berniebee

Kind of late, but at xs500.proboards.com there is a post about Newtronics now making these for the TX/XS500 twins. Info here: http://xs500.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=electrics&action=display&thread=142

Ah for the good old days, when a spot of oil meant a well purring engine! The oil filter could be leaking (It's loose or the gasket is defective.) or one of the two oil plugs could be leaking. When you say you checked, did you unscrew the plugs a couple of turns? After a quarter turn, the plug should unthread easily, by hand. Go ahead and spin the plug two turns, it wouln't fall out and you will lose only a few drops of oil. if you need a socket to loosen the plug past a quarter turn, some monkey has cross threaded it. (I've seen it!) Also does this model have plug gaskets? They need to be replaced occasionally.

If you are sure that smoke came from the ignitor (CDI), then it is officially a paperweight. It is not repairable. Don't be concerned about frying the unit even more-once it's done, it's well and truly done. If you are not sure the ignitor was smoking (You have a question mark at the end of that sentence.) examine the ignitor for blacked areas and/cracks. No cracks or other visible damage? Test for spark by connectiing one of the sparkplug wires to a grounded sparkplug (ie: with a jumper wire end either on the threaded portion or the ground electrode, other end to engine..) then crank the bike while observing for spark. A shady/indoors location makes spark more easily visible .It's important to ground the plug with a jumper wire, otherwise the ignitor can be damaged by this test. While the was bike running, did you at anytime NOT have a battery connected? That could damage the rectifier or regulator unit. So once you have a fully charged replacement battery** installed (and likely you need a ignitor too, ouch!) start the bike and measure the voltage at the battery terminals. You should see about 14.5 volts. Less than 14.0 -the regulator or rectifier is defective. More than 14.9- the regulator is faulty and will eventually damage your battery.. ** should measure 12.5-13.0 volts disconnected from the bike.

It sounds like you're saying that the bike was discontinued due to a problematic electrical system or alternator- not true. No electrical issues particular to the TX500/XS500 have emerged, even today. They are well past 30 years old now, so of course you may see any problems on an individual bike! You don't mention what part of the alternator is bad, so: The TX500 stator and field coil will fit the XS500. The rotor probably will too, though it was slightly changed on the XS500C.

Yes, 1" pieces of PVC pipe will help a little with braking nose dive. Downside: The extra preload will transmit more of the road ripples and bumps through to your arms. Damping affects nose dive as well. One upgrade that works really well is Race Tech cartridge emulators.

Late answer , perhaps useful to others: The '76 (XS500C) and later used 35mm forks, should be easy swap.

Hi, If you are not carrying a passenger, the XS360 will make a very good budget tourer. It has a pretty smooth engine with 6 gears, and it's straight forward to maintain and repair. It cannot be compared to a K75 class bike in terms of acceleration and speed, but parts and maintenance are certainly less expensive. And I think they look great. (But being an XS500 owner, i'm a little biased.) I agree wth Nayruf, the XS360 should easily attain 50 mpg, unless ridden really aggressively. A basic tuneup (points and condenser, air filter, valve adjustment ) may be all that's required to get gas mileage back to normal. Perhaps even just a dragging brake? But on the other hand, a vintage bike may have worn out carb slides, throttle shaft wear, gummed up jets, low compression or a host of other faults. As to reliability, that depends much more on the previous owner's care and storage than on any inherent faults in this model. Inspect it and the DPO carefully! I'm not sure how easily parts can be obtained for the XS360 in your part of the world, and that may be a consideration as well. Some questons for you: How much will you pay for it? Have you added costs for tires, tuneup parts, perhaps a drive chain +sprockets and any other obviously worn/broken components? How many miles on the odo? Has it been in storage for any extended periods? Outside in the wet or inside dry? Can you post some pics of the bike for us? Do a search for XS360 posts on this site, I'm sure you'll find good advice!

