jrhendryx

I was quoted by a small shop that does the stuff i dont know how to do (and that i trust a great deal), at 1.5 hours labor at 62.50 per hour, plus parts/oil. I did it myself in one day. It took me a while because i kept having to run to the store and get the right tools, and had to go to that same shop to get a used stanchion when i cracked mine. I really think that you should give it a shot yourself. The most difficult part of my work was putting the seal back in place without damaging it. You will learn a lot, and I felt pretty proud of myself (im slowly learning this stuff). plus, once youve done one thing on the bike yourself, you will be more confident that you can fix other things, and will end up saving yourself a bunch of money. let us know if we can help!

So, I have a set of Joe Rocket textile gear, and i have a problem I like my things to be clean. This suit, after a year of abuse in all elements, is filthy. It wouldnt be so bad if it were black, but it has huge white patches that catch grime and just make it look like i stopped the bike, got off, and rolled around in the dirt. I read the care instructions on the label inside the coat, but it says i cant dry clean, machine wash, soak, etc etc this thing. it doesnt say anything about cleaning it via telepathy, but unfortunately i appear to not have that gift. how do you clean your textile gear? im at my wits end here. heres what it looks like - the pants are pretty clean - they only get worn in inclement weather or when i go on a long ride. the jacket is worn every time I am on the bike, every day, so its filthy. the white patches (as can be seen in the picture) dont reflect light well anymore because they are so dirty.

looks like a perfect chance to show her how to take the front wheel off to change the brake disc! Good luck!

ive seen replacement jet kits for these carbs... total rebuild sets on ebay mostly... someone recommended one to me once, but i cant remember the name it starts with a K though. kimuni? kuni? dont remember the name. keep me up to date on how it all works out for you - good luck.

nice.... "if i wanted to plow, i would buy a proper fucking tractor!" hehehe... for what its worth, the movie they pulled that clip from was "den Untergang" its a very well done take on the last days of the third reich and what went on in the berlin bunker.

Blued exhaust pipes can also be caused by running the bike with the choke on for too long... just a thought. I bought my 500 with the same idea - fun ride and learn to work on it at the same time. mostly ive learned how to break different parts on it They redesigned the head to make it stronger/less prone to cracking/warping... however i seem to remember reading that they actually changed the way that the inside top of the head was shaped, and the angle of the valves looks slightly different in the pictures as well. my thought is that they would have changed the pistons too, to mate up to the new heads. i could be wrong here. I would love to find out that i can swap on the newer (500 c/e) one-piece heads though... it would provide me with a lot more choices. from what else ive read, lapping the valves is a simple task that you could do yourself. someone else on here did a total top end job on their 400 recently, and could probably give you pointers. as for the carbs - i have no idea what to tell you. your lack of power might have something to do with running 1974 carbs on 2008 gasoline - which has no lead additives and is already leaner (from my understanding - someone correct me if i am wrong here). perhaps changing out the main jet will give you the boost you are looking for... i wouldnt imagine you would have to do anything with the pilot jet, unless you are having a hard time keeping it idling, then you might want to check those too... hope this helps, im not much of a mechanic, but i feel your pain when it comes to trying to sort out all of the annoyances that these tx/xs bikes can throw at you. keep an eye on the cam chain tension.

77xs500 heads.... those will be off the 500c, and your tx must be the 500A.... Looking at my factory manual, i dont see anything that specifically says "NO" I looked through the yamaha engine diagrams, and from what I can see, the cylinder head assemblies LOOK interchangeable. What I mean by this is that they look like they bolt on comparably and share the same gasket. what I cant tell you is if the clearances will work out, because if I remember correctly they didnt just change how it bolted together to make it stronger, they also changed the internal shape of the cylinder head. Here are the images. Top is your 74 TX500, bottom is the 77 XS500 To me, the cylinder itself looks the same, but there isnt really any way to tell what it looks like inside the head. Those cracks you mention are part of the reason they changed up the design, and sometimes you can even see them on the outside of the engine. for the most part they dont affect the performance of the engine, but every now and then they become too aggressive. ive never opened up the top end of my bike, so I dont know if my 75xs500 has the cracks, but I bet it does. Hope this helps.

its funny because we all have our minds in the gutter tranny = shortened version of transvestite. so, in our sick little minds, this thread could have been about one of two things - either you had problems with your transmission, or you were having problems with your transvestite. either way, you will receive a lot of responses... good luck!

ah, theres my problem - i was just searching under xs500/xs 500. very cool. thanks!

hey there. im attempting to find an original tool kit for my 75 xs500b, but am not having much luck at all... ive tried all of the usual suspects (mikesxs, bikebandit, oldbikebarn, sleazebay, etc) and have come up with nothing. does anyone know what came in the original tool kit? i couldnt find that information on the yamaha main site. i figure that i can just fit together a pouch that will slide into and out of the stock compartment so that i can finally do away with the ugly (and way too easily accessable) rear pouch that holds my tool kit over the rear fender.

