1981 Yamaha XS650 chopper build.

[focusinprogress]

I guess the brake hose I ordered on summit is being drop-shipped instead of coming straight from summit racing, which sucks cause they're almost always next-day to me.

anyways, while waiting on that I tinkered with the bike a bit more last night. I hate when things look like they have no purpose, so I measured the VZ800 bar riser mounting holes in the triple tree and decided to get some indicators for them. Neutral and high beam. pretty happy with the results.

also set clutch adjustment and mounted that cable permanently, and wired up the backlights for the mini gauges. came up with an idea for a speedo drive stay so that will be made up this evening along with a rear brake switch mount/wiring. Gotta find a shorter speedo cable too, gotta dig in my tote of spare cables. The list to finish is getting smaller.

-wrap exhaust
-wire up turn signals and tail light
-apply my shop decal/sticker
-shakedown ride

 

[Tune-A-Fish]

Em R some stout lamp sockets mang! Looks awesome.

 

[focusinprogress]

Em R some stout lamp sockets mang! Looks awesome.

thanks! cheap stuff from radio shack!

anyways, did a little more last night

finished up re-making the headlight ears, modified the stock headlamp mounting rings to accept this 7" headlight with built-in LED turn signals, and got that wired up and mounted.

^ the light deflector seems to have bent downward a bit during shipping, this all has to come back apart for powdercoating the brackets and bucket....so I'll pull the bulb and adjust that when we take it back apart

next I decided to play around with a piece of flat bar to see about making a stop for the speedo drive hub

drilled and tapped two holes in the fender mount for the fork and came up with this template. now that I have the bend figured out, I can make a prettier one later.

made up the stainless braided front brake line with parts from summitracing....

this hole in the lower triple worked out nicely

tidy

then moved on to making a rear brake switch bracket

so now everything I did last night comes back apart for powdercoat.....bucket, headlight ears, and rear brake switch mount all are going to be that satin black, and the chrome ring from the headlight will be gold. Went through all my cables and didn't find one shorter for the speedo cable, so will have to order one. other than that I just have to wrap the exhaust and mount the fuse panel and mirrors.

 

[3DogNate]

Looks good bro... keep it up.

 

[focusinprogress]

Been a long day, between this thing and a 1971 CB750 I'm overhauling for a customer......ugh

anyway, started off decent by drilling and tapping the frame to mount some rear turn signals....wires pass through the frame

then while I buttoned up the wiring for the signals and tail light, Luke blasted all the headlight bits (after I drilled some holes in the mounting ears I made to spice them up a bit) and coated all but the outer trim ring black...and the ring went gold.

https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/11127771_1625668534313941_2909488566577778825_n.jpg?oh=59809ba0712f233b2a783a1949a7de0f&oe=55E229F4[/img

[img]https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11193267_1625668480980613_7848450866436573664_n.jpg?oh=4927154988f168a500bdc80b581323fa&oe=559C3BA1

So, here's where it got crappy on me. So I get the bike to this point, and decide it's time for a shakedown ride through the parking lot.

Problem 1: guess the jets I put in are still a little on the lean side, won't run off choke.

I figure, what the hell....lets just ride on choke for now.

problem 2: go to grab clutch and click to 1st....no first....more like a whirring noise of only half engaging first. Hmm, lever is good and not much free play....

let's try second gear....cool, clicks right in. limped off a dead stop and rode around the lot in 2nd. So then I wonder if something's up with a shift fork or something like that, but decide to play with the clutch adjustment to be sure.

so I end up with this issue:

-with the adjuster up at the lever all the way in, I set the actuator adjustment to just barely before having no play in the lever. This yields what I described above....won't get 1st gear while running. With motor off, I can get it into first gear no problem.

-now at this point, if I further adjust the actuator inward, I can get it to the point where pulling in the lever I can shift to first while running, but then the lever has ZERO play and upon trying to let out of the clutch it's not all the way disengaged when I've let go of the lever.

