duaneage

My bike looked exactly like that with the spoke wheels but I couldn't take the poor brake performance. I won't be going back to them. I need to clean mine up a bit, it was a little wet that day and I didn't have a chance to detail it. I like the bars just fine but then I am 6'3" tall so YMMV. I'm in Wilmington Delaware, where are you located?

Here are some photos of my 1981 Yamaha XS400 Special I finished restoring. This was a 75 dollar barn find which barely ran and needed a lot of work. It originally had spoke wheels, leaky MAC pipes, and a terrible plastic fairing and side boxes from JC Whitney. It was almost parted out and was so bad I didn't take any pictures. The bike was stripped to the frame and rebuilt over a 3 month period. The headlight was not working, traced it to the diode in the headlight relay circuit. Overall it was rusty but never crashed. With 15000 miles on the engine a rebuild was not needed, but new gaskets and a chain/sprocket set were done. The wire wheels were re-spoked but the drum brakes did not have enough stopping power for me. I replace the drums and spokes with a front disk and mag wheels. This also eliminated the tubes. I replaced the seat with a better one, it will get redone next year because I need a little more height to stand over it. I replace the orange rear lights with red because I thought they were cooler. The pipes came from a low mileage Arizona bike. I bet they are among the last rust free XS400 pipes left on earth. The finishing touch is the fantastic paint job done by JB Moto Co of Wrightsville Pa. Jeff and Brian did a phenomenal job of refinishing the tank and clear coating over the reproduction decals. Their work easily exceeded my expectations for a reasonable price. Jeff and Brian are Yamaha fanatics and build cafe racers as well. Their site is www.JBMotoco.com The bike is stored again in a barn only better prepared for the sleep. It can be found cruising upstate New York in the Watkins Glen area, which is where it was originally sold at Lane's Yamaha 30 years ago.

You have an intake leak somewhere between the carbs and the head. This must be addressed before damage occurs. Spray wd-40 around the boots when it's running and see if the idle speed changes. Chances are, the boots are bad and for around 40 dollars you can replce thm from ebay. Make sure teh clamps for the carbs in the boots are very tight, and that the airbox and related filter boxes are also tight. The filters might be very degraded, to the point of having no elements. They are pricey but I replaced the foam on mine with lawnmower filter foams. Last, check the valve clearances since they are probably way off.

I have a complete set of front and rear with forks, brake parts, cables, levers and everything else to put spoked drums on the XS400. Contact me with a Private Message

Was there a reason they would not replace it for you? Brakes are a critical safety element and I would think a shop would care enough about their customers to make sure they had good brakes. It's not a technically challenging task for a decent shop, unless they never saw disk brakes before. A list of ten hydraulic brake tips (suitable for framing) 1. Flush out the caliper. I would remove it and clean it out with the piston removed. 2. If the brake bleeder is rusty replace it. They are cheap enough. 3. Buy a new can of brake fluid, DOT 4 ( or 5 if your new cylinder calls for it) and keep it capped until ready to deploy. Don't mix fluids so if you are changing from 3 to 4 or 5 then you must remove all the old fluid. 4. Use new copper washers. Torque them to book specs. Don't reuse any copper washers even if they are only torqued once. 5.Use Denatured alcohol to clean up with. Do not use isopropyl alcohol as it has water mixed in. 6. Put the new cylinder on and use a banjo bolt with several old washers to cork off the output. Without a line on, get the cylinder primed and pumped up. You should have a rock hard lever that doesn't move much if at all. 7. add the caliper and line to the system and start sending fluid through. Keep the reservoir full and pump slow. Watch out for fountain splash from the bypass hole in the master when you let the lever go so protect the paint and other things with rags. 8. If you have trouble getting the air out, loosen the banjo on the master cylinder a little and bleed it out there first. 9. Once you have it bled out and it feels good, do several test stops in a row from 30 mph to heat up the fluid and check for leaks. 10. You might want to do an overnight test. This consists of wrapping a bungee cord around the brake lever to hold it down tight overnight. It should be in the same position in the morning with no leaks or changes.

