Big Bro's Yamaha TX500

hey all, thought i would start a new thread for a new bike my brother and i picked up.. little history on the bike first. found a guy who had the bike complete, had it running (jerry rigged) and needed to rebuild the carbs. long story short, he got the wrong rebuild kit, got pissed and gave up. so we picked up the whole bike (pics attached) for 150 bucks. got an extra box of parts etc as well. looks like it needs some carbs rebuilt, the rear suspension obviously redone cause someone tried to lowering it, the WRONG WAY. anyways, so here is the first dilemma we ran into.. we wanted to hear it crank over so we put power to the solenoid and it just free spun.. thought the starter was junk.. the extra box of parts had another starter in it that functioned fine so we swapped it out.. once again, just free spun.. then we realized something was going on behind the alternator rotor, as if that rear gear wasnt catching.. jiggled it.. all the sudden its turning the bike over (without plugs installed). cool. so we put the plugs in it and it stopped catching again.. the gear on the back of the rotor is like jiggling as well.. so we took the rotor off and all kinds of parts just fell out.. pins etc (picture attached).. so anyone wanna give their two pennies on what we have in front of us? obviously something is wrong with the internals of this rotor.. any help for our first task is most appreciated! thanks guys and gals!

forgot to post a picture of the bike! LOL

I'm not sure of what's going on with with parts falling out, but is the the rear lowered the way it looks like it is? Tabs welded to the swingarm to lower the shock mount? Or did you already start taking it apart and it's just sitting funny?

yep your seeing it correctly.. absolutely ridiculous.

that's a one way bearing/clutch. looks like the driving surface is shot. I'd say get a complete assy off ebay. or ditch it and go kick only. these motors are cake to kick over. in fact mine starts better with the kick than the electric leg

The starter clutch bearings can easily fall out if you jiggle it. Definitely try to find another one ebay. Fortunately, it's not hard to fix once you have the new(er) part.

right on, thanks guys! will definitely take a look online, someone else said you can potentially find a rebuild for it, but then again i need a new gear as well anyways, so ill just look for the whole thing. thanks again, updates coming soon.

Thats your starter clutch,
You dont need to buy a whole new one, go to the parts fiche and locate th caps and springs and get new ones if yours are worn

You should have 3 caps, 3 springs, and 3 rollers.
they install:
(inside) Spring-Cap-roller

your rollers look okay from here

Wow... That swingarm/suspension "modification" is... Interesting...

Yeah I was dumbfounded when I saw the rear suspension. Anyways.. Ill look and see if I can get the replacement parts for cheap, will also need the new gear as well.

Don't quote me on this... But I believe the tx/xs500 and the 650 share a swing arm. If that's the case, a 650 one would likely be easier to find as well as cheaper.

ah cool cool thanks ill have to look into that.. my brother is talking mono shock cause im also doing a mono shock 450 right now but id like to see him keep it simple and original.. we'll see i guess.

VonYinzer said:

Don't quote me on this... But I believe the tx/xs500 and the 650 share a swing arm. If that's the case, a 650 one would likely be easier to find as well as cheaper.

Click to expand...

Vons right and also i know a RD400 swinger will fit right up and uses the same bushings as the XS . Speed&Sport is a good place to find parts for the TX/XS and have a parts list . Pick up a manual if you dont have one already

thanks guys for the info.. little update last night my brother and i got the new (used from ebay but fully assembled and appeared in good condition) alternator rotor with starting gear into place, got a fresh gasket on the side cover and sealed that up.. then we had to start tackling the wiring, really wanted to hear it turn over at least with the starter.. so we dabbled for a while until we finally got power to the coils, and we got it turning over without the carbs on... starter didnt grab all the time, made a horrid chattering noise.. we threw the carbs on there cause it seemed like the engine was still free spinning or getting too much air, once we put the carbs on it grabbed like normal like 90 percent of the time.. reading around it seems like this is a common issue with this bike... but we managed to hear it run with some starting fluid.. didnt have a good tank to use so starting fluid was the only was to hear it fire.. sprayed it a couple times and it actually fired up and idled for almost 10 seconds.. was impressive to say the least.. so for 200 total investment we have a running bike. not bad. but my question now is, instead of rebuilding these kehilin carbs should i just look around for some good used vm32's? does anyone have any advice on good carbs for these bikes? thanks everybody!

Im running new VM32s on my 500 and after talking to a few members about them was the way to go ! My bike hadnt been started for 20 years and with just throwing them on with fresh oil , gas fired right up ! But when i went to them also switched out the petcocks to help flow as stock are also Vac i believe ! One more thing might want to think about is the ignition and look into the Newtronic ones as they make one just for the 500s and fit right in !

HAHA i was just literally reading through your whole thread.. ive been subscribed to it and was going back page by page until i saw the carb update.. sounds good man, watching a pair of vm32's on ebay at the moment.. check the listing for me if you have a second.. says they are for triumph bikes? if i change out the jetting etc should fine for the yami? also, what did you replace the original petcocks with? aftermarket?

Carbs are carbs if there new and never mest with then there fine and just need to get jets a few up and a few down for tuning ! With mine i havent got to tuning but fired up and was fine as a starting point. The 32s fit right onto the stock 500 carb boots with no mods . And rejeting them from said triumph to yams could give " Carb parts warerhouse " a call guys cool and knows his stuff ( 216-635-1099 ) . If the price is right on the ebay carbs rejetting is easy !
As for the petcocks there from MikesXS and are just non-vac petcocks.If you order them also pick up the 4 lil washers for mounting !
The only things ive done motor wish is :
Adjust valves
fresh oil and gas
carbs
ignition

did you have it running with the previous carbs on it? was wondering about the gains in going from a vacuum to an actual cable slide carb.. im sure its pretty significant in the throttle response department.

No sir i did not ! I didnt want to mess with the vac carbs so pulled them and got the VMs . Did alot of asking about what would work best and keep going to the VMs !

did some work on the bike last night, took the carbs apart and cleaned them with a new rebuild kit for both, but for some reason the left hand cylinder (clutch handle side) isnt firing.. the motor will start right up and run on the right cylinder, will a light spray of starting fluid at the left carb and it jumps right up on two.. not sure whats going on.. that cylinder must not be getting fuel? any ideas? pulled the screw on the carb and the bowl did have gas in it, so its getting there, just not getting to the motor. also, had some oil leaking from the left crankcase cover cap? its the circular chrome cap on the side? anybody know what that is? i didnt pop it off yet to see whats behind it, but its for sure leaking some oil. thanks!