Cy Welch

I feel sorry for you folks on that side of the pond. Over here we can actually pay extra and get whatever we want in 78 letters and numbers or less, as long as it's not deemed offensive and doesn't match something that would be issued as a normal plate. I'm thinking about getting one for my XS11 for my birthday this year. If I can get the reg stuff straight on it by then I may even do the same on my XS400 as well.

The syncronizer screws are on the throttle bar, and adjust the butterflies in relation to each other. The ones on top of the carb between the boot and the vacuum slide are indeed the mixture screws.

Additionally the plans I have seen for one are for a permanent one that is left in place unlike the yamaha one. YICS is an emision deal that balances out slight imbalances in syncing of the carbs, with properly balanced carbs it does nothing, and with a balancing problem it just hides it.

I think we are both making the same suggestion and agreeing here. I was just pointing out the additional options if desired, but in nearly all cases just the new hoses do the job just fine.

Ahhh, I remember that rule from Germany in the late 70's. My ford taunus would turn on both front and rear marker lights on the side it was left active for with the ignition off. Of course with it's POS 6v electrical system it would start if left like that for more than about 30 minutes or so. And it was rather fun getting a jump since most of the newer cars were 12v and would blow out everything. IIRC the technique we came up with for those situation was to start cranking BEFORE hooking up and last cable and removing the cable just as it stared to fire on it's own. Sure did crank fast when being jumped though

Yeah, I gotta find one that can setup all my fairing and bag keys to be the same, might be fun since right now they don't even all take the same style key.

Sounds a lot like carb troubles. The YICS tool is pretty much mandatory for a proper and working sync. IIRC on xs11.com there is a guy that sells or has plans for a third party YICS tool that I believe works with the 650's.

That is correct. Frankly the XS1100 crowed has found that it's far less work to fabricate a chain drive for a fat rear tire. That and frankly you do get more power to the rear wheel with a chain that with a shaft. I like the low maint of the shaft, but I think if I was going to go to a fat rear tire I would go chain drive in the process. More rubber on the road means I want more of the power getting to the wheel. Now I don't know about the 750, but my 1100 will lift the front wheel without popping the clutch if I really crack the throttle. Now this thing ways a ton with me on it, and I'm sure a 750 weighs less, and on clean dry pavement I can't get the rear tire to brake loose without lifting the front wheel, so I'm not sure what I would do with MORE traction (I'm not addressing the looks part of it which may be what your looking for anyways). Heck, I don't have enough clearance to lay this thing down enough to need a bigger tire for that either, but I think it would be possible, but I think it would take a lot of machine work to get there, and quite precision machine work at that.

Surprising in many cases WD40 works to get sticky stuff off. Otherwise something like Goo Gone would probably work.

My Yammy dealer says that with the ignition number they can order me a brand new factory key for both my 1980 XS400 and my 1980 XS1100. I think they want like $40 for the key though, and I keep thinking about it as I have only a single key for each bike, but then I could probably go down to a locksmith and get a set made cheaper, but they might not look quite as nice, or say yamaha on them.

I havn't done any drilling of disks, although I have a template to mark them with and a set of instruction on how to do it with a small drillpress. That said there are several guys out there that will drill them for you. However, if I wanted drilled I would get the EBC set since it was designed by one of the leading MC brake manufacturers specifically for these bikes and their calipers. These calipers have a LOT of travel available so provided they EBC rotors are offset correctly (and I'm told by those who have installed them that they are) they will work just fine once the brakes have been pumped up for the first time. For the time being I'm going to stick with only changing the hoses, as I have it on good authority that it's the biggest upgrade you can do on these bikes. If you can, watch what your rubber hoses do when you clamp down on the brakes, you can see them swell up a bit, and the woven stainless lines don't do that. I know they sure make a difference on a car, I'm sure on a bike with a far higher percentage of flexible line it should be even more evident.

There is one extra position after lock that turns on the taillight. Not sure why they have that there, as the battery won't take it for very long, but if you make sure you look at it I find I can always tell.

All those lights on the back do light things up a bit too. But they are putting a strain on the charging system. Budget says I get to put LED bulbs in on the 20th, and maybe I'll go ahead and order the ones for the turns at the same time. I guess next is an HID conversion kit for the headlight, that too will cut the watts down and maybe I can add some driving lights on the front. Maybe I can to insane and figure out a way to hook up a 110 watt GM alternator in place of the factory one and really have lots of juice

You would need pretty much to convert to chain drive to make this happen. While it could be possible to fabricate what would be needed to use a wider wheel with the shaft, it may be a problem with shaft angle (the shaft would have to both rotate in the outward direction as well as up and down, that may cause wear problems.)

Actually IIRC the part number for the left side XS1100, 850, 750 and for the 650 rotor are all the same. Even the specials all use the same rotor, now the brake caliper is another story, some of the special use a weird harold odd caliper that pivots, but IIRC the 400, and 650 at least share the same caliper with the XS1100 standard. (well the left side front caliper at least).

