JimR

I guess are Welsh friend is a little unhappy with the responses he got. Riding a bike with what could be a provisional licence, carrying a passenger (sans helmet) & defective brakes .... Plod would had a field day if they had been around at that moment and perhaps the anger would have been vented at them rather than people here who appear to say 'he had a close call' .... but why was he doing it in the first place ?.... Years ago B4 I had a full ticket for a bike ... girls where there to produce a damp patch on the seat and then walk home. After my test was passed I may condesend to give them a lift after as long as they were legal (helmet) else they walked .. whatever time of day ! (most of what was wrong to start with). Then the outburst implying that he is more qualified than the people he asked the question of .... Perhaps english should have been added to the course..... So if he is so qualified why was the question asked in the first place. Regards Jim

Hi Mark, just so I get this correct .... you connected the valve up when it was fully open and you lost performance from doing that ? A simple way oh checking that the valve is in the correct position is to remove the exhaust pipe so you can look up the exhaust port and switch the ignition on and after the servo cycles the valve should end up closed if you are ending up with the valve open you have the thing connected up incorrectly in one of 2 ways 1) The cable pully was connected to the valve in the wrong position 2) The cables are fitted the wrong way round With a bit of experimentation you will end up with the valve in the correct place. Your coolant leak :- Has the engine/cylinder have and white streaks on it ? If so these will give you a clue where the leak is but if not I does stand a chance that you do have some coolant being expled from the overflow. I guess you filled the rad and squeezed the rubber pipes in order to expel the air ... if not you may have an air lock which in turn will cause coolant to dribble from the overflow Regards Jim.

Hi Mark, it sounds like you have hitched up the valve incorrectly ... did you leave the l/h cover off & cycle the valve in order to work out that the valve is in the correct place ? There is a chance you have the valve 180 degrees out which will shut down the bikes performance and it will be a simple point of turning the valve around the correct way before the electrics are connected. Regards Jim

Hi Drewps I would guess that is nearly true .... the 36o's I worked with had both the SP & CW option in the 70's but most I saw where spoked & Disc as per the XS250 but I guess a 360C may have been around ... like the XS250C .. the one with the twin leading front brake & drum rear, odd carbs and odd spoked wheels, in fact a total odd ball. The question was if there ever was an XS360SE (80) along with the bikes I mentioned in earlier posts :- XS250SE & XS400SE (both '80 and described as in the UK lit as 'Boulevard Crusiers') I must admit these bikes I lost loads of friends too as when that expensive 16 inch rear tyre wore out they steered like poo -> crash ! So do we have an XS360SE that I never saw & the weights you mentioned do refer to the SE's and not the std XS models ? Regards Jim

Hi, I guess you have ridden bikes for a while and are not suffering with learner problems. The side stand switch has to be working ok as the bike would stop with the stand down as soon as the bike is put into gear. The other switch can be tested by placing the bike in gear, the clutch pulled in & the side stand up then press the starter .... if it works the switches are intact. If that is ok there are 2 options :- 1) Your stalling the bike thro releasing the clutch to quickly 2) the clutch is not fully disengaging/engaging and you are able to engage the gear (more thro luck than any other reason) and when you try to to disengage it the bike stalls ... but in real terms you would tend to give the bike more throttle at this point and then realize that the clutch is slipping. without more info it is difficult to work out 'whats up' Regards Jim

The old ones are the best !!!

Hi, I would guess the pads are worn out or the caliper is seized up holding it to the one side ..... or is it somewhat more sinister....... have you made any enemies recently ? Regards Jim

Hi Drewps, these are the figures for the US customs ? as I dont remember a 360 US custom nor a spoked wheel variant within the US custom series. Regards Jim

Hi Mark, Power Valve engine so you did answer that its got the kit on now (that is not standard for a UK bike) and if the bike is a UK it is possible that someone fitted the servo kit badly (simply crimped the sealing rings). But by now I would guess you have the cylinder off the bike and the problem solved. Regards Jim

Hi Mark, Power Valve engine so you did answer that its got the kit on now (that is not standard for a UK bike) and if the bike is a UK it is possible that someone fitted the servo kit badly (simply crimped the sealing rings). But by now I would guess you have the cylinder off the bike and the problem solved. Regards Jim

Hi Drewps this will be P/n 93210-03142-00 part 5 on the parts book illustration which lives which lives on the Nozzle Main (2A2-14941-06-00) part 6 as per illustration .... I should have said o ring but it was trying to give it a location within its description rather than just o ring Regards Jim

Hi Drewps, by how much ? Regards Jim

Hi Paul, it will be the gas/petrol tank cap venting out .... you only have one doing it you ought to get 5 or 6 together doing it The switching on is un related I guess as in the showroom no one was switched the bikes on but did appear to get worse as the temp increased it became a 'good alarm clock' in the summer as the sun would hit the showroom window about 11 am & heat the bikes to the level the tanks vented. But all in all I don't reckon you have a problem as these bikes have been 'sighing'' from new ! Regards Jim

I'll give ur ole girl some mind .. as long as u dont watch ! the last time I had an XS360 was in the days b4 GT85 ... in those days Duck oil & u guessed it WD40 were the order of the day and unleaded fuel was not even on the agenda ! Regards Jim

