SirBieber

Ive noticed the front shocks are really stiff, i push it down with all my weight and cant get them to do much. going over a solid bump makes them gives in a bit but always with a squeek. what should i do?

awesome thanks the for tips guys, lots can be done seems like. Its funny I made a custom camera mount on my handlebars to hold my coolpix. Without testing it I filmed for about 45 min and got home really excited about the footage. due to the vibration you cant see ANYTHING clearly except for when I have stopped at stop signs, ha!

I'm wondering if there are ANY tips or parts that could help in this department. As a rider I dont mind it too much but the bike, meh. I've had glasses fuses get pulled apart at their metal ends, a license plate crack where it gets bolted down, mirrors vibrate so much you can't make out what you see from them above 65mph, and bolts get unscrewed and fall off. I've replaced all these things bit its kind of like... (can't think of a good analogy right now)... I want to cure the root of the problem instead of just suppressing the symptoms. I would basically feel more comfortable going on a long distance ride on this thing without having to hear a new sound of something beginning to vibrate/come loose etc every time i do.

I have an '80 650. My main fuse is 20A, and the rest is 10A. I just redid half the wiring on my bike inlcuding the fuses. The glass tube fuses are incredibly fussy, even with the proper fuse the circuit can have problems with the wiring going to that fuse box. I think its a terrible design, the wires are bent 180 degrees and with all the vibration, I didnt like it. I made a new fuse box with ATC fuses and it fixed ALL my voltage problems. Also maybe try sanding down all your grounds, that helps a lot too with older bikes. check your wiring diagrams for what size fuses you want. You definitely dont want a bigger fuse than ur supposed to or you can damage components. The blinkers possibly aren't getting enough power if they dont blink. Maybe connect the bike to a battery charger and then try the blinkers. Otherwise there is a blinker relay I believe you could look at that.

I have an '80 650. My main fuse is 20A, and the rest is 10A. I just redid half the wiring on my bike inlcuding the fuses. The glass tube fuses are incredibly fussy, even with the proper fuse the circuit can have problems with the wiring going to that fuse box. I think its a terrible design, the wires are bent 180 degrees and with all the vibration, I didnt like it. I made a new fuse box with ATC fuses and it fixed ALL my voltage problems. Also maybe try sanding down all your grounds, that helps a lot too with older bikes. check your wiring diagrams for what size fuses you want. You definitely dont want a bigger fuse than ur supposed to or you can damage components. The blinkers possibly aren't getting enough power if they dont blink. Maybe connect the bike to a battery charger and then try the blinkers. Otherwise there is a blinker relay I believe you could look at that.

Got the wire diagram for the modified reg and rectifier. Pulled out all wiring and put it back together as in the diagram. Replaced the melted connector, and the entire fuse system. Works better than ever now but as usual, we'll see how long this lasts.

that thing is a beast. an incredibly sexy beast. I dont get how people 'clean out' all that room. I dont even have room to tuck wires away. where is the battery for instance?

All I've done electrically prior to the melting was change the tailight, hard wire the headlight (which is back to original wiring now), remove the Reserve lighting device, and solder some fuse connections (and since i've completely replaced the fuse system) I believe its a '79 chrysler regulator with a Radio shack (common US eletronic/gimic store) brand rectifier. The whole deal is its supposed to do the job at $25 while having a more modern rectifier. I bought the bike with it already installed, so I know nothing about the wiring. I'm sure I'll be able to find a wiring guide online if not on this forum somewhere. I think im gonna try and replace the melted connector (now that I have a new fuse system) and see if that helps. How would I go about testing the regulator/rectifier before I just melt another connector?

I just replaced all the fuses with the ATC type fuses instead of the glass tube fuses. The connector that burnt out is coming from the alternator, the three white wires in that connector burnt out. The white wires trace back to the voltage regulator/rectifier. Is that a wiring problem or a bad regulator?

