1982 XS400 project

I don't see a project thread forum, so moderators, please move this thread if it's inappropriate here.

So, I picked up a Yamaha XS400 DOHC as a project bike yesterday, trailered it home, and took stock of what's going to need to be done.

For starters, it wasn't starting, but the former owner said it worked fine until he put the seat on. I suspected a broken fuse, and after checking all 4, and consulting my handy dandy German wiring diagram (I do not speak German, but we got by), figured out that the ignition fuse was not working. Off to PartSource for fuses, and then I got the bike to do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnFI4zD9myU

I'm working on my maniacal laugh.

Since that video from this morning, I've removed the seat, gas tank, intake and carbs, and am about to cut off the exhaust. The exhaust is so corroded that there are huge cracks in the side of the mufflers. Can anyone recommend a store that carries Mac exhaust products? I love the two into one chrome number they manufacture (also, no one else manufactures exhausts for this bike. Good think I like it.)

Other issues: There is oil leaking from the head gasket on the right side of the engine. I have a gasket set on it's way from Vancouver to help with this issue.

Other other issue: not as pressing, but the bike is kinda multicoloured right now, with a purple tank and side panels, and a black rear fender. The tank has been repainted, and is quite orange peely, so that'll need to be fixed. Thankfully, I found a whole set of extra emblems in the back of the bike! Score!

The bike is otherwise in good shape. It will need a new front tire to certify, but the electrics are good (if suspicious - there are definitely extra parts in there, and the fuse box isn't stock.) More with pics tomorrow!

Day 2 was carb day, and it all ended with a bang.

My daughter went to sleep for her afternoon nap, and I ran out to the garage, rubbing my hands with anticipation. The carbs had been removed on Sunday, and I'd spent the evening reading, re-reading and re-re-reading everything that I'd have to do.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.

The first problem is that my carbs look much more corroded than the ones in any pictures:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.12.23.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.12.03.jpg

Fortunately, it would seem that over the last 30 or so years, no one has overtorqued the bolts, and as my wife said after the waterskiing accident, I lost my bottoms!

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.18.04.jpg

The floats are in great shape, and seem to be resting within spec. The jets all came out easily, and were mostly clean. There was a little bit of gunk in the bottom of the carbs, but very little varnish. If I had to guess, these have been cleaned no more than a couple of years ago.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.20.20.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.28.55.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.42.57.jpg

I cleaned one set of jets at a time, to make sure nothing got mixed up. Odd that the main jets are different sizes for each carb - must have to do with the off centre air intake.

Hmm... looking at these pictures, note to self. Do not use that loaf pan again for banana bread.

Now, a word to the wise, that I should have kept in mind. If you have rusty bolts, soak them before you try to remove them with something like PB Blaster. I did not, and now I can only get one breast exposed - ah - top removed. These little bolts are pretty soft, and I'll be going to the hardware store for four new ones after I drill out the one I've now rounded.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.31.51.jpg

Otherwise, everything is coming up roses. I was working in the garage with the front and side door open, help open by a pile of bricks, and was running out of time before I knew my daughter would wake up. Sure enough, as though it was a sign from above, a huge gust of wind told me it was time to clean up by slamming the side door and shattering the window.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-14.24.31.jpg

So, that's it for today. God told me it was time to stop. Tomorrow, I'll finish the carbs, and then get back to work on dropping the engine.

All right, I only had an hour today between stuff to do, so let's get down to it.

First priority was removing that screw. Handy easy out screw remover and a drill bit did the job.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-13.34.06.jpg

Once I got the cap off the carb, everything looked great, except for the cap and the screws.

So I grabbed my lemon juice in the kitchen, fired up the stove, and gave them all an acid bath. Just like C3PO in Star Wars.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-13.58.54.jpg

Note to self - kitchen reeks of burning lemon and hydrocarbons. Air out kitchen before wife gets home.

Once they were all back together, they look, if not new, at least the same. Note the replacement screw - my hardware shop has limited selection, but they are close and cheap, which is good. I'm open to suggestions for replacement hardware with the right caps, as you will see later that my bike has a few screws loose (proof that maybe it was made for me.)

