1980 Yamaha XS11 aka THE CHOSEN

Fullmetal

New Member
Hey guys, what's up? I'm new to the site but not so new to bikes (I lied, i'm totally a squid still). I bought a 77 yamaha xs360 last november that I've been converting into a cafe racer (finishing that one up right now) and I've fallen in love with the whole process.

About a month ago, me and a friend, who were fixing to get a place with a third friend, were about to go halfsies on a 1981 yamaha xs11. However, our other friend bailed out of getting a place and we had to abandon that plan. it broke my heart to let the bike go, but it had to be.

I told a classmate who rides about the bike, and something magical happened. He said he had a friend with a xs11, and he got me in touch with him. His friend had a 1980 xs11 that was his dad's before he passed, and it was sitting in storage since. The bike quit running shortly before the passing, and he wanted to fix it in his honor. Unfortunately, he didn't know what to do, and his wife forced him to put it in storage. His agreement with the storage place is up in two months, and the wife wanted him to scrap the bike.

So he gave a deal: if i can get the bike running before his contract is up, he'll give me the bike. otherwise, it's bound for the junkyard. So this is me attempting to rescue this poor bike before it gets reduced to scrap metal
 

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A few more details about the bike. The bike was once fully dressed, it came with the Venturer fairings originally. At some point the owner's dad had wrecked the bike, destroying the fairings, the original gauge cluster, and leaving some gnarly scarring in the crash bars. He claims the cluster was replaced around 20k, and another 20k was put on the bike before it stopped running. The replaced gauges show 80k, so I can only take his word for it at this point.

He believes the bike isn't running due to electrical issues. The bike was his dad's daily during the season, so it was ridden nearly everyday. He claims that one morning when his dad was getting ready for work, he turned the key and the gauge cluster didn't light up. He pressed the starter button, but again, nothing happened. He planned to fix it, but sadly, he suffered a fatal heart attack just a few days later.

The owner took the bike and wanted to fix it and ride it in his dad's honor, but he has no experience working on bikes, he lets the dealership do all the maintenance on his 2 gixxers. As a result, it just kinda sat in his garage for a month or so before his wife started demanding he get rid of the bike. He resisted, of course, and found a storage unit not too far from his house where he could occasionally come in and awkwardly stare at the bike (his words not mine). He tried to sell it a few times, but most people ran for the hills when he mentioned the supposed electrical issues.

My plan for attack was to first check the wiring harness, clean tank+carbs and change/add new fluids. It sat just as his dad left it, with gas in the system and a dead battery unfortunately, so I know I have some fun in front of me. I took off the tank and the seat and began examining the harness, but it didn't take long to find problems.

Wires were splitting in some places and I found some poor attempts at patching up some spots. The headlight's wiring is a mess, there's a random white wire that runs through the bucket to a far spot in the harness that's connected to the headlight connector in place of the original yellow wire, which was torn and left exposed.

The connector to the gauge cluster is also concerning, it's slightly warped and melted for some reason. Maybe a short somewhere in the system caused that?

Checked the fuse box under the right side cover, and 3 out of 4 of the fuses are there. It looked like the wiring for the tail light was removed from the box (that's the blue wire taped to itself, I believe) for whatever reason. The main fuse is located under the left side cover, and it was essentially obliterated. It was covered in corrosion, which I cleaned out of the connector.

The wiring is a mess on this bike, but I haven't found anything else that seems like it'd be a problem. I'm going to replace all the fuses for sure. I think it'd be easier to take the harness off the bike to patch up what needs to be patched. I'm not sure yet. Haven't done that before, and there's waaaaay more wiring on this bike than my xs360, but I'm always up for a challenge haha.
 

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While I was at it, I definitely had to drain the tank. 2 year old gas is no bueno. The tank was about 3/5ths full still, and there was still gas in the carbs. The fuel lines had melted/rotted to the petcocks and the carbs, so they had to be cut. I emptied the gas into a bucket, and boy, was it filthy! The inside of the the tank, which I couldn't get a decent picture of, was obviously rusty, but I think it's all surface rust. I removed the petcocks, they had in-tank fuel filters installed. The filters had dissolved and melted with the petcocks, though, so I had to scrap them out. They don't leak, though, so I think a good, through cleaning will be all I need here.

Yanked the carbs off, too, and poured the rusty gas out of them. I haven't torn them apart yet, they're sitting in a bucket, but I can only imagine how much gunk lies inside.

Next time I'm at the storage unit, I think I'm gonna see if the motor will turn by hand, check the general condition of the charging system, and tear into the airbox. I'm trying to do as much to the bike as I can that doesn't require a lot of money, most of my funds are going towards school payments and finishing my xs360, so checking various parts of the bike for obvious problems seems like the right thing to do right now haha.
 