What I think is going on is a mismatch in parts. this was a 1981 bike, with a melted piston....so I got an older points model motor and swapped over the TCI ignition parts and have the 1981 clutch actuator on the earlier motor, with the 1981 cable. I think there's some differences in the pieces and have to figure out what I need for this to work right. otherwise I just need to bleed the brake up front, wrap the exhaust, and adjust the carb jetting. Pretty frustrated

 

[focusinprogress]

so good news bad news. I'll start with the bad news.

I did some research and the clutch actuators are NOT different. So, I pulled off the clutch cover to inspect the clutch itself. out of 7 friction discs and steels, 3 steels were BLUE from over heating and only 2 friction discs still had enough material on them to make out the little splits on the material (the others looked effectively one smooth ring of material).

so, I went and pulled the entire clutch pack from the 81 motor and installed in this.

Still same symptoms. My worst fears realized. internal issue.

so I took a day off work and pulled the motor, split the cases, split the cases on the 81 motor and swapped the trans in (after of course discovering the obvious issues in the 78 motor/trans), and put the motor back in the frame. took about 9hrs including building a jig to hold the motor upside down.

I ran out of steam before I could button up the rest of the bike and saved it for the next day (yesterday).

the shift fork that pushes into 1st gear was slightly bent, badly grooved, and sloppy in the cog

So, back to last night finishing up putting the bike back together. I get it all assembled and add fluids, it's about 10pm. turn the key, go to kick....and the kicker is REALLY hard to push....and when really jumping on it it has a weird sound like one of those old hand-crank-sirens.....clutch cover comes back off, and I start poking around. somehow, the electric start mechanism is jammed in the engaged position, so the kickstarter was trying to also turn the starter motor. I take the mech apart, set it back to where it's supposed to be, verify it engages and disengages smoothly, put it all back together.....and it does the same thing. back apart and the starter mech has jammed again. it's 10:45. I decide too bad, this just won't be having electric start. remove the mechanism, double check the kicker is working correctly, put it back together, and voila! she starts!

Now, please oh please tell me 1st gear works.....

I asked GV1390 to be the test pilot, because if it didn't have first I might ghost ride it into a wall.

https://instagram.com/p/2VwJ44g27G/?taken-by=njedsell

Words cannot express how relieved I was that it rode right off. really sucked having to go through all of that on a customer build.....but it's a chance I took in using all unknown pieces I had collected over the years from other bikes and bartering....and it was my responsibility to make it right. In the end, I had all the parts....so it only cost me $11 for a tube of yamabond for sealing the cases back up and a day of my PTO at work.

going to wrap the exhaust tonight and tie up some loose ends as far as routing wiring and small stuff. Then photoshoot, then Ron picks her up.

 

[Tune-A-Fish]

Might be the picks but that oil looks like a solar system of sparkles ???

 

[focusinprogress]

yeah, the 81 motor had no top end on it for some time so there was a bunch of stuff in there....the trans was in great shape with no rust or anything so I got lucky there.

The oil that came out of the 78 motor I assume is loaded with very small shavings from the bad shift fork, the cog that rode on where it was grinding into, and the face of that cog where it was supposed to engage 1st gear where that had some markings of contact. I keep tons of oil around as I buy it in 5qt jugs so I tossed that crap and put fresh in. I'll be changing it again after a longer shakedown ride.

 

[focusinprogress]

Well, even after the little hiccups along the way the bike came out exactly the way I wanted it to, and Ron was over the moon with the outcome. My girlfriend is a photography enthusiast and took some really great shots of the bike before Ron took it home.

Calling this one done. On to the next!

 

[Patmanbbe]

Man I want to do one of these xs650 Hardtails. Great looking bike man. Nice work.

 

[treitz]

Wow this came out great. I have a hardtail on my "someday" build list. Love the idea of the modern front end + hardtail. One of the first I've seen. Bravo!

 

[focusinprogress]

Thanks for the kind words guys!