cegan09

I don't know if they need to be screwed down, but my rectifier and regulator are free floating at the moment and i have no issues. I had the same issue last night though. Trying to get the wiring harness back on and sorted, blew the main 20A fuse every time i connected the battery. Disconnected everything and started over, piece by piece, now no problems. I really have no idea what was wrong.

well the temporary solution seems to be disconnect the wires to the starter relay (signal not power), and just use the kick start. I can live with that for the weekend till i sort out what is wrong.

Hopefully someone knows the solution, since i'm supposed to be riding the bike in 4 hours. My starter won't disengage?? even when i kick start it is being spun. Anyone know why this might be? or how to fix it? thanks.

My headlight doesn't run constantly. I have a switch on the right hand controls that turns it on and off. From the looks of it the switch was stock.

Again thank you for the wealth of information. I'm a mechanical guy, so help with electrical is always appreciated. I think the plan moving forward will be to address the charging system, make sure everything is working properly, replace anything that needs it. following that replace things like tail lights and indicators with LED, replacing the relay if possible so as to actually gain a savings from LED. Then finally make the new harness so that i have new wiring in the bike. when i make the new harness i'll add in another auxiliary switched circuit.

I love how stainless looks, so i'll be looking for a place that will make a set. Unless anyone can confirm the pipes on MikesXS for the 650 will work on the 500, but i'm not so sure they will. My current ones are really quite dead. I can clean the rust, but painting or coating won't fill the pits. A wrap will just exaggerate the corrosion i fear.

Cool, thanks guys. First i'm going to give my charging system a nice once over to make sure it's ok, probably replace a lot of it just for piece of mind, then address blinkers. I've been meaning to put different blinkers on for a while, and if i can go LED I'd love to. I'm also going to make a custom wiring harness at some point. Not much changing, just want to move the ignition switch, be able to hide things better, and have a harness that isn't using 30 year old wire. I believe the power chord for the GPS has a 3amp fuse in it, so i'll match that for the fuse i wire into the socket line.

The inner ones have different diameter holes since the steering shaft is thicker at the bottom than at the top end. you can't put them on the wrong ends, it will be painfully obvious that you selected the wrong one for that end.

My headers are really not looking good. They are rusting, and very pitted. I plan on getting new ones, either trying to find some (not sure if 650 pipes will work), or having some made. Until i get new ones, what are opinions on finishing them. I'm going between cleaning them and painting with high temp paint, using a spray ceramic coating, or heat wrapping them. It won't be for performance reasons, just aesthetics. From what i've heard heat wrap can cause more rust and corrosion by trapping water. Thoughts on the best temporary method?

You are replacing 2-7. I just put those in my 500, happy so far, but the old ones were so gone that anything would be better. Find a piece of brass to use to hit them in. The brass is softer than the bearing cup so you don't damage the cup. I didn't have anything that was the same diameter as the cup, so i had to hit around the whole thing pushing it in slowly and evenly. To remove the old ones i used a socket extension and a hammer. Hit one side than the other, repeat to knock them out.

Yea yea yea. But sometimes a GPS is just convenient. I'd love it for long all day rides to places i've never been. I bought the charging system gauge off MikesXS that i plan on wiring in somewhere, so i could make sure the battery was seeing enough power. I can't imagine the GPS draws much power at all.

I want to add a 12v power outlet to the bike so i can use a GPS for long trips. (my battery is abysmal.) Where is the best place typically to add it to the harness? What protections need to be taken? I'm not electrical genius, but i can work my way around a system. Ideally i'd like the outlet to be switched with the ignition so that i can't drain the battery when the bike is off. Any help is appreciated.

Also purchased some nice rebuilt carbs, since mine are just littered with issues. I'll rebuild mine this summer as a spare set. Bike still has a long way to go. I need to repaint all the blue bits, probably at the end of the summer. Going to start the tear down of the second engine soon to rebuild that to as close as factory new as i can. Need to order a lot of wire to custom make a harness. I want to move the ignition switch to somewhere else on the bike, as well as hide the harness better. It's going to be a long project, but i'm looking forward to it.

Got my frame back tonight, and i have a large box of parts arriving tomorrow. Plan is to have it in riding condition this weekend. Wish me luck. what looks like scratches is just dust from my trunk.

Maybe it really is different in the bike world, but in the car world you never take a drill to your rotors. even ones that come "drilled" have been known to crack under heavy use. It has to do with the fact that you introduce all kinds of stresses into the metal when you drill through it, these stresses want to be released, and heat weakens the metal just enough to let that happen, it's similar to tempered glass in your car. They make it with stresses built in so when it breaks it breaks into a lot of pieces to release those stresses. Any quality rotor that you buy for a car that is "cross drilled" will have been cast that way, or been through a heat treatment cycle to relieve those stresses. Seeing as how people have been doing this to bike rotors for years, perhaps it really does matter less. perhaps the bikes just don't ever get the brakes hot enough since you are stopping less mass.

I have one more spare that i'll have to use sometime this summer, then i'll have to find a replacement. I happen to have the advantage of a spare engine i plan on researching with to find a suitable replacement, or developing an adapter. NOS ones can be found on ebay, but the guy i was purchasing from for a decent price seems to be out, so you will have to pay more.

bleed the brakes, rebuild the calipers, new pads, should stop well. a word of warning on drilling brakes. you should never ever drill the disks. drilling adds stress concentrations and the disks will crack if they get too hot. Perhaps it happens more on cars (where i learned this info), but i can see it happening on bikes as well. the only way a disk should have holes in it is if it was cast that way, or it was properly heat treated post drilling. Sorry, it's the engineer in me trying to pass on some information.

i can't tell from the pictures, but it almost looks that way. (i've not seen the bike in person) edit: you might have nailed it. Looks like it is an XJ750 Seca, with shaft drive. Thank you. I was going to try and get the wheels if the bike was parted, but i can't use the rear if it is in fact shaft driven. I love those curved spoke wheels. http://www.realclassic.co.uk/seca06030100.html

someone i know who has this bike, sat outside for 2 years, probably not that worthy of restoration. My question is simply what is it? I know it's a Yamaha (engine side cover), and that it's a 4 cylinder, but nothing past that. help?

My bad. The detail on the tank looked really close to the KZ. That is quite a collection. Can't wait to see the XS500 done. I won't be modifying mine quite as much, just giving it a good rebuild so it runs reliably, and looks good.

Looks good. Glad to see i'm not the only one building up one of these. on an even scarier note, what Kawi is that in the background? I only ask since i have 2 KZ400's sitting in my garage with my XS500.

Mikesxs.net sells those, and i would assume with the correct ratios. I bought the tach and speedo with the indicator lights. Haven't been able to test them yet.

Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding on my part. I may be completely wrong here, but i don't think the float height will need to change from stock. in my limited knowledge of how carbs work, i believe the floats are just keeping the fuel level in the bowl at a constant level. The jets take care of all the changes you need to make to accommodate the change in air flow. I'll let someone verify that i am correct though.

take a look at the "xs400 links" sticky at the top of the forum, there are links to manuals that should have the float height.

Sounds just like my bike, nice day comes along, and guess what, there is a problem. I'll have to read through my manual and find the procedure for testing everything, but if no one else beats me to it i'll try and have answers later today. I replaced my coils and wires with ones from Mikesxs.net, and got new plug caps from a local yamaha dealer.