'75 Yamaha XS500 Tracker Build

mattsullivan

New Member
Alright, well I bought this bike 4 years ago for $1 per cc. Ran pretty great, leaks very little oil from either the valve head or the exhaust manifold(hard to tell). Bike tank and side covers were spray painted black and the headlight was still the ugly factory marroon. The only real bad problem was the front brake caliper was frozen open so I only had rear Drum brakes for about 1 week. That was the first thing I fixed. Soaked it in WD40 and blew some compressed air through the passage and it popped out and almost hit my friend's mom's brand new rubicon jeep wrangler. Whew... Also I got some short rise handlebars. Bike has been super reliable for the past 4 summers. This is a picture from the first day I drove it home.
Keep in mind this is my first ever project. So progress will probably be slow and a lot of dumb questions will be asked.
 

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Modifications and maintenance over the past couple years:
-Oil filter and oil changes every season.(Paid $20 each for the filters, can't find them anywhere)
-Finally bought the oil filter adapter off ebay which was pretty pricey but worth it in the long run.
-Handlebars
-Painted flat blue with white offset racing stripes and white YAMAHA lettering.
-Removed the luggage rack
-Removed the chain guard(Really regret doing this, oil gets all over the back rim) ***I'm looking for a new/used one
-Bar end mirrors
-New Battery
Here are a couple pictures of the progression
 

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So, I go to school at UW-Milwaukee for mechanical engineering and I've been riding dirtbikes, ATVs, snowmobiles etc.. since I've been 11. I'd like to think I'm decently educated in basic mechanics. I've taken many autoshop, woods, and metals classes to prepare me for this build. At first I wanted to build a cafe racer but I don't want to sacrifice confortability for looks. So now I'm leaning toward a tracker style bike.

Inspirational Builds Pictured Below:

Future Plans:
-Go through the entire engine, check tolerances, replace old crusty gaskets
-Oil filter mod
-Shorten and paint(black?) front and rear fenders. Form my rear fender to resemble the XS650 below. But I'd rather weld on a hoop.
-New seat (Fiberglass, Steel, or just buy one)
-Underseat Aluminum electronics box (rivet onto frame?)
-mount battery behind pods
-Paint black or polish forks
-LED strip tailight or half moon type tailight with plate bracket
-Retrofit led headlight
-New small blinkers all around, possibly do bar end blinkers
-2-1 exhaust (shorty like the CB750 below) Wrapped or flat black with stainless tip
-I have a friend who is a welder(2 hrs away) who could help with the 2-1
-New brake pads and wheel bearings
-Clean up and check timing
-Modify or replace wire harness to accommodate the new led components (This will be my biggest challenge)
-New Cables All around(Brake, clutch, PUSH/PULL Shortend throttle)
-TUNE CARBS NO IDEA
 

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So I took the carbs apart a week ago and cleaned the passages with carb cleaner and compressed air. I just put them back together yesterday with the carb rebuild kit I recieved from Scrambler Cycle off ebay. Also wet sanded the bowls and top with 400grit and then polished with mothers. My plan is to run pods which I know is very frowned upon but I really love the look of the open triangle. So I will also be fabing up a shallow electronics box underneath the seat that I have no idea how to build. I would like to have a low profile seat which means I will have to weld some crossmembers to mount a seat on. Problem is I don't have a welder... :-\

I ordered a complete gasket set awhile ago and the post office lost the package so working that out. But yeah, my plan is to look over the entire engine and regasket everything(mostly, i don't want to split the cases. I don't have the resources or tools to do that major of a teardown)

I've been researching xs500s for awhile now and have a couple good sources from DTT that I've been stalking:
-http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=5959.0
-http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=29668.0
-http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=14392.0
-http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=48119.0
 

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There fun lil bikes ! If you need help with anything check out ... Xs500forum.com
 
I think your bike looks better than your inspirational pics. It's much more practical and probably out performs them, as well.
 
I would agree if it's running good dont mess with it :) if you have a diff every day bike then go for it !
 
The main reason for this rebuild is to replace the valve cover gasket but I figured as long as I have the engine out I can get some stuff shined up and tuned up while I'm at it. Also, one of the side covers flew off on the hwy so it looks pretty stupid. That's why i want to make an electronics box underneath the seat and clean up the look of the bike.
 
Fair enough sir ! Had a set of side covers for it but don't know were they went off to . keep up the info on the build
 
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