Ebola Monkey

It's actual gun blue. I had to grind off all the chrome first to get it to bare metal. While I was at it I smoothed all the casting marks. Then you apply, wipe off, polish with steel wool, repeat (several times). It's not the most durable finish, but my wife can't even kickstart the bike, and it'll never see rain. I might spray some polyurethane over it though. I did a test piece, and it looks good, but I think I like it bare better.

Pretty cool if I say so myself. Hopefully the welds hold up. People on a welding site I posted on think it'll break. Pedal is off my mountain bike, finish is gun blue, no paint, no clear.

Funny, I can view the topic, but not the pics when not logged in. When I log in the topic is completely gone. Can't find it through search or anything. When i click on th epic links, then login, the pics can't be found. Weird.

I'm going to hack my wifes XS400 this winter, and was wondering if anyone could tell me what the top tubes under the seat are. I know they're 7/8" tubing, but does anyone know what the wall thickness is? I could just order .120 wall tubing, and it should work, but there's a couple spots that I'm going to have slugs in, and would rather use the same tubing as the stock frame. Thanks In Advance.

Your link is bad.

AH HA! I don't know what the hell model mine is. I thought SJ, but when I looked up the VIN on the parts cross ref it says SL.

Funny.... My 82 xs400 Heritage special came with spokes, and drums, front and rear.

Same here. Actually I think the one I bought for the xs400 was under $3.

Test the voltage at the battery, then test the voltage going into the relay, and out of it. On my 650 for example I might have 12.3V at the battery, at the fusebox I have 12.1 going in, 12 coming out, 11.7 going into ignition switch, 11.4 coming out, 11.1 going into alternator brush. The resistance in the aging wire, and connections is causing a 1.2v drop by the time I get to the alternator. You may be getting 12.3 at the battery, and 10 at the relay. Under 11 they don't like to work, at least on my xs400.

Yeah, replace the boots. That one should be capped. Use it when you sync the carbs.

I get the 2.15 rim laced up to the stock hub last night, and got the tire mounted today. It's just a little wider than the 3.00x18 tire that was on there before It took a long time, but most of that was polishing the hub, and cleaning/polishing the spokes. I called Kenda, and they told me that couldn't recommend any rim narrower than 2.50". I'm glad I didn't try to shoehorn it onto the 1.6. Even on the 2.5 rim it just fits under the fender. 1/4-5/16" space side to side, and on top.

Thanks! That doesn't look like it fits bad. Crap. Almost every tire/rim chart I've seen says a 1.85 is the narrowest rim that should be used with a 100/90-18 tire. Some even say a 2.15 is the narrowest. Then again my rear tire is a 120/90-16, and they all say 2.50 rim width is the narrowest you can go. Mine's a 2.15. Probably should have just mounted it up instead of spending $50 on a used rim to relace.

Kindest, OllieB, Would either of you have pictures of the 100/90 on the 1.60 rim? I tried just squeezing the beads together to 1.6" and the tire looked ridiculous. I don't know if it looks different fully inflated or what.

There's a few reasons for not throwing a 90/90 on. I already have the 100/90 tire as I was told by several people that it will work on the front. Everyone's an expert right? I bought matching front and rear tires... not available in 90/90-18 In the future if I have to replace tires there seem to be 10 times more tire choices in 100/90-18 vs the 90/90 Totally superficial reason here, but the wider tire just looks better. I'm generally up to a challenge, and like custom stuff. I'm willing to put the extra time and effort into having a wider front rim.

I bought a 100/90-18 a while back for my wife's 82 xs400. It won't fit on the stock 1.60x18 rim so I'm going to relace it with a 2.15x18 rim. I know that it will be a tight fight, width, and height wise. I also know it's going to throw the speedo off a little. Do I need to worry about handling though? Will the extra 18mm on the diameter change the handling characteristics? Thanks In Advance!!

You won't find a complete kit for your bike. You may find a kit that comes with the wrong jets, but that kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it? I rebuilt mine with parts from a few different sources, but my jets came from mikesXS. What parts are you looking for exactly? Bowl gasket, needle/seat, o-rings, jets, all of the above? Also... what happened with MikesXS when you tried there?

The crossover pipe is to balance out exhaust pressure between the 2 cylinders. It's not 100% necessary, but may run better with it. I have to ask... What are you gonna do with the 2-1 setup you had? I have been looking for 1 for my wife.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. For whatever reason I've been having trouble posting. Now I can't use the messaging system on YOC. Apparently I've had my permissions removed?? Anyway... I used a tiny K&N filter (62-2480) for my crankcase breather. They use to be under $10 from autozone, but I just checked and it comes up as $22 now. I've had this one laying around for years. I attached it to a 45° 1/2" copper street elbow. With the smaller end in the filter, the larger end fits loosely over the breather vent. I put a couple o-rings over the vent. I believe they were 9/16" x 3/32", but I'm not positive. I put 1 between the 2 rings on the breather vent, and 1 above the top one. Then just slid the elbow over them. It's plenty snug, and haven't had any problems. If you don't want to spend the money for that filter you might be able to find similar for cheaper. I think mikesXS has one too. Hard to see but there are 2 o-rings on there.

I actually bought that fuse block before I got one with a used wiring harness. I never installed though. Yours looks great.

The negative terminal on the battery. There's a screw just a couple inches away under the seat that I attached mine to.

Run an extra ground cable to the chassis, and start with a fully charged good battery. I went through hell with my wife's bike with similar problems. Tested and/or replaced everything in the charging system with no real results. Ground seemed fine, but adding another seemed to cure it. If it doesn't work you're only out a couple bucks, which is cheaper than any other part in the charging system.

4R4 should be an 81. If you want to do the upgrade on it, I would buy new connectors here: . They've got everything you could need, and their crimper isn't half bad either.

Save your old carbs. There's a lot of parts that can go bad with time, and you might save a few bucks reusing what you already have.

I'm not sure which 360 you have, but here's the page to figure it out. Looks like there were several different jets used for it that year. I would suggest taking it apart and verifying first hand which jets you have. When I did pods on my 400, I bought 1 bigger pilot, and 2 bigger mains. I used the bigger pilot, and 1 size bigger mains. Bike runs pretty good with this setup. I'm also running stock exhaust. I think if I open up the exhaust I might need to step up the mains 1 more size. I also mounted the pods directly to the carbs, and still have my stock battery box. I used EMGO pods though, not the mikesxs ones.

I put clubmans on my wife's XS400. I ran them "up-side down" though, so they went up like "normal" bars. I tilted them forward so the upright part is at the same angle as the gauges. This put the flat part of the bars almost horizontal from front to back. The round part frames out the gauges almost perfectly. They are 9 7/8" between the uprights, and I don't think they'll work the other way. I don't think they'll clear the triple trees. So keep that in mind.