I replaced the foam with foam from a lawnmower filter. I glued it at both ends with 3m 77 spray glue. It;s been 2 years and still works. A lot cheaper than 80 dollars for new ones. Yamaha parts are real expensive for consumables.

I love how the exhaust was "dechromed" and painted white. Oh, and you have to install the exhaust and figure out why the battery is flat but hey it ran great before we put it in storage. If it sells mine is going on ebay the next day. I'll need to paint the exhaust and add numbers to teh tank.

I've heard questionable things about the rebuilds wiredgeorge did, and the setup he suggested.

Lean the bike against a wall about 15 degrees and the oil will not run out. That's about the same angle as a kickstand but it's the other way. The stator wires exit at the bottom of the cover and wind around the sprocket area. Needless to say, there are lots of places that can pinch the wires, soak them in oil, and short out against the engine. Like mine did. I replaced the wires, wrapped them in tape followed by heatshrink tubing, and used a heat gun to form them around the sharp bends and twists. The heatshrink goes all the way along the wires, keeping the oil and grease from the chain out. The stator cover gasket is a pain in the ass. I had to use sealant on both sides to get a seal and a month later it still seeped a bit. The rubber grommet at the bottom was a BAD design, they should have exited at the top like Suzuki did.

I've respoked both my wheels, I've also built bicycle wheels for years. You do need to be careful about a few things. 1. tighten the spokes evenly and only a little at a time. Start at the air hole and only go 1/8 of a turn on each spoke until you end up where you started. Otherwise the wheel will develop a hop. 2. Lubricate each nipple with a SMALL drop of oil to aid truing. 3. You need to get the wheel tight without overtightening. This is best done with a spoke tensionometer ( I have one of those) but plucking a spoke will do. All spoke should have a nice ring to them and sound the same. 4. Some spokes cross over each other. The point where they meet should be free and not rusted together. 5. When tightening a spoke, do not look at the end since spokes can break. You will lose an eye if not careful. 6. Hold the spoke while tightening and take note of any twisting that happens. When you put a load on the spokes will spring back with a ting sound. Minimize twisting for a true wheel. 7. True the wheel up and down first, then side to side. Start with equal tension and then adjust for true. 8. If you tighten on one side it tightens spokes directly across the wheel as well. Go in small increments. 9. Bent rims never true up. If it's kicked out, replace it. 10. Failure to properly tighten or true a wheel can be dangerous. If you are unsure of the wheel or don't like the look of the spokes I would recommend replacing it.

I replaced the little o ring on the valve inside mine and it stopped leaking. Bought a bag for a dollar at Lowes. that was a year ago and it still doesn't leak.

Go to www.cycleorings.com and get a set of 4 o ring kits for the carbs. you'll only need 2 of the kits but for 15 dollars it can't be beat. Another suggestion: customize something else besides a well preserved low mileage XS400. There are plenty of bikes out there that are more suitable than an all original garaged kept bike. But as usual it's yours to do what you wish. It would be worth quite a bit in original form running well. Bobbed, chopped and customized it's not/

Before kick starting turn the petcock to PRI to fill the carbs completely and pull the choke out. Mine starts on the first kick if I do that.

Go to www.cycleorings.com and get a set for the carbs. there will be 4 sets so you'll have a spare pair. This will replace all the old o rings in the carbs. Cook the rest in carb dip available from an auto parts store for about 20 bucks. The o rings are 14. That's a 34 dollar rebuild job. Worked for me. The mikunis are the same as used on Suzuki and kawasaki bikes

Get a new gasket for it, don;t go cheap and try to reuse the old one. Inspect the stator wires coming out of the bottom for damage. If they are frayed use heatshrink or tape to insulate them.

The aluminum cases can be restored and even polished but the real protection comes from clear coat. Use lacquer thinner to clean the cases real good after polishing and apply clear engine paint to them. This will keep them looking good and is how they came from the factory.

