berniebee

And they probably will be out of stock -forever. Welcome to the world of XS500 parts. The X is for eXtra hard to find. Seriously, many stores show XS500 parts as "out of stock" when they have no intention of restocking or they've never stocked them in the first place! Let me know if you have resolved the points issue. One thing that immediately comes to mind is that when the points baseplate is reinstalled, the "T" mark on it should align with the pointer just above the base plate , the pointer being held down with a (usually ) painted screw. Unfortunately the DPO (dreaded previous owner.) may have removed the screw and disturbed the pointer alignment. All subsequent points adjustment will be off. So now what? You have to realign the pointer, preferably with a dial gauge set up in the spark plug hole which will allow you to find TDC. however, I've done this this a wooden dowel,(watch it go up and down through the spark plug hole as you turn the crankshaft.) it will get you in the ballpark. Let me know if I can be of further help.

Hi Gary, Did you get it resolved!

Oh yeah, one more thing. There is a forum totally dedicated to TX and XS500's. It's relatively new and not too many members yet, but worth a shot.I f you have tricky question about something unique to the TX500, The XS500 forum has some pretty sharp members. Just for the sheer numbers alone, the Yamaha Owners Club is great resource too, and you'll probably get a quicker answer. I plan to checkout both forums.

Thanks for deleting the duplicate. I love RDs! I owned an RD200 (My first road bike, almost wiped out because of a giant front drum brake which was prone to lockup-very exciting!.) But my favorite was a purple RD350. I remember cranking the throttle and when it hit a certain RPM, (was it 4500?) the front wheel would get VERY light. I loved the RD350LC too, but could not find the cash when it came out.

Hi, I'm from Ottawa, Canada, where the temperature is at 0C/32F right now. ( Dec 8th.) I'm in my garage restoring a newly acquired 1976 XS500 to a pretty nice daily rider condition. I had a lot of bikes in my misspent youth. Started with a Honda Z50 (apparently a collectors item now! That's the funniest thing I ever heard.) then several Yamaha 2 stroke twins, then Suzuki fours: a GS550, 750 and 1100e. Somewhere in there, I commuted for a couple of summers on a Honda CB350, and briefly a CB400F. My last bike was a 1978 Ducati Darmah. No bikes for about 20 years and now a Yamaha XS500.. Why the XS500? Well I longed for a 70's bike, but many of them are now too expensive for me to justify the few times I will be riding.. The XS500 is the unloved brother to the RD400 two stroke and the larger XS650 so it's relatively cheap.. But it has that classic 70's style, with upswept mufflers and squarish lines. Mag wheels, DOHC, and four valves per cylinder are right up to date. Points and condenser, not so much. I like tinkering as much as riding, So right now I have it all apart with just the engine remaining in the frame. i have a small forest of (re)painted parts hanging from the floor joists in the basement. Several boxes of cleaned and waxed parts are waiting to be reassembled. Almost all of my ordered carb parts have come in! Looking forward to reading and writing mostly in the (surprise, surprise) vintage section.

Hi, I'm from Ottawa, Canada, where the temperature is at 0C/32F right now. ( Dec 8th.) I'm in my garage restoring a newly acquired 1976 XS500 to a pretty nice daily rider condition. I had a lot of bikes in my misspent youth. Started with a Honda Z50 (apparently a collectors item now! That's the funniest thing I ever heard.) then several Yamaha 2 stroke twins, then Suzuki fours: a GS550, 750 and 1100e. Somewhere in there, I commuted for a couple of summers on a Honda CB350, and briefly a CB400F. My last bike was a 1978 Ducati Darmah. No bikes for about 20 years and now a Yamaha XS500.. Why the XS500? Well I longed for a 70's bike, but many of them are now too expensive for me to justify the few times I will be riding.. The XS500 is the unloved brother to the RD400 two stroke and the larger XS650 so it's relatively cheap.. But it has that classic 70's style, with upswept mufflers and squarish lines. Mag wheels, DOHC, and four valves per cylinder are right up to date. Points and condenser, not so much. I like tinkering as much as riding, So right now I have it all apart with just the engine remaining in the frame. i have a small forest of (re)painted parts hanging from the floor joists in the basement. Several boxes of cleaned and waxed parts are waiting to be reassembled. Almost all of my ordered carb parts have come in! Looking forward to reading and writing mostly in the (surprise, surprise) vintage section.

Hi , The reason an engine gets stuck is that one or more pistons (or the piston rings ) get stuck in the cylinder due to rust and/or heavy carbon deposits. To free the pistons, spray / pour a half cup of WD40 through the spark plug holes. WD40 is an excellent penetrant. Using a popsicle stick, straw or something similar as a dipstick, make sure the WD40 has not drained away. If it drains away very quickly , pour in regular engine oil and spray some WD40 in with it. Be patient, it could take several days/weeks to free up. It sounds like you put diesel and gas mix in place of the engine oil. Putting a diesel and gas mix into the crankcase will not help, indeed long term exposure to this mix may actually damage some engine seals. You certainly do not want a trace of diesel or gas in the crankcase when the bike is running. Replace the diesel/gas mix with the cheapest engine oil (3 quarts/liters) you can find right now. Then when you can turn the engine over, kick the engine over 10 times. Drain your oil. Repeat this procedure with a new batch of cheap oil. The diesel /gas mix should now be flushed out. Add some good quality 20W50 for running the bike. The owners manual specifies 20w40, but 20w50 works fine, is less expensive and easier to find. If you can't move the engine with the kickstarter, (You cannot move the kick starter down with your foot.) then the engine is locked. No need to check the cam. To see the cams, you have to remove the cam cover, which means you'll need to find a new cam cover gasket. Finally , while you are waiting for the engine to free, check the carburetors. If you are lucky, the previous owner drained the carbs before putting the bike away. I've never been lucky. Remove them, remove the 4 float bowl screws and remove the float bowls . ( A Haynes or yamaha service manual will be helpful here.) At a minimum remove the brass pilot jet and main jet and unplug all the tiny holes in the jets using a spray can of carb cleaner. Spray carb cleaner through all the carb holes that you can find. Carb cleaner will eat rubber, so minimize exposure to the carb o-rings. Rinse under running water. You'll probably need to replace the float bowl gaskets. Hope this helps! The XS 500 is a complicated engine to take completely apart, but it's maintained very much like any other bike of it's era. The balancer chain tension adjustment is the only "extra" thing that I can think of, and it's fairly easy to do. It sounds like are you thinking of replacing the 500 engine with a 650 type? It might not fit in the 500 frame, as it looks to be a taller motor.The engine mounts are in different places for the 650..