1981 Yamaha XS400-"FLIGHT"

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The WD40 product made the rusty spot look dark black.  Metal Rescue looks good and leaves a zinc coating.  No place around here had it. 
I used the cleaner, then drained it and sprayed about a can of WD40 in and shook it up.  then rinsed with gas. and filled it up
fixed for now I guess

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So the bike is running.  It sounds great.  With a fully charged battery, I have found a few more things that are going to need to be dealt with. 
1-Yesterday I started the bike and when the bars get pushed back and forth the engine revs.  This is problem two that I am going to attribute to the original cables that where on the bike before putting on the lower handle bars.  The other is the clutch issue which I'm still messing with.

2- Electrical.  The break light is on all the time.  I think this is cause the switch at the break lever is failing to stay in the hole that it is supposed to clip into. 
3- The headlight falls to turn on at all.  So either it has a short or is just burnt out. 

4- The bike might be running a little rich as well.  This might be from?  The PO drilled out the baffles of the mufflers.  Wondering if this is causing not enough back pressure.  That is just a pure guess. 

What it comes down to is more messing trying to get this road worthy this weekend. 

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So  I thought maybe just maybe rerouting the throttle cable might help my revving that it is happening.  So the down side is in order to get the cable loos the carbs have to come out.  Got everything rerouted and had the idle adjusted to the 1200 range. Sounded very happy. 

I put the tank back on and started it back up and it revved up to 4000.  Tank off and the idle is right back down.


As you can see every time the cable is moved it is revving the motor.  Will getting a shorter cable or shortening the cables myself solve this issue?  With the tank on the bike it forces that cable down hence the revving. 

[DreadRock]

I could be wrong but cable looks routed in the wrong place.When your mounting the tank its pushing down on the cable to make it rev.Have you lubed the cables ? If the cable is routed right then a lil shorter cable might be needed .

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I rerouted the cable.  It had been going through the top of the Triple tree and then down the right side. of the bike with the clutch cable.  It was revving in that position as well. 
before it was running down the original high bars and down into the triple tree.  with the lower bars it was having to loop up to the tree then down through and right back passed the cable.  I thought it might be better to have less curves in its path to the carbs.

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So yesterday I had some kind of magic touch.  I rerouted the throttle again and no issues with revving.
pulled off the clutch cover and next thing you know the kick start is working again. 
I started the bike today and the headlight is working.  The clutch still is engaging really late in the let off, but i think it is some thing I can get used to. 
Oh I road it up the street and she seems to be running much better with the carbs cleaned of Gunk.  I need to get used to driving a manual clutch again.   I felt a little dumb cause I stalled it out trying to down shift. Then couldn't get it to neutral to restart it.  Then stalled it again by bumping it into first without pulling the clutch.    All of this at the spot where the road was blocked by the ASPLUNDA guys trimming trees.
 Definitely need the beginners riders coarse. 

[DreadRock]

Still sounds like clutch is not adjusted right to me man !

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So I have been working on getting the bike ready to get it's inspection done so that I can get a license plate on it, and start riding.  I bought the necessary brake switch that was broken and installed that.  The tail light is working properly now. 

The last problem that I've got to deal with is my headlight isn't working.  I bought a multimeter so that I could try and figure out where the issue lies.  If you put it on the headlight to see if the filaments are intact, they meter reads a closed circuit.  So this leads me to believe the light isn't the issue. 
Went to the fuse box next to check the headlight fuse.  It appears intact.  The multimeter reads zero on all the fuses when the bike is running.  Not sure how to take that. 

I checked if the 2 relays under the carbs are getting power and ground and they both read on the meter.  this makes me think that they are alright.

Get up to the handle bar switch for the Low Beam High Beam and it register zero. 4 wires.  Neg and ground nothing, neg and hot nothing, neg and high hot nothing. 

So would this mean that I have something between the relay and the switch, or the relay is getting power but not sending the power on to the handle bar switch and therefore not making it to the headlamp.

I'm missing out on some of NC best riding weather.  Maybe it would be wiser to just replace the 2 relays and see if that makes a difference.

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Today I figured out what I believe is the issue.  I tested the relay with the meter. 
Black in black and then the red testing the other three.

color wire diagram(found at www. xs400.com) credit where credit is due.

With the black in the black and the red here, at the red/yellow, there is a voltage reading.


black and white voltage reading


black and blue/black  NO voltage reading.


the blue/black runs over to the handle bar HI/Lo switch.  which intern runs to the headlight.  No voltage no headlight?
Does this sound right?  Time for a new Relay?  Hope they aren't expensive.

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Ordered the relay today.  72.00 Shipping 16.44  REALLY.  Called the place and asked if they could use USPS instead of UPS and they told me no.  I told them 16.00 for a 1.5" cube is outrageous.  But it was still cheaper then buying at the local shop.  And the shipping date is between Oct. 2-7 Next week.  Order on a monday morning 16.00 for shipping a 1.5" part.  Not arriving until next week.  Is it me or does it all sound unreasonable?

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I got my relay and got it installed.  Headlight came right on.  I've taken the bike to two places to that do inspections in NC and bot told me they don't do bike inspections.  So I think I have found a place to get it done, but it is farther then I want to ride the bike with no plate on it. 
While riding it back froth to the inspection stations it appears that the front break is "soft."  The forks seem to be tweaked a little.  My bars sit a little bit askew with the right grip a little behind the left while rolling down the road.  I see a front end rebuild in the near future.  new breaks and rebuild the forks. 

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I found someplace that does motorcycle inspections and Passed inspection this morning.  Woot.  Stage one check
plates next week. 

So I mentioned the bars being tweaked a little.  The place I got the bike inspected was a few miles away. 
What would be causing the front to feel like it wobbles through the curves? Maybe a shimmy is a better description
 Is this an alignment issue?
 A wheel out of round?

Other things...
There seems to be back firing on the right cylinder while down shifting through the gears.  Float Level?  Haven't checked my plugs, so I can't answer if I might just need to replace them.  Answer is probably yes. 

I guess I just need to start a things to do list and start knocking them out one at a time. 

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well this is where she sits at the moment.

I think that I will be getting some work done to it during the next few months with winter seeming to be on the way early this year in the south.
Parts that I'm looking at are mufflers.  I think I will be getting some trumpets from mikesxs. 
Tapered bearings for the head stock. I can push and pull my forks and it pivots in the head tube. 
New break shoes for the front drum.  Needs done and the forks and tire will be off while rebuilding the tree.

Just an update and plans for when work let's me have a weekend off. 

[L4NE4]

Lookin good!  How to get mine to that point by the end of winter here.

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Last week I brought the bike into the basement next to my desk so that she will sit there and remind me to work on her.


First job was a going to put new front brake shoes on the bike.  So first thing was to loosen the cable from the lever and then then drum.


It looks like there is fraying on the brake cable.  which is too long, so should be replaced anyway.  The speedometer cable will also most likely get replaced when the small speedo gets ordered.
Loosen the axle clamp bolts and remove the cotter pin from the castle nut and remove the axle.



Drop the wheel out and remove the drum cover.


I cleaned all the interior surfaces and made sure everything was moving well.  Hooked the springs onto the new brake shoes and got them reset.  For some reason I didn't take pictures of that.  I did take a comparison picture of the new shoes and the old shoes.

 Hopefully it will make the bike feel less like it will coast to a stop, and actually stop.
So I put the wheel back on the bike but I didn't tighten anything down.  I need to tear it down and do some modifying but have been a little worried about jumping into the project cause I feel like it might be one of those the more you take apart the more you replace....  I guess I just need to jump into it and not look back.