79 XS750 First Build - UPDATES!

MkeTriple

New Member
Hey everyone, new to the forum and looking for an area to document my project. This is my first motorcycle, and I couldn't be more excited to get started. My background is in cars, but I've been itching for a project for over a year now and finally found the right starting point, and this is cheaper than a muscle car! After a few months of searching I came across this XS750 on CL barely a mile from my apartment, and landed for a great deal.

It's a "ran when parked" case, but has been kept in a climate controlled building, with enough of a history (and title), great condition, and at a price that I could afford the risk. First things first as I'm going through a full clean-up and making sure the bike is running great through the summer, and then do a complete teardown next winter as I'm planning on moving into a house and have my own garage space. I will be making a couple mild modifications to either offer upgrades in technology since 79 or to cater to my own preferences.

Goal for the build is to make it ready for the Brewtown Rumble http://brewtownrumble.com/ the first weekend in June, and barring any major issues or catastrophic me-being-an-idiot episodes - which hey, never say never - should be a very feasible timeline for the winter and spring.

Plan timeline:
Teardown and part evaluation - working from the tail to nose, what can be cleaned / needs to be replaced
Check the petcocks and rebuild if necessary. pull carbs and rebuild / sync
Remove wheels, pull rear swingarm and evaluate driveshaft, clean up housing and repaint
Clean cast wheels, check wheel bearing condition (seem fine from first eval), repaint if necessary
Front fork evaluation / rebuild
Rebuild brake system
Evaluated the wiring harness and ensure functionality, connectors are intact, and auxiliaries are in good shape
Clean up wiring harness to accommodate new handlebars, indicators, taillight.

Upgrades:
Steel braided brake lines, rotor & caliper upgrade
Trim (maybe) and paint front fender, adjust angle of rear mud guard and paint.
Low rise handle bar with less set-back than factory position
Low-pro indicators
Oversize tires (within fitment spec)
Fork boots
Custom grips
- Big maybe dependent on time and ability - minor seat modification and re-skin
 

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Re: 79 XS750 Firrst Build

Here's a couple photo's from the day I picked her up and some of the early teardown. I've only been able to work on for a bout 3 hours between 2 days, and kept forgetting paper for labeling parts and bolts so I didn't want to get ahead of myself. I've learned the hard way to label EVERYTHING.
 

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Re: 79 XS750 First Build

First stages of the teardown.
Seat off, rear end all taken apart, taillight / plate holder removed and separated, mud guard removed, side indicators removed.
Battery tray removed and parts separated, I will be upgrading to a dry cell / lithium ion battery for packaging and weight.
Most of the discoloration is from the battery tray corrosion, will be great to get this area cleaned up.
Exhaust removed, will be switching to a 3-1 setup, but need to find a good quality system, not Ebay junk.
 

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Re: 79 XS750 First Build

The good:
Frame continues to be in great shape for a 35+ year old bike. Very little paint shipping or surface corrosion, besides the battery tray and middle section of the mud guard the only surface rust is on the petcock tab and a small dent on the tank. Chrome and exhaust are in great shape, too bad they'll be going away!

The not-so-good:
I haven't looked at the wiring diagram yet, pretty much leaving it alone until I get it all pulled and laid out, but this is a bit confusing to me. The wires in the photo just loops back into itself in a weatherpack connection, connecting to a wiring harness. I'm thinking this replaces a fusebox that existed and attached to the frame under the seat, as I've seen it on other people's teardown photos. Any comments are welcome.

I nicked up the paint on the frame a bit getting the battery tray out. I didn't really see how corroded it was until I got it all the way out and should have just cut the thing out. Couldn't bring myself to doing that though, chalk it up to nostalgia of the fact that it was the original equipment from assembly.

I'm already catching myself thinking about the story this bike has. Seeing old "MADE IN JAPAN" stampings, thinking about how this was before the whole lean production process and what the factory must have been like.
 

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Re: 79 XS750 First Build

One of the custom touches I'll be adding are custom leather grips.

My laptop bag is from a company called Saddleback Leather out of San Antonio, and they make some incredible gear. I've always traveled for work and end up going through a nylon laptop bag about every 9 months, so I got myself a Christmas present last year and I couldn't be happier with the decision. I paid almost as much for the bag as I did the XS, but I have no doubt it'll last me a decade or more. As the saying goes, buy once cry once!

Anyways back on topic, they use heavy duty leather and sell 5lb bags of scrap for projects through their website. I picked some up and plan on making my own hand-wrapped grips. There's a ton of usable pieces in a couple different colors, and I may end up trying to make and sell them if I can get the process down.

I had to try my hand at it as soon as I separated out the colors, and had to manage with a broken hockey stick for now. For a first attempt on a rectangle and a with some superglue, I think it turned out ok. This is a tobacco color, and it's pretty cool how different the color looks with different lighting (w/wo flash).
 

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Re: 79 XS750 First Build

Hi
I see that you are planning to go oversize on the tires. You need to be careful on the rear as 120 is the max you can go without rubbing the shaft tube (swingarm).
Bike looks to be in great shape, hope the mechanical's are as good a s the visuals ;D
Good luck
Tim
 
So I planned on keeping a much more detailed thread than this, however I started a new job right around the time of the first post and started traveling a ton, only 4 days home in 5 weeks straight on the road.... BUT I did get a couple chances to work on the bike and once travel slowed down into June I got through most of the bike and she's up and running! Drives like a dream too, idles well and just cruises. I didn't get through as many of the modifications that I was looking to do, but really ok with it as my main goal was really to get the dust off and get her back on the road first. I made a couple mistakes along the way - some worse than others... - but hooked on this bike and can't wait to continue to make it my own. Some additional updates to follow from what I went through.
 

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Cool, I have a saddleback slim wallet, have had it for 4 or 5 years and absolutely love it, super high quality... was looking at a few of their laptop bags too, nice stuff still made with quality as priority number 1. The wallet I have is chestnut and has darkened over the years.

Only issue is now that I live outside the US the euro doesn't fit since it's a little taller
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