1981 Yamaha XS850 - Build

Hey guys,

Some of you may have seen that I picked up an old 81' Yamaha XS850 last weekend. It has 28k miles on it. Doesn't run at the moment, but hopefully will get it going with the next couple weeks.

Bought this thing for $150 with a clean title. Carbs are NEW and look GREAT. Tank inside looks great. Manifolds looked great. Took a lot apart today, and surprisingly looks to be in decent shape, especially for what I paid. Can't wait to get some parts for it! I'm trying to order some manual Petcocks from MikesXS but it seems to be EXTREMELY difficult to get this damn guy to respond to me. GRR!

This is my first project EVER. I'm not much of a mechanic by any means, so I'm pretty much learning as I go. So I may very well be needing a heck of a lot of help from you all!

Anyway, so today, got the tank off, fender, tail light, rear end crap that's being thrown out, ect ect. Carbs came off to clean, but they were actually in PERFECT shape. All gas was drained from the whole system, so there was no sludge or anything. Kind of a relief! Exhaust came off, front end controls/bars, ect ect..

Anyway, pictures!

This is where it started:



And this is what its looking like at the moment.



I do have a question though. This bike has an electric start AND a kick start. There's an ignition unit box inside the side cover by the battery. Am I able to remove the electric start? That ignition unit is for the electric start, right? There's two seperate wires for that ignition box. One that goes into the main wiring harness, and another that goes into the left side of the bike (if your sitting on it). I didn't take the cover off to that part of the motor, but I'm thinking its some sort of coils or something of the sort?? I'm not sure. As I said earlier, all of this is very new to me.

Cheers,
Adrian

Love it.
Chopping an 850 myself. Good luck finding parts. But I know a bike salvage place with one they're parting out.

The wires going into the left side are from the alternator/rotor to the ignitor unit. Coils are under the fuel tank. You cannot run without the ignitor unit and it has nothing to do with the kickstart as far as I can tell from my experience. Check out yamaha-triples.org. that's the best source of knowledge for these triples.

John Rebel said:

Love it.
Chopping an 850 myself. Good luck finding parts. But I know a bike salvage place with one they're parting out.

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Thanks man. So far, I've been able to find pretty much every part that I will need. There are tons of extra parts on Ebay. Kinda nice! Really wish I had gone with a CB though.. there are TONS of parts for those bikes. Oh well.

KOCONUT said:

The wires going into the left side are from the alternator/rotor to the ignitor unit. Coils are under the fuel tank. You cannot run without the ignitor unit and it has nothing to do with the kickstart as far as I can tell from my experience. Check out yamaha-triples.org. that's the best source of knowledge for these triples.

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Thanks man. Appreciate the input. Guess I'll just leave the electric start as it is. I am a part of Yamaha Triples. Great, great place with tons of info. and good people.

Alright, finally got the two manual Petcocks on order from Mikes XS. Can't wait to get them! Hopefully, with a new battery, the two petcocks, and some fresh gas & oil, it may be running! We'll see.

Anyone else order from Mikes XS? I've heard a lot of good and bad things.. hopefully I get them in time and problem free.

personally i would keep the electric start and the kick man, just tuck the starter button up somewhere, will help if your wife ever wants to ride it or if you do not feel like kicking the piss out of it on a cold night... i have ordered from Mikes XS never any problems... i stay away from bike bandit though, they have ripped me and the shop off to many times.

the stage you have the bike in now is how i keep it to plan out my build... maybe toss the tank back on if you are going to keep that sucker and use it... post up some pics and we can use photoshop/paint to help you get creative... crazy how little there is to these suckers next to our HD's huh!

maybe use that beach cruiser in the back round as inspiration... be some wild colors and clean looking brat or cafe

also if you have the carbs open check the jets to see if they ahve numbers on them. that way you can see if the bike was jetted for those pods

For now, this thing will be a ratty cafe bike. I'm not going to strip it down completely just yet. I'm just going to order some new bars, seat, and get this thing running. I'm paying off my car right now, so I can't be spending to much money on it. Once the car is done, I'll strip it back down and get it done RIGHT. As far as the beach cruiser thing goes, it's funny you mentioned that.. cause I was thinking about going the same sort of theme. Haha! I got all kinds of idea's running through my head with this thing. My dad does too, which is hilarious. I don't know who's more excited building this, me or my dad!

