1979 Yamaha xs400 brat cafe build

[TimBuz]

Hey hey everyone just thought I would get a thread going for my 79 Yamaha xs400 project.

I picked up the bike in January this year from a guy that was going to use it for a chopper project. The bike ran pretty well, but the front and rear brake masters were seized so I didnt want to push it too hard on the test ride. These are 6 speeds and it ran through the gears all fine.

Im from Australia and these actually seem to be kind of rare down here compared to the rest of the world and it was the first that I had seen come up for sale, there's tonnes of xs650's but they were well out of my price range.

Originally this was going to be a small tidy up but its kind of spiralled now into a full frame tear down and rebuild into a brat/cafe style just something thats a bit of fun to ride on the weekend with mates.

Heres a couple of pics of the build so far:

The day I got it


First night in the garage with my mates Honda Rebel 250 chop and Honda Cb450


Starting a light strip down and clean


Ended up going nuts and doing a full strip and painting the stock 18" wheels

 

[TimBuz]

After the tear down I bought a bunch of new parts, Got an aftermarket magura Front master cylinder and levers set from mikesxs,
picked up this brembo ps13 rear master for not much more than what it would cost me to rebuild the rear master cylinder, ill need to weld a new bracket as mounting points wont match up.


Got the engine back in the frame for a mock up, borrowed a seat off a mate


After a few weeks and after moving house I tried to get it all together and running because I was sick of seeing it in pieces

 

[TimBuz]

Heres a vid after the carbs were cleaned and everything put back together idling a bit high but hadnt adjusted anything


after this I took them out and went to rejet for the pods and shorty exhausts, in the process I realised that the throttle butterfly screws were stuck and stripped so i couldnt replace shaft seals, i must have also snapped one off the air/fuel mixture screws off into the carb body, long story short ive got a new set of Mikuni VM30's coming in the mail

 

[TimBuz]

Sorry about all the pics, but basically im now waiting for parts and tidying up the underseat electrics so i can get rid of the battery box and hide my new lithium battery as im keeping electric start

 

[xb33bsa]

you need longer pipes and some mufflers :

 

[honda53rider]

Looks like a grate start! Ill be following this build!

 

[TimBuz]

you need longer pipes and some mufflers :

Those are the stock headers, I've got emgo shorties to go on, just waiting on some clamps, i know it sounds like crap in that vid haha

 

[TimBuz]

I'm hiding the new battery in the space underneath the rear fuel tank mount, turns out it is the perfect size and shouldnt interfere with the unifilters I will be running

Heres a before shot of the wiring



heres after I made up a new blade fuse box and shortened and reroute some cables so i could fit it all within a 25mm space underneath the seat pan

 

[TimBuz]

Put Vm30's on the other day. Running Uni Filters and shorty mufflers. Only gave it a quick start but it kicked over sooo easy and was running really well. Need to give them a sync and seal them in the boots a bit better but i was really happy with how theyve ended up seeing theres not too many xs400's running these. Heres a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrfiJWYmN1o&sns=em

Heres the specs im starting at
**change supplied main from 250 to 220 (hex jets)
**change pilot from 40 to 27.5
**keep throttle slide 2.5
*Jet Needle : stock 6F5 on #4 (1 clip richer)
keep needle jet stock P-5
Keep air jet 2.0

Will be giving it a road test as soon as I sort a few other things out in the next few weeks