Hi all, My attempt at humour utterly failed. Apologies! Of course no DT125 will reach 205kph, unless it's been pushed off a cliff. Thus the link at the bottom of my post which should have pointed to the "The Free Fall Research page" Three W's.greenharbor.com/fffolder/questions.html I appreciate the knowledgable regulars and I really do enjoy the humour on this site! I've spit up my tea more than once... Bernie

Frankly I am disappointed in these answers. I only recently joined YOC, but I was told there was certain level of expertise here. A quick calculation shows top speed to be about 205 km/hr, depending on how the rider is positioned. Interestingly, no derestriction required. The DT125X should be able to reach this speed in about 12 seconds-not bad! I've found a page which will help answer answer any questions: http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/questions.html

This is the nicest custom XS500 of that I've ever seen. Well deserved article in the magazine...

Hi Rob, NIce job on those XS elevens! I'm restoring a '76 XS500C to original (I bought it this past November) and I'm hoping to have it ready in the spring. I'm in Ottawa too. (Hunt Club area.) Bernie

A "just in case" suggestion: Make sure that the throttle cable is not sticking and that there is a bit of cable play at the throttle grip. Throttle shaft sticking? Quick way to check: Next time it sticks at high RPM, grip the carb throttle shaft and see if you can rotate it towards the idle stop. No movement should be possible if the throttle plate is at idle position.

Thanks for the replies. I mistyped AGC, i meant AGV of course. I"m certainly going to try the helmet on for fit, though I don't know if the dealer would let me ride off on a "test ride" with a helmet! I remember one of my old helmets being a little loose- it would go into a wobble at about 110Kmh unless i positioned my head at a certain tilt forwards. With my '82 GS1100E, it wobbled a lot.. There just seem to be so many brands of helmets these days, I'm at a loss as to where to start!

Recommendations on which helmet to get? I'm looking to spend $200-$300 on a full face style. Since I am on old fart , hold the comic book/superhero/deathwish graphics. A plain ole red or black or grey bucket, thanks very much. With a sprinkling of snow on the ground and it being -9C, the bike season is well and truly done around here. so i'm hoping to score a winter deal on a helmet. When I last biked, the big manufacturers (that I recall) were Bell, Shoei, and Arai.. AGC and Nolan were around too. My local dealer stocks stuff like Zox, HJC, as well the above brands and other brands that I don't recall just now. They are a fairly large dealer. (About 300 bikes in stock.) So any brands that are good quality, but perhaps are new to the marketplace and trying to undercut the competion? Are the Chinese finally making good quality helmets too? Any feedback at all appreciated...

Why does "warn status" appear under my name? (when I post a reply.)

Hi Jime, Are you sure it's a 1981? It's an XS500 twin cylinder street bike, not the XT500 single cylinder? I thought that the last year of production for the XS500 was 1978, with a few leftovers perhaps being sold as 1979 models. However, I live in Canada. It's entirely possible that it was available in the UK for few more years. Assuming that it is an XS500, the oil filter part number is 371-13440-90-00. This is for all model years., even including the similar but older TX500 twin. .The XS500 oil and air filters have not been produced by Yamaha for many years. All that is left is NOS. (New old stock.) Yamaha did for a while produce an oil filter adaptor which allowed use of a currently produced oil filter, but unfortunately that adaptor is no longer available from Yamaha either. The adaptor rarely appears for sale on ebay. Incidently both the original and the filters for the adaptor are metal can, spin on types. You may see some cartridge filters.(the ones where the pleated paper filter element is visible.) for the yamaha 500. These are not compatible with the XS5500. I can't help you specifically for UK vendors, but you can usually find oil filters on ebay. I bought a lot of 4 filters, manufactured by EMGO, for $40 + $16 shipping from a USA seller (motorcyclists1 is the vendor name) about a month ago. Perhaps ebay UK will have some in the future. Speed and Sport Yamaha (USA) have many parts for the XS500, at high prices. A nice feature of their website is the exploded parts list for all sections of the bike. Great for finding a part number. To see the parts lists on that site: Click on the "store' link near the top of the page.On the new page that appears, choose the the vehicle type, the year, and the model from the drop down lists at the top of the page. (You will have to choose 1978 for the year, because the XS500 will not appear as an option for later years.) Just to the right, click on search. A list will now appear on the left side of the screen, just click on the section of the bike that interests you and the exploded parts list will appear, with part numbers and prices. . I checked today, it looks like they have recently run out of oil filters. I'm sure they had many in stock only a month ago. I didn't buy one there because they were priced a $52.50 each. The yamaha Owners Club website is great, but another forum that may be of interest is this one; There are far fewer members, but all are focused on the TX/XS500. In the tech section is a nice thread which tells you how to adapt a modern bikes air filter element to work with the XS500. Please post a picture of your bike , here and at the XS500 forum Bernie

I've never seen this model in Canada, so I googled it. Is that a shaft drive?

