saloonstudios

Ah, weld a larger nut. Not a bad idea, I'll try that one. I've already got a replacement one so I just want to get this old one off any way possible.

I'm assuming that this bolt on the front of the oil filter cover is the only bolt that holds the cover in place, correct? Is there another bolt that holds this "bypass valve" in place? Because I've tried everything and cannot get this bolt to loosen at all. The threads are inside past the cover so I can't lubricate it externally. At this point I'm feeling I'm going to have to weld a piece of metal onto the washer part of the bolt just to get some leverage on it. Any ideas? Am I missing something obvious?

The tool-matching paint job is quite nice.

Okay- what should I use to seal the valve cover? Gasket sealer? Anything specific?

If anything I would guess the mixture is a bit lean, so I'm hoping it's not carb flooding. (which as an aside, where is the idle mixture screw? ah, I'll find it) Just change the exhaust gaskets at the head? I was hoping I wouldn't need to take the engine off of the frame to check the valve guides, but I'm thinking I'm not going to have enough room if I leave the engine where it is. If I pop the head cover off, do I need to re-check the valve clearances? (I would just assume to check everything again anyway but since I've never done it I wanted to know what to look for) While I'm in there is there anything else I should replace or check as culprits for the smoke? It could just be that a little bit of white smoke is normal under these circumstances (assuming the exhaust gasket is all that needs to be changed) but I want to explore all possibilties. Thanks-

So after a carb and tank cleaning and a new battery I got my 1980 XS400G to start without a problem. The problem arose a few minutes of running when faint white smoke started coming out of where the exhaust pipes connect to the heads. Could this be the valve guides? I was told the bike had sat for around a year, so I put new oil in it before I started it up. I also changed the oil again and tried running the engine again and after a minute or two the smoke returned. The pipes also got pretty yellow at the first bend near the head. I may have had a little too much oil also- but that wouldn't be the primary cause of the smoke would it? I've drained the oil and I'm standing by on any other suggestions you guys may have on what to look for or if I should even open up the head- Thanks for your input-

still have your old seat?

Pardon my lack of technical language- I've recently acquired a 1980 XS400G and all I was planning on doing to get it running was clean the carbs and put new chain and sprockets on it... however, as I was cleaning the drive rotor I noticed that the pin that the clutch cable was connected to shows a little bit of wear. I tried rotating it around and it rotates freely, but it doesn't push in any further. It will slide out easily as well, but as I started to pull it out an inch I realized this was probably a pretty bad idea. My question here is, how is this pin supposed to control the clutch? Is it supposed to slide in? If I pull it out am I going to drop something into the engine case? In the image below I'm referring to the pin with the orange gasket around it: