Speedshop

you can balance the carbs with fuse wire or a 1.5 thou feeler blade. You'll be surprised how accurrate that method is.

Yeah, alarms = waste of time and money, cause more aggro then they solve. But a bloody funny idea though I use a shotgun blank firer at shows, push it in the ground under the bike, attach the wire to the stand - cover with some empty beer cans/campsite rubbish. Oh and don't set it too close to your tent.You could end up deaf and have your bike dropped on top of you as as they panic!

Disconnect the positive lead from the battery, place the multimeter in series with the battery and the lead you just disconnected. You will need a multimeter that can measure current and handle 10 amps. Do not attempt to start the engine, but you can turn on the ignition. The head lamp will draw 4-5 amps and switching other things on can quickly come up to the meter's limit. With everything off there should be no current (obviously) if there is a drain start by disconnecting the voltage regulator. I'm assuming you haven't got an alarm.

On a car you'd have to have the ignition key matched to the ecu by the dealer. Not sure if this is the same.

I'm surprised Allens couldn't get the parts.

well there's your dodgy seal. I expect you reused the old 'o' rings too. PMSL

Get some old car tyres to stop the bike being damged, take the battery out and lay it on the opposite side, no need to drain the oil then

Well you need to have a good hard look at it. In 23 years of working on motorcycle engines i've only ever seen cylinders fill with oil after rebuild only for the two reasons already given (knackered rings incorrectly fitted back in to glazed bores and damaged or missing seals). There are other possibilities, I managed to kink the engine breather on my own XS650, which made the gaskets squeak a bit. But from what you describe a blocked breather doesn't sound like the cause. I've seen missing seals plenty of times, but I did have an XS650 in my workshop where the owner fitted the 2nd ring upside down and damaged the oil control ring on one pot, basically it was pumping oil into the cylinder instead of controlling it. also a SR125 where the owner had missed out the seperator between the oil rings and the oil ring had snagged up as a result - that was a rebored cylinder and we managed to save it with just a new set of rings and a touch up with the honing blocks. Are you sure it wasn't like this before you stripped it?

Sounds like one end of the kick spring has come off its retainer.....clutch cover off again

I wouldn't go bolting in any old unit unless you knew for sure it will work correctly with your bike. even something as simple as a plug being wrong can cost to sort. yes you will need basic hand tools. And a multimeter to check that the bike is charging correctly after you have replaced the unit. not difficult but you need some gear and knowledge.

Well I build and sell SR 500 CDi units for £79.95 (UK). They come with a year's warranty. To purchase e-mail me: [email protected] I also have specialised shop equipment that was built by myself during the research stage to run the cdi 'off bike' to obtain its operating perameters. Its handy as you can test to see if a unit is faulty too. So far we've run the SR500 to 117mph (timed) on Speed Shop cdi units!

You didn't count the number of turns out before you removed it?

The 0.5 kit is the way to go, 0.25 is rarely big enough to take out all the wear in the bore.

If its pulling in a large amount of oil and it wasn't before its something you've done. This it isn't going to be down to a slight clearance on the valve guides suddenly causing a massive problem. Unless it was like this before you took it apart. This sounds like a ring fault or a gaket/seal failure. You haven't forgotton a dowl that goes on the studs?

I've fitted cartridge emulators and Hagon progressive springs to an SR500 Street Tracker I'm building. It'll be intresting to see what difference that makes. I've also fitted XT500 yokes and a fork brace. The Yokes are stiffer and give more trail then the steel SR items, the idea is to to calm the tendenacy of the SR to shake its head over bumps at speed without adding weight in the form of a steering damper. I had to machine shims to make up the 1mm difference in fork tube dia. I've dropped the front wheel size from 19" to 18" as well. Lots to set up when I get it on the road!

Sounds like you put the rings back upside down or misassembled the oil scrapper ring. In which case you can probably bin them now if you run them like that. Putting the old rings back - it sounds like there couldn't have been much wrong with it in the first place......isn't there a saying about things that ain't broken......?

You seem to be going for a shot gun effect, throw enough crap on it and it will fix the problem! First the forks are fixed damping so you aren't going to improve them greatly no matter what you do. Fitting progressive springs makes very little difference if you have fixed damping. Its the damping more then then spring that gives you the feel. That said a Hagon spring might be better then a tired 70's one. If the steering bearings are not worn you'll get no benefit from replacing them with tapers. The two most worhwhile mod you can do is fitting a fork brace, this will transform the front end, and a decent set of matched tyres Bridgestone BT45s for example (although don't go too high on the speed rating or you'll never get them hot enough) - you won't believe how much difference doing these 2 things will make until you do it. I'm assuming you have already checked the swing arm bush is good (they had plastic bushes? - if my memory serves me correctly. I made some out of bronze for one of my bikes.) And the rear shocks are in good condition. Again no point in buying fancy progressive adjustable everything when you're stuck with the forks, and frame designed as a 70's commuter bike - just a reasonable set will do (hagon shocks are ok but there are better). Simply geting good tyres and a fork brace will transform the handling.

I dare say you could get the 500 engine to go as well as the 650, there wasn't a lot between them when new. Although you get more torque from the 650!

small bikes don't sound good on loud pipes. Like a lawn mower chain saw with a faulty silencer, as you can hear this noise, but it doesn't seem to be moving much, so you assuming someone is mowing their lawn or cutting down a tree.

In which case you might as well buy a complete XS650! Trust me it would be a whole lot cheaper then what you are planning. Plus no one will thank you for putting such an iconic engine into .......well.......a somewhat less iconic commuter hack that was over shadowed in its day by the CB400 Superdream (which was a far better motorcycle in terms of handling, reliability and speed- they did a genuine 110mph out of the box)

could be a number of reasons, different length, different diameter or more basic such as the mudguard fittings being different. They might even bolt straight in. As to refinishing them, the way its done is to have the old chrome removed, hard chrome applied then reground to size. A very specialist job.

Is that a CDi generator?

If its on the seam you might get lucky, but you gotta have plenty of good solid metal around it or it'll fall apart (I've welded up plenty as I used to work in a bike shop)

depends where the split is. normally tho exhaust don't weld up well, especially if they are corroded.

Any coil from a flywheel points mag should work. there are some DT50 coils on flea bay at the moment that should work fine. Fag paper method was how we set them up. I now have a buzz box that I used to use on aircraft mags, the fag paper method is every bit as accurate tho. Lightly pull the paper as you rotate the engine slowly and when you feel it just starting to slip thats the point you want.