But like you said man, this thing is SOOOOOOOOOOO simplistic. I absolutely LOVE it. Working on it is WAY more basic then the street bob. I think it'll be these vintage bikes from here on out! Haha

ahh man you can build a sick bike for cheap! rattle cans make nice bikes man.... just got to use the right products... i think a ratty looking motor can easily be cleaned up with some SOS pads give it the brushed alum look after you paint the block... bed liner the frame... etc... can easy build a good looking bike cheap man

A little bit of an update today. Just a lot of scotchbrite and cleaning was done today. I stripped the gas tank, and got it painted. I rattle canned it. Its Rustoleums Metallic Carbon Mist. Looks real nice!

Also got my manual Petcocks from Mikes XS this week. Those are going on next weekend. With some fresh oil, gas, new battery and petcocks installed, it could very well be running.. assuming nothing is wrong with the motor. I'll probably try cranking her up tomorrow and see what happens. PICS!





I WAS going to keep the tank bare metal with clear coat over it.. but it was a LOT of work to get it to that point, and still needed a lot more done.. so I said F it and painted it. Here's the end result.

just a thought, if the bike still has the stock fuse holders you might want to think about upgrading to a centech fusebox. Most of the Yamaha triple electrical problems can usually be traced back to the stock fuse holders.

KOCONUT said:

just a thought, if the bike still has the stock fuse holders you might want to think about upgrading to a centech fusebox. Most of the Yamaha triple electrical problems can usually be traced back to the stock fuse holders.

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Is this what your talking about?

http://www.centechwire.com/catalog/panels/ap1.shtml

you can use this one like I did or the bigger one if you plan on adding anything later.


http://www.centechwire.com/catalog/panels/fb4.shtml

SHE LIVES!!!!! Got her up and running Saturday! Muahahaha! I'm a happy camper indeed. Now, just have to get a seat ordered up, bars, new tires and she's ready to ride! I'll be doing a complete tear down, paint and powder coating in a couple months. I just want to ride it for now. Got some exhaust gaskets on order. Might need a new alternator. We'll see as I run it more. But she runs! I was soooooooooo stoked to get it going. I had no idea if she would start or not, so this made me quite happy. She actually runs incredibly well. Sounds like ass right now though without the exhaust gaskets. But she runs very well. Not bad for $150 if you ask me!! I've got a total of $320 in the bike right now.. and that's including the purchase price of the bike. Bled the brakes also, and they work GREAT.

HELL YA MAN!!! sounds pretty good!! hahaha the smile on your face says it all bud... god i wish i was still in a T shirt and shorts! hahahah frost on the cars today when i pulled the bike out to ride to work! Congrads man, nice work on bringing the beast back to life... congrads!!!

Damn.. cold already?! That sucks.. haha!

Well, I've got some parts on order!! New seat, bars, mirrors, grips, wheels, shocks, tach cable, and some new tires soon. Expect a big update soon!

Jesus! went nuts huh, hahahaha dude you are forgetting the most important thing!!!! WHEEL BEARINGS!!!! that should be your first replacement on any vintage build bud... sucks when they lock up, why new wheels? the mags are sick when they are painted and clean. stoked to follow your updates, order new wheel bearings...

I haaaaaaaaaaaate the mags that are on there now. That swirl look. These new mags are straight spoked type. Looks much better. And they are only $40! Well, plus shipping at least. But yes, wheels bearings will be on order soon! Haha thanks

SOlid! hell if it was not a shafty iw ould take those wheels off you... hahahaha i guess i am the only one that likes those mags! hahaha, then again i restored a set on my college scoot, so i am a bit partial to them... they do look good when cleaned up and polished... i bet they would sell pretty fast on ebay if you take some tiem to clean them up and maybe put a good coat of black epoxy on them