Hello, This is a bit of a delayed response , perhaps useful to others... I seem to recall a friends '70s yamaha enduro doing the same thing. The charging system/battery on many 70's dirt bikes were only marginally capable. However if you want to verify the cause: Use a test light (The type that lights when you touch the pointy probe to 12 volts.) grounded at the negative battery terminal. While the signal lights are flashing, put the probe on the the positive battery terminal itself. If the test light dims in time with the flashers, then either the battery is worn, OR (if you have a known good battery.) this is normal for this bike. If the test light does not dim at the battery, put the test light probe at the positive battery cable where it connects to the battery, but don't touch the battery terminal. . If test light dims here , there is a poor connection at the battery. If no dimming here, continue down the circuit path probing just after the fuse, then the bullet connectors between the battery and the neutral light. In this way, you can determine which component is not conducting well.

Another component that could cause intermittent starting issues is the starter relay.

A couple of points: The '76 American XS500 (1J3) has the plastic fender. It uses the metal spin on oil filter and uses the air filter that you have labeled as the Euro type. Regarding the oil filter, I too have seen the open (pleated paper) filters for sale as well, but I know of no TX500 or XS500 that uses them. I see no reason why Yamaha would tweak a model to use a different style oil filter for this bike. So I'm mystified as to why it pops up in a search for XS500 oil filter. On the other hand, most vehicles engines have the oil filter mounted directly to the engine block, but the XS500 oil filter mounts to an adapter, which is bolted to the engine. It would be easy for Yamaha to design adapters for different filters and indeed, for a while they produced and sold an adapter that would allow use of a more recent model's oil filter. These adapters pop up on ebay (very) occasionally. So has any one seen an XS500 that uses a pleated paper filter?

Speed and Sport Yamaha has inventory for many XS500 parts, but are probably the most expensive option. I bought all my engine gaskets on ebay, from several different sellers. Once on ebay in motorcycle parts, search for "XS500 + gasket" ( no quotes, but a space before and after the + sign.) For carburetor parts,see MIkesXs.com . (USA) They are a XS650 specialist, but the carburetors for some years have parts that are common to the XS650 and XS500.. MikesXs will usually list the OEM part number, so you can check that way. Also, they have pictures of the parts, and you can doublecheck that way. I bought choke gaskets, o-rings, float bowl gaskets there. If you need anything EXCEPT engine parts, check the XS650 for equivalent parts. Since you are in the UK, perhaps there is a good Xs650 specialist there?

In a previous post, you were given the the wrong info about which timing marks to use for ignition timing at idle. You need to use the mark just to the left of the F for timing. The timing marks to the right of the F are used to check that the advance is working. But because your advance unit was stuck open anyway, using the right hand marks for timing would put it in the ballpark. By now, you probably realize which timing mark is correct, but i replied just in case someone else needs to know... Regarding the collar on the breaker point shaft, it definitely makes a difference if the collar is turned around 180 degrees. That corresponds to 360 degrees on the crankshaft and the the spark will happen on the intake stroke , ie: the engine won't run.

The mark to use for ignition timing is actually just to the LEFT of the F. The pair of marks to the right of the F are used to check (with a timing light) that the advance unit is working properly. Hope you didn't get some wicked kickback!

Regarding the screw pitch of 1 vs 1.25 they are NOT interchangeable. Yu will ruin the caliper thread if you attempt to force one in.

KInd of a delayed reply, but I've just joined the club. I would guess that the carburetor pilot jets are blocked with 30+ years of varnish and crud. Quickest fix is to remove the float bowls, then unscrew the main jet and idle jet. Clear all the tiny holes in these jets by spraying carb cleaner through them. Watch out , avoid exposure of any o-rings to carb cleaner. I'm not sure if you can do all this with the carbs on, you may have to remove them.