Could be the master cylinder or the brake cylinder. You need to start by getting the cap off, if only one screw is stuck, just carefully drill the head off, then when you lift the cap off you can use a vise grip to get the screw out and go down to the hardware store and get a new one (may as well replace them all while your at it). Then bleed the brakes first, and see how they work, if they still don't work, you may need to find rebuild kits for them (georgefix on ebay would be likely to have the kits you need, either than or partsnmore.com) and rebuild both. If the brakes have not been bled in a long time there may be lots of crud built up in there keeping it from working, but the first order of business is to get flesh clean fluid in there, as it attacts water and does work as well as it ages.

I know one of the things that I believe had the largest effect on my 400 after getting the carbs right was going through and cleaning ALL the connections. You would not believe how much corrosion can build up in almost 30 years.

Drilled rotors allow for greater stopping power with the same pressure. When you press the pads against the rotor they basically start to slowly turn into a gas. The holes let the gas escape rather than be trapped between the pad and the rotor, increasing stopping power. One of the best and easiest upgrades for these old bikes on the brakes is to replace the stock hoses with braided steel lines, not only are the originals probably coming apart internally (which will reduce braking power) but they have a LOT more give than braided steel lines. Also IIRC EBC has replacement rotor kits for most if not all the XS models that provide a more modern floating style drilled disk which is supposed to both reduce unsprung weight (makes for better handling) and increase stopping power (they claim up to 30% or someting like that) over stock. I'm thinking about changing out the dual disks on my XS11 for the EBC ones, but not until I have replaced the lines and such first (and then maybe I won't feel I need it).

You can also get an aftermarket master cylinder that will work with your bike from MikesXS, just don't tell him its not for an XS650 or he won't sell it to you.

Finally got my tail trunk, got it painted to match the rest of the bike and tupperware and mounted on the bike. So as promised when I posted my last pictures of my 1100, here are the latest shots of it all dressed up and ready to rumble. Right Side View Rear View (what most other riders see ) Left Side View Front View (Normally seen only by oncoming traffic ) I tried to get a colour as close to the original factory colour as I could, even though I can't yet duplicate the two tone paint on the tank. Hopefully I'll be using my new air compressor and paint gun this winter to do a repaint with the two tone colour like factory and replicating all the pinstriping like new (I have it on good authority that the original maker of the bags and such will have reproduction pinstriping kits for them soon). I think I'm going to install a wig wag module on the brake lights of the trunk too, that should get the cagers attention when I hit the brakes. I'll be switching to LED bulbs on the taillights as well as soon as I can source the proper bulbs. Cuts the load on the charging system to a fraction (important on these old XS models). PS: believe it or not, these pics were taken with my cell phone camera. I know you guys on the other side of the pond have some pretty awsome camera's in your phones, but over here most phone have really poor cameras. I really rather please with this one.

Where I buy my oil, they have castrol both for bikes and for wet clutches, but they don't carry the wet clutch type in 20/50 and they wanted more for it, and I just felt it was better for ME to use the proper weight than to use something formulated for wet clutches since most MC's have wet clutches (except I believe Ducati's and they are known for burning out they clutch).

I would recommend staying away from anything that says it's energy saving. That will mean a slipping clutch. Either motorcycle oil or oil intended for diesel engines should work well with your engine. That said, I have been running auto oils (20/50) in my XS400 for over 20,000 miles with no problems. All of that said, I have recently switched to MC oils as I can get them at my local auto parts store for just slightly more than auto oil. That said I consider semi-synth oils to be a waste in these bikes, mine is fine having run dino oil all it's life with almost 50,000 on the clock and still going strong. My XS1100 has 80,000 on the clock and still going fine, just dino oil. I do need to replace the clutch on both bikes, and the 400 needs the seals and gaskets replaced from sitting for 13 years on other than ideal conditions (yes it was fully prepped for storage before storage so other than dried out seals and some external corrosion on the metal parts it's actually in good shape).

Are they off a lot of just a little? If just a little they are probably fine. You MUST have a battery, you can however use a small 12v battery to supply that part that the charging system needs to work. An 81 should have electronic ignition already, my 80 does. Is the cover over the "points" area on the left side of the engine smooth or ribbed? If smooth it's electronic ignition and the module does all the advance, there are no mechanical advance components. Good luck, these things are nice bikes when fixed up, either as stock or as cafe.

The 80 model not only doesn't have points, there is no gasket either as water is not a problem for the electronic ignition assembly. Unless your pulling the head or the valve cover, there is no reason to pull that cover, as a matter of fact, unless modified it's not even supposed to be adjustable. That said mine was modified when the valve cover had to be pulled before I bought it (from the original owner) and I have had the valve cover off once myself to replace the seal behind the ignition unit because it was leaking really badly.

We get the same thing on this side of the pond. Over here just having it be stolen can make it a salvage, and then extra inspections are needed (and additional fees as well) before it can be registered. Mine got into that category because it was stolen and the twat took off and sold the full fairing I had on it, which meant I had to get a new headlight and blinkers for the front before it was road worthy, and because of that it's a salvage title now.