\ would a coat of clear sealant paint afterwards (spray or roll on) keep the pitting from coming back/protect the finish? im assuming that your forks are the same as mine, with the stanchions on the bottom.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH holy hell, thats pretty good!

my first two bikes were a trail 70 and a honda big red 150 three-wheeler (aka the bone-breaker). welcome!

you have a point that i am not required to read every post on this board... i only spoke up because i find this argument to be completely pointless, and i think it detracts from the board. thats all. *wanders off to ride*

can someone lock this pissing match?

it does seem to draw a lot of attention.... unfortunately the wrong type sometimes.

at first i thought that maybe it had just vibrated loose, then while i was searching for it, i began thinking it over. ive had to take that bolt out several times, and each time ive had to pry the sleeve out of the hole to do so. also, what are the odds of both the clutch pivot bolt AND the cable adjustment locking nuts coming undone at the exact same time? Plus, i had a fellow employee come in and tell me that she had seen someone "touching" my bike... she couldnt explain exactly what they were doing, except that they were near the front. I went and poked my head out the door, but it was still there, and i couldnt see anything missing from a distance, so i went back to work. it wouldnt be the first time that someone had messed with the bike... im also a teacher, and several times when ive come out at the end of the day, the bike has been moved slightly and the gears have been changed (usually jammed somewhere between 4th and 5th). im doubtful that it just vibrated loose though, considering that i was told by an employee someone was messing with it. and as to how idiotic you have to be to not be able to steal a clutch lever.... well, its a different breed of stupid around here probably just some damn kid. i will have to talk to the girl who told me about it and see if she can describe them... with any luck we have some tape on it. nothing else was touched on the bike.

while i was at work, some twat decided it would be a good idea to try and remove my clutch lever. It was pitch black when I got on the bike, and the post was still slightly in there, so it wasnt completely falling off... i did notice that the clutch felt a little loose - it was engaging very far out from the handlebars. anyway, about a quarter mile from home, in the headlights of an oncoming car i noticed the post sticking out, so i reached out to touch it, and it FELL OFF... needless to say, this made the clutch lever basically useless. after about a half hour of searching in the dark, i found it, and put it back in... then i noticed that someone had loosened the locking nut and twisted the cable out by about 3/4 of its length. fuckers. it makes me wonder if anything else has been messed with... im going to give it a good once over tomorrow. i already checked the crown nut on the front spindle, and it doesnt appear to have been touched. hopefully its just this.

alright, i got it fixed this morning. It looked relatively simple. I think that I should invest in a set of taps and dies. At the moment, the throttle and brake cables are looped about a bit, and im going to have to get shorter ones soon, but for now it works out. in fact, the bike actually feels much more solid now. it seems to handle better. i cant think of a better way to explain it than it feels -snappier-.... like it feels more solid in corners, more like its pushing in than rolling in to the corner. here is an above set of pictures to compare what it looks like before and after. as you can see, the mirrors are quite a bit closer now, so im probably going to put in some bar end mirrors. I can see out of them now, but i have to pinch my elbow in slightly to do so. what do you guys think?

Thanks for all of the help guys. I tried the JB weld Jeepurz, no dice... i even let it cure overnight. it pulled right apart as soon as i even started to tighten the bottom bolt at all. I am going to tap it to a larger size, insert a steel sleeve that matches up to my bolt, and then call it good (well, a local shop is going to do it, and im going to watch carefully) hopefully that will take care of it.

Thanks, i will try to find that one. Oh, and what i meant by "brake side lever assembly" was that i stripped the top bolt hole where the clamp attaches the master cylinder/brake lever assembly to the handlebars. no pictures at the moment, i was just so disgusted that i had to go do something else instead. ive searched ebay, and all of my other fall-back online parts stores and for the most part, all ive come up with are xs650 master cylinders, which are all designed with a larger reservoir and lines to handle dual front discs. i show that my local yamaha dealer can find me a replacement (not NOS, but a new replacement style), but its more than $100... oh yeah, i was incorrect when i was originally posting and was just trying to picture it in my head... my right hand switches are a separate unit from the master cylinder assembly.

I just totally and completely stripped the top threaded hole on my brake side lever assembly. the i didn't even torque it down enough to seat it onto the new handlebars (which have the same OD by the way, i double checked that to see if I would need to make a shim of some kind), it was still free spinning. when i started to tighten the bottom screw, as soon as it made contact with its lock washer, the top one went *pop* and just kind of slid out of the hole. now, i have to check the one old bike recycling place here to try and scrounge up an original. if that doesnt work, im going to have to try to either fix it somehow (not likely, the metal is soft enough inside the hole that i could peel it back with my fingernail - not good) or find a suitable replacement elsewhere.... any ideas? im thinking that maybe one of the master cylinder brake lever assemblies from mikesxs.com might do the trick, but it would require that I replace the brake side switches as well (mine is a one piece, the xs650's used a two piece set-up), and thats going to make it even more expensive... so for now, im back to four wheels again until i can fix my latest blunder. any suggestions would be welcome.

ive been considering switching to the alloys (would love not having to mess with spoke tension), but i really like the way the spoke wheels look on this bike. oh, this is but drewpy, looking at the disc brakes on those wheels reminded me of something, you mentioned that you switched to a dual front disc setup on your bike, did you have to modify the front spindle(might be the wrong word - the post that holds the wheel on) or fork spacing to fit it? mine has the tach gear on the left hand side, and i was looking at it trying to figure out how to fit up a second disc on the other side.... the lower stanchion has the mounting holes for the caliper so that wouldnt be the problem. it would be nice to switch to a rear disc as well instead of the drums... sorry for the hijack though, im assuming that they are off of maybe a 400 or a 360 since the rear tire looks relatively small.... my rear is a 4x18 (100/90-19), and that one just looks almost like the same size (but not quite) as the front.

based on what little ive been able to find on the net about my bike (500), the charging system was the part that usually gave out first, and for the 500, it was one of the main reasons they halted production after only 4 or so years. also, i have to keep an eye on cam chain tension (and the tensioner - im watching one on ebay right now), and mine has the original design of the head that is prone to cracking due to a minor design flaw that they fixed in later models. as much of a pain in the ass as it usually tends to be, i like the fact that this bike is forcing me to learn to do my own work... its part of the reason i bought it (though it does suck to have to find replacement parts - the few i can find are expensive, for example, a NOS cam chain tensioner from an old stock dealer is $143). good times

yup, im a moron. i was using the yamaha parts guide on the local dealer's website. thanks.