
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There is a book titled "Motorcycling Across Ohio" which descibes your route as well as many others.
OK, I just bought this book at the local bookstore. Time to get reading and planning the next journey.
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Another good road in that area is Ohio SR374 through the Hocking Hills region. Good scenery, and the various state parks (Old Man's Cave, etc) are a good way to stretch your legs after a long ride.
There is a book titled "Motorcycling Across Ohio" which descibes your route as well as many others.
Yeah, I used to work on 374 a lot... but I've never been on it with anything but a company truck. I don't remember anything all that wonderful about the road, but I mostly drove it slow looking for vent pipes to paint....I do need to get researching those roads some more. The guys want to go again somewhere, and I could probably get some more people this time.
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I didn't get the chance to take very many pics, but here we are at the Big Muskie bucket:
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It was my first time arranging something like this or making a long haul out these twisty roads on the bike, and everything went great. There was my beat-up old xs400, a buddy on a '79 KZ650, a 97 BMW R1100, and a local cop on a Vulcan 800.
Here's the route we took: http://tinyurl.com/olq8d2
Yup, we went down one of the twistiest parts of SR 555, aka "the Triple-Nickel". If you google that, you'll find lots of stories on that road. It's about as challenging as the Tail of the Dragon of NC, except there's no traffic. My main focus was on SR78 though. It's much smoother and you could hold some speed thru the corners with confidence. 555 is a bit twistier, but its really sketchy. There can be gravel or horsepoop or Amish buggies around the next corner.
As for my bike, she did great. It helps that I'm crazy, though. We kept a pretty quick pace thru all the corners, and it held right up with the others. For a while we let the R1100 out front so he could run fairly aggressive. I could keep up with him if I wanted, but it was a struggle. I finally decided "screw it, thats a bike that's light years beyond mine in suspension technology and engine power, its supposed to go faster than mine."
We had no real problems, great weather, and we're lucky to have some of the best roads in the country right here in Southeast Ohio.
Thanks for all the help in getting my bike to the point where I can trust it for such a trip.
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Hooray! I have charging voltage!
I found a couple pinched/broken wires under the front sprocket cover and patched them up. Seems to run fine now and gets like 14.8V easy.
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Check the charging voltage, at 2500 RPM is should be around 14.5 volts, if it's less than that it's not charging. Likely culprit would be the regulator, but there are a series of checks to be sure.
OK, I've got nowhere near that. It's 12.00 to 12.09V no matter how I rev it. I'm trying to do the checks in the PDF manual, but i can't find the wires they describe to check for resistances... they say to look for three white wires on one connector, and 2 green wires, orange, and gray wire on another connector, but I can't find those....
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Anyone have a link as to where to get a 17T front gear??
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Oooooh, another idea. I think it's just running the battery dead and not recharging it. Any ideas if it sounds like that'd explain the symptoms?
I just hooked it up to my trickle charger, and it shows the battery as being pretty damn dead. I tend to hook my bikes up to it at home when I'm diagnosing things or bored, just so I'm sure the lack of battery power isn't holding me back. But I haven't done that in a few days....
I guess I've tended to disregard the role of the battery in this bike, since I'm used to my other vehicles barely needing batteries at all.
If it runs great after it gets charged up, I'd say that must be the problem. Now I guess its time to figure out why it isn't recharging....
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well poop... back to dying again. I ran it all day yesterday, all around backroads, and about town. Then as I parked it at a restaurant, she sputtered and died. After like 40 minutes, I went out and started it, and it got me home, but acted funny.
I got it out today, and only after running it a couple blocks, it died again... and now can't stay running..
Well any ideas?
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I'm 28 and 6'0" /160lbs., and I still cruise town every day in my 50! Right past 20 or so undergrad bars and a couple biker bars, I go cruisin past with that 2-stroke wound up to 10K! Sometimes they yell or cheer in some way.
I've been riding some friends' 50cc mopeds some lately, and holy crap they are slow in comparison to my '83 Yamaha RX50. I'm not sure how Yamaha is able to crank out over twice the power from the same size engine, but the RX50 is much more fun than anyone ever expects out of a 50cc.
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I know one of the things that I believe had the largest effect on my 400 after getting the carbs right was going through and cleaning ALL the connections. You would not believe how much corrosion can build up in almost 30 years.
I'd already done most of them once or twice (including the connectors for the coils), and replaced the fuse box with some weather-proof in-line blade style fuse holders... since cleaning the coil connections was nothing new, I still think it was a coil itself causing the problem... still seems weird to me, though, and not sure if I trust it yet.
I took it for a long drive out a country road the other day, and she still seems OK.
I finally figured out the headlight problem as well. It was a metal relay under the battery area. I swapped it with the other one thats apparently a starter cut-out relay, and now the headlight works. I'm not using the starter anyways since its shot, so figure it doesn't need a good relay...
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Nevermind, I just bought a 1977 17T sprocket off ebay for $15 from a xs 650, hopefully it will fit my 400
Bikebandit.com carries them in both steel and alloy:
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Stumbling and dying sounds more like fuel than electrics. Doing it when hot suggests running too rich, but I think you know that.
Is the choke sticking on?
How easily does it start from cold? Choke required?
And finally, how's the fuel tank vent? If that's blocked it will die after a short while. Next time it dies, open the tank and listen for the inrush of air.
... I think I might've fixed it.
First I got it warmed up to the point it wouldn't really keep running at all, and verified the fuel level was OK via the hose out the bottom method on both carbs. It wasn't sucking dry or overflowing.
It always favors the right cylinder only when idling/cold, and so I swapped the coils. I cleaned the connections with contact cleaner in the process. Put it back together, and it started running again, and sat idling for 5 minutes or more. I took it for a ride.. round and round the block over and over again... till the neighbors thought I was a weirdo, but they should know that already. Seems to run OK and pull strong for now, and starts back up OK.
So yeah.. wonder if that one coil is just getting hot and quitting on me... or maybe the connection was weak.
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Yeah.. so I can go for like 10 minutes or more of good riding, then it can't idle and stumbles and dies. It'll start back up and go for a short time. The longer you wait for it to cool, the more time you can get riding again. But not for long...
I previously thought it was a fuel level problem, as the right carb had a way high fuel level for some odd reason and that plug looked black/wet when it wouldn't keep running. I thought it might be flooding it once it got warmed up. So, I fixed that... and got riding just long enough to get far enough away to have a long walk/push home. I checked the spark plugs, and both look brown and OK. The fuel levels look OK in both carbs.
Where do I look next? Something electrical getting hot?
The battery has had some issues holding a charge. But if that were just running dead while riding, I'd think it wouldn't be able to restart at all. By the way, I'm only using the kick start, since my electric starter is dead and I don't wanna fix it yet. My headlight is also strangely not working, and I haven't found the source of that issue yet. Perhaps the relay, but I haven't gotten any help in my other thread on that subject yet.
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Is it the headlight relay or a turn signal flasher? My turn signal button is busted up anyways, and I don't care about them. I just want my headlight back.
This square relay is clicking loudly whenever I turn on the ignition switch, plus my headlight isn't working. I don't know if these are related, for certain.
I tried cleaning it out and lightly bending it inside, and it was no help. Can I replace it with a generic relay from Autozone, maybe? Genuine parts look expensive....
Thanks!
XS400 front forks and wheel alternative?
in Classics
Posted
I thought base model XS400s had front drums? I just bought a set of front forks for my 81 XS400, and they didn't have caliper mounting ears (so I assume the front forks were from a base model with front drum).