The buzzing is coming from the safety relay. Its the bottom of the 2 rectangular relays in one of my pictures above. I isolated the 2 prongs that were burning and everything works fine I'm just getting buzzing from this safety relay. I'll read up if I can find a diagnosis from that. If I can't fix this easily I would entertain the idea of doing a total rewire but I dont know if I trust my know how of electrics enough.

True but Bin Laden was a huge influence on recruiting for Al Qaeda. That source now has a hole in his forehead and is lying on the oceans floor.

Its located in its own little chamber sitting perpendicular to the frame of the bike behind the battery on the right side. Its right above the safety relay, I'm looking at the wiring diagram right now and still can't figure it out. I'll take some clear pictures of it soon.

So you think its a bad ground somewhere? I sanded the ground connection from the modified chrysler voltage regulator, I know thats good. Theres 6 'prongs' withing the problem connector. Only 2 of them are overheating. I pulled them out, and connected back the other 4. When the 2 overheating prongs are isolated and not touching anything they are not overheating. Everything then works fine except for the buzzing above the relays at another cylindrical component. I'll try and figure out what that is next, and eventually follow those 2 problem prongs and see where they lead. Why are some wires going to the connector in a cloth wrapping thats a different color than the wire? Just makes tracing them that much harder.

I have the option to edit but not delete the whole post.

Disregard no clue what happened. The next day it was fine.

The bike starts and runs fine when I leave the connector unconnected, but the headlight wont turn on. The brake light still turns on though. so Im guessing it has something to do with the lights? When I tinkered with connector a bit while the bike was running, I hear the buzzing around the relay area it doesn't burn up. If I fiddle with it and the buzzing stops, thats when it starts frying up. If the engine is not running but I turn the key while its connected, all lights turn on and theres no buzzing, no frying. Already got another connector ready for replacement I just need to know whats causing the melting first.

So it all started last summer. At one point the bike was flawless, but then I wanted to replace the gigantic stock tail light for a small sleek one which I did with no problems for a week. Then I started loosing voltage going to the main headlight. Im bad with electrics as you will see, so I did the easy solution and just hardwired the headlight to the tail light, it just turned on when I turned the key. This was my hard wiring job for the headlight. The red wire with black tape on the end went straight to the tail light for power. That worked fine for an entire season. Then in the last couple days (first rides of this season a few months later), I noticed starter, headlight, horn were all going out of whack. So I bought all new bulbs, fuses, and replaced everything. This also worked alright, but then I noticed all the connections in the piece of shit fuse box were in bad shape. Some wires are bending 180 degrees it wasn't a good system and I plan to replace it when I fix this prolem. So I soldered all my fuse box connections. Here you can see my fuse box. Most rewiring was redone by the previous owner who was an airplane mechanic so manuals/wiring diagrams dont always help me too much. I had noticed some buzzing coming from the Reserve Lighting Device and read I didnt need it, so I removed it, connected 2 wires that would still keep the headlight working, and the rest of the wires are still in the connector and left alone. Now the soldering worked GREAT. Infact it worked too good in a way. I started smelling smoke. One of the connectors literally just started melting and I have no idea what it is. Now I noticed one wire coming out of this mess was yellow, the same color as the original headlight power wire. For fun I connected the original yellow headlight wire back in place instead of the wire I used to hard wire the headlight, and now my headlight works with the original wire again. So now my headlight is back to normal, but this one connector is just frying itself every time I start the engine..... help???? Now when the bike is running, and that connector is frying, I do hear a buzzing coming from the bottom (safety) relay. Incase it helps answer any questions, this has a modified Chrylser voltage regulator as seen below. . Thats the end of my show. If this makes sense to anyone why I'm having this problem please let me know how I can trouble shoot this problem in simple instructions please. Im getting close to finally solving all the problems on this bike I can feel it.

I would love a new fuse panel. Just today I soldered all the connections and immediately noticed a huge difference in power reaching components. You realize how much things can move around when you start that bike with the fuse box open. viiiiiiiibration

I have a manual actually. The problem is the previous owner was an airplane mechanic and redid pretty much all the wiring, with a new headlight and voltage regulator that are not stock. He's sort of hand labeled fuses and what not, but its a real hassle troubleshooting things when i get electrical problems. But the bike is golden right now! thanks again, we'll see how long it stays this way

I F***ING LOVE THIS FORUM So I checked for spark in the plugs. Didnt even know how to do that but got some assistance from you tube. No Spark, and checked voltage coming through the wire, got nothing when I was trying to electric start it. I followed the wires from the spark plug to a cyclindrical component ( no clue ), and followed that to the fuse box. I figured I just bought a box of fuses I'll just replace all the fuses that I had just replaced. As I was replacing one brand new fuse for another, the tip of the glass fuse just came right off. Prolly Chinese. Anyway, replaced that and immediatlely got it to start. Already went on my first ride of the season but its already getting close to freezing again tonight. Anyway thanks guys for replying. Now I'm just curious about one thing. I dont know if this is with all '80 XS650's but I had 4 fuses. Mine went in this order: Main(20) Sig(10) Head(10) IGN(10). Thats what the previous owner had labeled. The fuse I replaced to get it going was the Sig fuse. Does that make sense or is it just mislabeled. I noticed my horn wasn't working previously and now it does.

Just gave that a go a couple times. I got some good speed but it just sputtered to a holt each time. Its acting like the kill switch is in the 'off' position in that the engine is engaging but not starting. I noticed all the wiring for the kill switch meets up behind the headlight where I was tinkering but I haven't touched the wiring with kill switch / electric start.

YESTURDAY the weather was warm, the bike started right up with the electric start. My only issues were I had electrical problems with the head light (which I had hardwired to the tail) and loose tail light, and my kickstart was giving me tons of resistance, but the bike started fine with the electric start. TODAY, I went out and bought a new head light, tail light, fuses. I noticed my tail light had loose wiring, fixed that up nice and tight. In my fuse box theres supposed to be 1 20amp (main), and 3 10amps. I noticed the main (far left), and one on the far right was also a 20amp but it said it supposed to be a 10amp so I switched that out for a 10. I was hearing some clicking from the reserve lighting device, so I completely removed it, attached 2 wires together as instructed on some website while leaving 4 other wires in the connector to get the headlight going again once I replaced the bulb. I took off the gastank for 2 minutes to get to wiring. I finally had both tail light and headlight working fine so I put the tank back on. Now the damn thing wont start. Some how the kickstart is a lot easier to kick now but that doesn't do anything. Gas is good. Cleaned the plugs (they were black at tips but it started fine yesturday), battery is giving out a full charge, the electric start is definitely engaging the engine it just wont start. Talk about frustration!!! Anyway help would be greatly appreciated (in as simple explanations as possible). I have no idea where to even begin troubleshooting.

The electrical start seems to work fine. Its still around 50F-60F degrees here (15C) and after putting a heater upto it the electrical start gets it going within a few tries. I tried using the kickstart and I had a lot of trouble. Its giving me a lot of resistance. Some kicks I can only get it down about a 1/4 of the way. The kicks that I do get to go all the way are so weak it wont turn anything over. Ive kick started plenty of older bikes to know that its not normally this hard, and that it shouldn't stop after 1/4 kick. Let me know me if you have any idea about what the problem is, and/or the degree of difficulty to fix this problem myself.

So I've got a '80 XS650. I know a little about mechanics, and close to nothing about electrics so keep any replies as easy as possible. Still learning everyday. Ive been having huge issues with the electrics for my head/tail light. Im not paying a mechanic $60/hr cuz ive fixed many problems with the bike thanks to this forum. I'm hearing a buzzing coming from the Reserve lighting device. Ive read you dont need this, and that many people remove it. http://www.excess650.co.uk/tips%20&%20tricks.htm It says disconnect then throw the RLD as far as you can, then just connect the blue/yellow to the blue/black. Thats fine but theres still 4 other wires that were going into the RLD, black red yellow green, what do i do with them?

This is my '80 XS650. I absolutely LOVE being the only cafe among 1000's of choppers in upstate NY. It really turns peoples heads even if im not nearly as loud as the harleys (tryna work on that). Let me know what you think.