Speedshop

I don't understand what you're trying to do! If you have removed the flywheel using your puller, the stator (under the flywheel) simply unbolts.

Mmmm, the SR is a single cylinder, it will vibrate. For real vibes try its big brother, the SR500!

As that unit on the carb probably has some influene on the mixture, I'd have a guess that there lies the reason for poor starting.

fuses do just go with age. I'd change it and see what happens. If it took out all the bikes electrics it sounds like the main fuse - and 10 amps sounds too small. think about it, standard headlamp 6 amps, ignition 1-2amps, battery charging 2- 0 amps, rear and auxiliary lighting at least 1 amp.............

I'd pull the cover on the clutch and have a look before putting new oil in the engine. Oil alone does not cause the clutch to grab and be jerky in operation. This is normally down to a either warped plates, a clutch hub that has been worn and now has notches on the splines, or a worn cush drive. Id say fix the clutch and your gear change problems will go too. Keep riding it like that and you risk bending or causing excessing wear to the selector forks in the gear box. Changing gear while the gear train is still loaded places excessive loading on the selector forks. fitting larger tyres/wheels will only slow the steering down making it ponderous - go too big and you'll and make it steer like a wheel barrow.

This does sound like a typical 'know nothing' answer you get from dealers. The timing would have to be significantly wrong to cause major flat spots. More often then not these problems are caused by several minor mis-adjustments plus one underlying fault. They all act together to cause confusion however. You need to provide more info, have you rebuilt the carbs? Have you had all the jets out and checked none are blocked? Are the diaphragms in good condition? What new parts have to fitted to them if any? Do they balance up OK and stay that way? Are the valves correctly adjusted? What exhaust is fitted? Have you put a timing light on the bike and checked the timing is as it should be (which would knock out your dealer's theory if it is)? You don't say where in the rev range you get the flat spot.

Happy New Year to you all. Keep the shiny side up.

this site is good for xts www.yamaha-xt500.com

A later DT with cdi would be a good place to start. You'd get decent lights as well. You can buy kits, with new generators but these are normally upwards of £400. If using another yamaha one you will need both the stator and the rotor from the CDi generator. Between the 2 they set the ignition timing and using mis-matched ones simply doesn't work. You must also know what year the generator is from as Yamaha had a nasty habit of making minor changes to the generators that would render them unswapable with ones from other years, not in terms of fitting to the engine, but the electrics inside. The cdi box must be matched to the generator as well for the same reason.

No. I took one of these apart to investigate this very question and there's too much missing inside to add a kick starter. It was a few years ago now but the consensus was even a highly skilled machinist would struggle to fit one to this engine.

OK If it were wet sumping it would start fine but you'd get clouds of BLUE smoke. There will be so much smoke you'd be convinced there is something seriously wrong with the engine. However the smoke will clear after a few minutes running and it'll continue to run absolutely fine. The fix is replacing the rubber seal in the non return valve in the clutch cover. Not a big job. Your starting problems will be caused by the carb. You will need to replace all the rubber diaphragms, and springs etc. There are three diaphragms on these carbs and when they become hard they don't respond as they should and you get no end of starting problems. Leaving the bike unused is the most common cause of this. The next item for concern is the fact it doesn't run over 3,500RPM.This could be caused by the carb, even so I would carry out a resistance check of the generator windings that power the CDI. If the high speed winding has failed, and they do often, this will mean the engine won't rev past 3,500RPM. Its easy to check with a multimeter and I can let you have the info if you don't already have the manual. The only fix is a generator rewind. I do have an SR i want to sell, in the UK. OOPs, just seen the date of the original post!

Depends how long you are going to store it, but as a minimum drain the carb, remove the battery and keep it indoors or on an optimate. Lube and grease all the regular service items IE cables etc. Putting a cover over the bike may help keep the worst of the weather off it.

Doing it that way is very crude, but yes you can do it. I'd suggest you get a tool that screwed into the spark plug hole with a rod that won't disappear inside the cylinder and with the timing marks for your engine clearly marked on the rod (or a inches/mm scale). Using this sort of tool means you have both hands free to turn the engine whilst watching the opening of the points. I have messed about with verniers and bits of welding rod but you end up moving them about and taking measurements from slightly different parts of the piston, which will throw the timing way off. This method is OK for lowly tuned engines like side valve singles and MZs, but I'd check it with a timing light for anything else.

At idle the air filter can more then supply the needs for the carbs, therefore there should be little difference with the airfilter on or off.

don't worry about it, it is your age!

bolt 17mm puller 20x1.00mm LH thread

You probably don't know, but I manufacture new CDi units for vintage Yamaha's. As a result, I don't get out much, have a nightshift 'tan' and an extensive collection of electrical data and knowledge. Modern bikes have ECU's with 'hall effect' sensors to provide ignition timing and engine speed information (well my BMW does). When a fault is encountered and trouble shooting has to be done- in the absence of plug in OEM diagnostics I've used an oscilloscope to look at the output of hall effect sensors to see if they are working. Now I've worked out a really simple way of testing hall effect sensors, it is cheap and easy (no 'scope required). I say easy you do need a certain amount of understanding how they work, but its as simple as connecting 3 wires and looking for a light on/light off result. I have no idea if hall effect sensors feature on newer Yams......but if they do how useful would a simple tool box tester be?

You do get odd wires that aren't used, but I wouldn't cut it off, just tuck it away.

Alarms......I wouldn't bother. The reason for this is that they are an add on. Anything that is added on can easily be removed. It took me 20 mins to totally remove a Datatool alarm from my BMW R1150R. Hardly any deterent for a thief. I was livid when I saw the damage done to the bike's wiring loom by the so called professionals that installed it. Wires cut and nicked, insulation tape over twisted together wires, terrible soldering. The main feed wire had the inslation nicked in two places and as a result water had got in to the conductor and it had corroded through (which explained the odd electrical glich the bike was getting). Something that is added (and if done badly will leave you with no end of electrical problems) is very easy to remove so therefore not worth bothering with! The only good alarm/immobiliser is a manufacturers one that forms an integral part of the bike's wiring/ecu system and can't be removed.

by re wire do you mean rewind or change the connecting wires, or connect to the bike's wiring?

Haha yes they are guard ducks I've a garden full of them

Here's my 'B', after several thousand pounds spent on rebuilding it (all work done myself apart from the paint). I've owned it over 15 years now and after the rebuild its was virtually new but I've ridden it over over he place, Europe and the UK since. New parts are too new numerous to list, but start at the con rods and work your way out. I added a boyer electronic ignition a couple of years ago which totally transformed it from a vibratory engine smooth as smooth. If you have a XS650 with points dump them, it will totally transform the engine. It features on my website www.rexs-speedshop.com I'll be adding some more pictures to the web site in the new year.

depends where you are in the World! Local papers, Internet, forums like this, all the usual places!

Bike specific oil...not from a car shop........? As to the ignition check all the easy stuff first like spark plug etc.

if funds are limited I'd say buy a complete bike that just has been stored and is in one piece. Buying a disassembled bike on a budget is a receipe for it to stay in boxes for another few years before you put it ebay as a project. Custom XS650, together and just need a small amount of TLC to get them going again often come up cheap. Its the early 'roadster' models (XS1-xs650B) that go for the most money.