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Sounds like you have a sound approach! Check ebay for complete harnesses, may save immense amounts of time from the sound of it.
Rode my girlfriends xs11 this weekend after 2 years of tinkering, rebuilt the top end and put in 1196cc pistons, its a beast now! Awesome powerful bike and really worth the effort!
 
That thing is NICE! Fixing the wiring is easy if you get the right tools. Look at proskit.com and get a crimper frame. You'll need dies for open barrel crimps, insulated flag terminals, and high temp butt splices.

The fuse box is suspect. Springs go weak. I replaced mine.

This is what the flag terminal crimper is for. Hard to get good permanent connection without it.

Here's a good source for new connectors:
http://www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/connectors.html
This is what the open barrel dies are for.

This short video will help you as well. https://youtu.be/pZ809uTlENE

Lots of info on XS11.com, but site is broken and can't accept new members right now. Good luck!
 
datadavid: thanks man, I've looked into getting another harness but most of the ones i found on ebay aren't in much better shape. I agree, these bikes are such beasts, I can only imagine the difference that big bore kit made!

dannywrx8: i'm in it for the long haul :D

jetmerchmarty: thanks for the info, man! definitely will come in handy when it's time to tackle the patch job. i tried to register on xs11.com, i didn't know it was broken lol.

Haven't been back to the unit yet, my xs360 has been my main focus for the past few days, but I do plan on inspecting the starter when I get the chance. Been looking into a new battery, but my budget is tight and everything decent is well over $100. I might sound cheap, but my xs360's lithium battery cost me less lol.
 
Went to the unit yesterday, but i didn't accomplish much. I yanked off the airbox, and to my surprise, I found a k&n filter inside 8). I forgot to take a picture, but it was dirtier than high hell, so I took it home to give it a good cleaning.

Yanked out the spark plugs, too, just to see what kinda shape they're in. The picture has them laid out in sequential order. Plugs 1 & 2 had some oily residue on the threads and electrode, plugs 3 & 4 didn't. Slapped some brand new ones in just for the hell of it haha.

Other than that, I checked other parts of the harness for any damage and thankfully found none. I forgot a majority of my tools at home, so I called it a day afterwards. I'm waiting on some parts for my xs360, so I have some free time now. I'm going to take the harness off and take it home with me tomorrow, hopefully.
 

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You may have dried up valve stem seals, my lady's bike was smoking like crazy and fouling the plugs, also had a few slightly bent valves and zero comp on 3 & 4 cyl.
Hopefully yours is better off!
 
Got the harness off the bike! With the exception of the headlight wiring being badly spliced into the left front turn signal (for some unearthly reason), all the damaged parts are here. I'm going to strip off and replace the old filthy tape, clean all the connectors, crimp all the damaged wires and replace all the fuses.

The carbs are also back at my house now, awaiting disassembly and cleaning. I have to study the manual beforehand, all 4 carbs don't share the same parts. I definitely don't want to mix anything up haha.

The gas tank's rust isn't too bad, i think, so I'm going to clean it out with vinegar and see what happens. Once all this is done, and the bike is reassembled, I can hopefully get the bike to start up. I have no idea what condition the motor in, I'm hoping it's not too bad, but I won't know for sure until it starts. Call me crazy, but I kinda wish this thing had a kickstarter haha
 

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Ah, the later one's dont have kickstart installed, but look at that black plug on the right side case.. they should be prepared to install a kickstart assembly there, if you can find one!
 
The guts are missing behind that plug as well. The kicker is pretty much just an ornament on this bike anyway. There aren't many stories of that thing saving the day.
 
Yeah, it's just an empty space behind the plug. I heard some of the 1980 models have them still, but this one wasn't so lucky. Idk, I'd like to install one somewhere down the line, I'll probably have to split the case to do it. I know everybody is spoiled by the convenience of e-start, but the idea of kicking a 1100cc bike to life just screams badass to me!

I know, I'm crazy.
 
It is badass! I prefer kicking the ol ladys bike! :)
And yea of course the mechanism inside isnt there, there would be an axle protruding otherwise. Not sure if you can install these by just removing the cover, on the 750's its possible.
Problem is the kicker for these dont fold in, and was kept under the seat as an uxiliary emergency thing.
 
Are you saying there never was a bushing on the cover on these bikes, or not only on the later models w/o kick?
And i never experienced these kickstarters as worse than anything else of the era. .
The triples kickstarts have been very criticized as well, but mine still works perfect after some 36 years so they can't be all that bad?
 
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