Hi Mark, 35mpg is not too bad for a PV engine running at the max (without the servo motor connected). To ensure it is working you will need to hear the cleaning cycle at startup/igniton on and just back off the right wrist. I would guess you dont have a full valve motor as if the bike was leaking it would only leak from the right as the servo/cables etc are situate to the left & it would be a bike in a sorry state if the valve was was leaking here. Regards Jim

Thats cool ! if you have read from previous posts I have just passed a class 1 and getting pulled in a class 2 may have revoked the new licence ... but I guess not !!! as nowt was wrong bar the O licence & the tacho was a laugh !! ... its cool to do vosa but perhaps its better to not 'rock the boat' ? Regards Jim

Hi Drewp, what happens in this case with the rubber jet covers missing ? this may show a rich miture when the main jet takes over, but if the motor/carbs are not healthy (diaphram issues etc) there may be extra issues in order to fix the bike. with that section is clean (main jet) there is a posibility that ancilary carb componets take over, but without assuring that the engine is sound there is little that can be done with the carbs... It may be quite easy to diagnose that problem but if the rest is in poo order you could be wrong and may spend loads of time diagnosing the wrong problems.. we need to know if the motor is in exact Yamaha health if not ... you do a bodge thing if not the motor needs to be std Regards Jim

Where does the WD40 fit in? I would guess an SR400 would be a single & not a twin. I would perfer the old XS650 twin to be itself & not some composition against some lowly 400 single.... r those as bad as other small motored bikes ? The XS650 was cool ... it didnt require too much GT85/WD40 to get an XS650 to a close ton ... in fact none ! it would be good to give me the XS & u have the SR400 and race it out .. I would guess the XS will win & ur paying ! Regards Jim

Hi, Sorry for the late reply .. I was just checking on the hot shorts thing .....I.C regulatoris in the inbuilt regulator with in the rectifier. The charge voltage/battery voltage are supplied from the stator which in turn may be regulated to the nominal voltage via the regulator. If ur bike is producing 18v at medium rpm there is a chance that you dont have a regulated & ifthose 2 wires are connected to nothing there is a chance that the stator will be allowed to burn out as it is no longer checked via the regulator/rectifier unit. Subsequent additions of the rectifier/regulator (with an open circut stator) will allow the voltage to rise to the point that any added regulator will become open circut also. So a zero connection to the VR section will allow no end of problems Regards Jim

well hot shorts !!!!

Hi, the green wire will be voltage regulation, black will be the earth & brown the 12v supply (normally connected to the voltage reg circut). I never worked on the model you have but from other bikes with a simular charging system I can make some observations 1) I.C regualtor not working 2) Stator not working 3) Wires from the stator to the reg/rec being pinched between the motor/frame & mounting brackets (good old back feed this will cause premature failure of the regulator and/or stator) 4) a faulty main switch 5) Bad earths to the handle bar switches and as americians say 'hot shorts' on those switches ... in the UK a hot short is an Irish Coffee Regards Jim

Hi, That was the same vin in the UK too but the next modal we had was vined/coded 1H2 .... but I guess it would be more correct to call these numbers Engine and/or Frame numbers as at this point the VIN system had not been thought up. If you drop a few years before the first 2 or 3 digits where the known modal code E.G AS1-xxxxxxx was an AS1 (125 twin) the next model (AS3) started ,you guessed it AS3. With the introduction of the RD series , (in the UK) XS series & DT series the numbering changed to the systme we now all know .. I guess we could blame Kalamazoo (numbering system designer) for this along with Yamaha's increasing product range to produce a confusing system that has not been documented to well and has some real odd anomilies. Sorry to post this to your reply but as it was in the thread & at the top it was simplier to do rather than find one that may be more topical. Regards Jim

Hi, best bet is to trade it in for a bigger bike , but you may be able to increase the performance of the bike by fitting the XT250 (249cc, your's is 239cc ?) barrel/piston & cylinder head but by doing that you may end up with the reliability issues that the larger motor had, minced heads,cams & clutches ! The 239cc motor 'never put a foot wrong ! If you add the XT250 equipment ensure that the oil pump is of the correct diameter & width, and is geared as per the XT modification, this may have been done on your 92 bike as these problems arose back in the early/mid 80's but is well worth looking into be4 you spend some cash to distroy your engine ! Regards Jim

Hi Merv, I can understand someone having a disc of a bike in the thought that the correct colour & valid date may keep the vehicle safe when parked (nobody checks right ? .... yes they do !!!) but the vans with plate recognition will sort them out on the move. Oddly enough I got stopped for not displaying the O licence disc (it was lay on the dash sort of fell off the screen) after going thro a van parked on the side of the road .... the police went thro the lot .. Vehicle plate, asked for the Tacho but as I was carrying domestic waste & doing a door to door collection I was exempt from Tacho regs then were going to weight check me until they noticed both rams were the rear end of the truck. Perhaps this system should also encompase the O licence too as 'my pull' cost the government shed loads and perhaps allowed offenders to get away with it. Regards Jim

Hi Tony, I would guess the clutch is dragging. To cure this you have a few options :- 1) The Oil is of the incorrect grade or is totally worn out 2) The clutch basket is worn and the plates are not seperating fully (manual describes gauling) 3) The Cable is U/S 4) Clutch pull arm & release bearings are worn out due to oil starvation from the gallery behind the generator being blocked of from suffering from being 'made to soon' There could be other reasons for clutch drag but these are the normal ones. let us know how you get on Regards Jim