ryMY Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Hello everyone! My name is Ryan Meyer and I am a Canadian who has moved to the Netherlands last year for school. Along with a couple major lifestyle changes, such as mountains at my backdoor being subtracted for the flattest country EVER, I as well do not speak Dutch. I am still learning the language basics, so this makes the process of finding parts (as well as daily life) pretty difficult over here, so I hope I can get a bit of help from you guys. My intentions are to create more of a brat style mixed with tracker and lots of cafe influence, so I hope this works for your visual aesthetic. I do however possess great taste , which means you can save your knickers from getting in a knot. I have wanted to build a motorbike for ages, but due to many circumstances in life I have yet to get around to this. I was obsessed with dirt bikes and motorcycles in general when I was under 10-years-old, and the itch has not gone away. I have now purchasing a 1977 XS360 last month for €200 and finally borrowed a friends van to move it back to my apartment last week. I convinced a few peers from school to let me use their shed as a work shop (it's perfect IMO) so I then pushed it over there, purchased the minimal tools that I could afford and started attempting to figure out why it wasn't running. This is the bike before I loaded it up to take home. (History: Bought it off a gentleman in his late 60s who raced motorbikes his whole life and wanted to fix this one up. He never got around to it so it stayed in his shop the exact same as how he bought it in 2002, for €200 as well. He said that it was running before but it just wouldn't run when I came around.) I took off the seat first thing and found this… (this one shows the wiring going to the battery) As far as I could make out, this was some kind of switch or security for a second battery shut off. I really have NO clue, this is just a guess. Random and useless… I took it out. So the bike wasn't running and it still isn't running! * - I have a charged battery(new from previous owner) so I could test with the electric start - The bike cranks but doesn't fire - Gas in tank and petcock works as should - All electrical works perfectly - I took out the spark plugs and they were dry after cranking - I tested to see if there was spark and there is spark on both cylinders - I then took the carbs off to open up and check out - I cleaned and rebuilt both carbs (were not that dirty) I put the tank and carbs back on and tried to start it up every way I knew. ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryMY Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Still didn't work after this. So, I went and took the carburetors apart again for the second time. Here are the photos: The float bowls were full of fuel, so there is for sure fuel flowing into the carbs The Pilot Jet and Main Jet. (I took them out and cleaned them, but they were both totally bottomed out. Where are they supposed to be set?) And that's it for the carburetor disassembly (except for the choke valve on the side… I just didn't take a photo of that). Both of the carburetors look like this, so if you guys see anything that you can tell to not be OK with the condition, please let me know. Now to the spark plugs: I will check these to see if they are the wrong size (Champion N9YC is printed on them) and the ignition system I also looked into the weird homemade electronic shut off and I could not figure out where he would have connected it, if it was ever connected to begin with. I could assume it was a project that was never finished. Oh, and this was something I noticed when I just got the bike and took off the tank. Bummer, but I could think of many more serious places for a crack. The upper engine mount that connects with the head/valve cover. I looked on ebay and can get a valve cover for €30, so that isn't too bad. I'm hoping that the head and the valve cover don't have to come together though. Are they machined to fit? If so, is it possible to get the face machined to match? Well, sorry for the long winded first posts, but thanks as well for your help in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator drewpy Posted December 1, 2013 Moderator Share Posted December 1, 2013 wow. too much info. not sure where to start now! FIRST GET A MANUAL its more or less the same as the 250/400 models 1) those are a home made ignition modules in the tail. Quite cool looking but not very reliable hanging out like that easy to get moisture in there. they are probably contact triggered as you still have the contacts. 2) as to carbs, its the passage ways you need to clean and I don't mean a quick blow job. more info here http://www.xs400.com/tech.php 3) the head steady on top of the engine looks fitted correctly http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://xs400.net/wb/pages/technik-faq/motor.php%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DlLG%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=de&u=http://xs400.net/wb/pages/technik-faq/motor/obere-motorhalterung-bei-2a2-und-4g5.php&usg=ALkJrhhb0rbKJpDjB6lygjwPGNEWH-L06g you cannot just change the cam cover, its line bored with the head with matching numbers on the back stamped on them. you can get it ally welded though fairly cheaply 4) try swapping the orange and grey wires to the HT coils, many peeps get it wrong and the firing order is then 180' out you have the largest vintage M/C supply company in Holland CMSNL, has loads of spares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dt502001 Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Drewps how can it be ignition modules if they are disconected/removed and he has spark,me thinks it s home made voltage rectifier . So the bike wasn't running and it still isn't running! * - I have a charged battery(new from previous owner) so I could test with the electric start - The bike cranks but doesn't fire - Gas in tank and petcock works as should - All electrical works perfectly - I took out the spark plugs and they were dry after cranking - I tested to see if there was spark and there is spark on both cylinders - I then took the carbs off to open up and check out - I cleaned and rebuilt both carbs (were not that dirty) Welcome the the club ryMy. The pilot and main jet get screwed in tight /bottomed take Drewps advice and switch the orange and grey wires.Did you try and put some fuel directly in the cylinder,if not put a tea spoon of fuel in each and see if it will back fire or run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slice Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Not going to add to the 2 posts above cos that about says it all but I would get some BRADEX easy start or something similar and squirt it into the carbs and try starting it with the throttle wide open till it fires, that should at least tell you if the damned thing is at least a runner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryMY Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 Not going to add to the 2 posts above cos that about says it all but I would get some BRADEX easy start or something similar and squirt it into the carbs and try starting it with the throttle wide open till it fires, that should at least tell you if the damned thing is at least a runner. Thanks for the help guys. I have tried this morning to spray starter into the intake and get the bike running but nothing happened again. Not even a little back fire. I took the plugs out right away and they were as dry as when I put them in… They aren't getting any fuel to them. This mean to be that it isn't my carbs. It isn't my spark. It is something internal (compression or valving) I don't have a compression gauge but I'm going to borrow one form a friend this week I hope and get that done. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can free up enough time in the day to make it over there and reset the valves. I was able to look through the intake with a flash light and see that the valves were moving up and down when I was using the electric start, but they have a lot of build up on them as well. Any new insight now would be super cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slice Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Think you might be on the right track with the valve timing as if they are not right then it won't fire, have you tried actually pouring a teaspoon of fuel down the plug hole and seen what happens? You could do this before you get the compression tester just to give you some thing to do. You never know it might actually fire !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchFJ1200 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 The tech stuff is waaaaaaay over my head. I do know somebody who can help with the Dutch bit bit though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miffa Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 have you tried actually pouring a teaspoon of fuel down the plug hole and seen what happens? You could do this before you get the compression tester just to give you some thing to do. You never know it might actually fire !!!!! good advice, but before doing that a simple hot wire test this is what i would do because you say some sort of security device as been wired in take a wire from the positive on your battery straight to the positive feed on the lead coil this will feed life to both coils and with the plugs out and in the caps earth the plugs against the cylinder fins ,no need to turn anything on because you have bypassed everything else then using the kick start check to establish a spark if you have connected the hot wire to the correct feed wire at the coil they should both spark assuming they do then do as described above its a matter of elimination don't go taking everything apart be methodical and you will soon fire it up let us know how get on as to be honest the symptoms do point to a inlet valve problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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