The idea that any restriction in the exhaust that a manufacturer went to the trouble to insert is a mistake would fly in the face of what they are trying to accomplish which is a good running bike that performs properly. I would call the feature an anti-revision port and guess that it's purpose is to allow expansion past a certain point to prevent reversing flow. Honestly I would leave it alone and worry about other things. It's a small bike to begin with and you're not going to see big performance gains from a small motor no matter what your do. More likely it'll be cantankerous as hell. A wise man once told me that deviating from stock was a sure way to end up with trouble. Unless you're versed in retuning carbs, jetting, and all that stuff I would leave it alone., My .02

Don't play around with brakes. Spend money on good parts, new fluid and do it right. Stopping is more important than anything. Here in the US they never check the engine versus the title or frame. You can bring anything in and as long as it isn't too loud it flies.

They are simple bikes and that helps. Reliability is also a product of care and if taken care of over the past 3 decades they can do quite well. I'm still fighting little oil leaks on mine, clutch rod seal is giving me trouble now.

Either the chain inside the stator cover is broken or the starter clutch on the crankshaft is bad. Either way you need to get a gasket for the stator cover and take a look. You probably need a special tool to remover the rotor and get to the stator clutch, It's possible that someone pulled the starter out and the gear/chain dropped inside the cover. Either way it's going to need a look inside. I don't think an oil change is going to make much of a difference with kick starting.

Spend 350 dollars inclusive on a nice reproduction exhaust from Sito. the Mac costs around 225 and isn't worth the money. Here is contact info for the importer for Sito Will Schoeppe U.S. Sales/Dealer Support LeoVince Exhaust Systems [email protected] p 510-232-4040 f 510-232-4141 1360 S. 49th St Richmond, CA 94804

I just added stock pipes to my 81 XS400 and restored the wheels with new spokes. I would not call the XS400 an overly competent machine since it doesn't handle as well as other bikes and the drum brakes leave a bit to be desired. It has decent torque and runs good around town. I cringe when I see the Cafe applications of XS400 bikes, especially the special II model which doesn't lend itself to the mod as easily. One modification I plan to do is paint the rear and front fenders to match the bike's original color. I like the look of painted fenders better. That's not much of a sacrilege now is it?

Steel core spark plug wire will do, the resistance is in the coil windings, not the plug wires themselves.

Oh dear, the bolt torque on them is very low, I used a torque wrench on mine. The bolt may be broken but since there is no flame or rust on the threads you should be able to remove the broken bolt. if the threads are yanked from the case you have to tap it to the next size, mark the larger bolt by painting the head, and you should be OK. Get a torque wrench and follow the specifications,

Here are some things to check. Some are obvious, others are not. But you have to follow through and do them all. Check the resting voltage on the battery. After driving the bike it should be up around 12.9, if it is below 12.5 it's probably got a weak cell. Batteries go bad quick on bikes, buy a good quality battery not the 29 dollar special. If the battery is not being charged check the charging voltage with the engine running. You should see 13.9 or so about 2500 rpms. If not, determine if the stator or Regulator rectifier is bad. Fix whichever is bad, although I would suspect the stator and the 3 wires that come from it past the front sprocket as having a problem. If the battery is charging and not defective, inspect the terminals on the solenoid and clean the connections. Replace the large wires if they are frayed, green colored, or otherwise tired out. Not expensive, just get some 8 gauge wire and matching connectors and make new ones. The solenoid gets power from the start button but the other lead goes to the frame and is grounded at some point. Trace the two wires to the connector and determine which one is the ground. You can measure resistance between the frame and the pins to see which one is ground. If this has more than a few ohms of resistance the solenoid will buzz. In all likely hood the solenoid is not defective, just a victim of bad connections. You could have a weak battery or weak charging system that fails to keep it charged, also not the fault of the solenoid. Owning an old bike sometimes means dealing with these age related conditions but at least they are simple and once corrected you are good for another 30 years.