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-14.02.48.jpg

So, here's the bike so far (I believe this is my first picture posted here of it - I do have a seat and a tank, and all side panels. They'll come up later, perhaps in an official before and after shot once I'm done.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-13.43.03.jpg

Tach cable removed:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-13.42.50.jpg

I took a look at the side sprocket cover, and it looks like the bike is missing at least 3 fastners. Can anyone confirm what size and length I need for replacements here? There's the top one, which is easy to see in the picture, but one of the bottom screws is missing too. The three screws that were there were two different sizes, so I'm open to suggestions.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-13.54.53.jpg

And of course, the horror once it was off. I don't think this has been degunked in 30 years. You can't see it, but there's even a spider web in the top left corner.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-14.06.58.jpg

That's it for today. I drained the oil, soaked every screw I could find with PB Blaster, and now have to search for a saw to cut off the muffler. I think my dremel will do it, but I am currently out of saw blades.

Next time: dropping the engine (hopefully not on the ground.)

Boo - none of your pictures work.

Hum. They all show for me, but I've uploaded all the pics to my server so they hopefully can be viewed. Worky?

they all work now - thanks. Good write up.

Pic show for me...

Great work!
I like to see old bikes being brought back to life.

Once my wife was home, and dinner was done, I was able to take some time with the Dremel to take off the old exhaust. I love my Dremel. I think of it as the motorcycle of power tools. Small, nimble, with a 17,000 rpm redline. Cuts through anything.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-19.00.35.jpg

The biggest challenge was finding the right angles to get through it without the blade touching anything else (like the chain - I'd rather not replace it if I don't have to spend the money.) 10 minutes of lying on the ground, hoping I've swept up all the broken glass, and the exhaust split in two.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-19.10.45.jpg

This side doesn't look too bad - I cut the cross pipe before the seriously rusted section.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-19.14.42.jpg

It doesn't show well here, but the clamp was wrapped around a big rust ball. And I'm pointing to where the right exhaust was completely rotted through.

No regrets about cutting that off.

And today I ordered my replacement 2 into 2 exhaust (in the end, about $100 cheaper than the 2 into 1. Someday I'll get a pipe bender and make my own, but for now it's down to what's on Ebay.)

For a job like that, a cheap grinder with a cutoff wheel from CT would be much more efficient.

Efficient in which way? I already own a dremel and the cut off wheels, so this costs me 0 additional dollars. A CT grinder, while faster I'm sure, would also have to be purchased. Cost efficiency is lower for the grinder, time efficiency is higher.

A grinder is on my wish list for someday, though...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by El Bandito

Efficient in which way? I already own a dremel and the cut off wheels, so this costs me 0 additional dollars. A CT grinder, while faster I'm sure, would also have to be purchased. Cost efficiency is lower for the grinder, time efficiency is higher.

A grinder is on my wish list for someday, though...

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When I bought my angle grinder from CT it was on sale $45, for the grinder + 20 cut off discs +10 grinding discs or so... To date I've only used one disc. It's more than I will need for a while lol.

I bought my CT grinder for $20 on sale. I just used it to cut through a piece of .25" aluminum plate. A grinder is a very helpful tool when building, restoring and modifying bikes.

Another vote for the poverty CT angle grinder (the one that goes on sale for $20). Even though it sounds like a bag of marbles when you use it, the damn thing just keeps working.

Unfortunately, I had the flu these past two days. I won't go into details... but I'm feeling much better today.

So much better that I decided to take 30 minutes this evening and take out the engine.

Step 1 (if you ignore all previous steps, which I do not recommend), remove front sprocket:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...4-19.28.48.jpg

Off with the upper engine mounts. These will need to be cleaned, as they're quite rusty, especially on the inside.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...4-19.38.06.jpg

Remove the two monster lower bolts, having first held up the engine with a jack, and voila!

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...4-19.54.23.jpg

I admit, this was a lot heavier than I expected. I suppose a beach ball of metal should be heavy, though. None of my lazy layoubout former friends were willing to come over and help, citing issues like children and broken legs. I just won't be calling them anymore.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...4-19.54.30.jpg

Next step? Clean the crap out of everything. This bike is filthy, and I have no interest in getting all the crap from the outside into the inside of the engine. That's Saturday's plan!

Sorry for the delay. I've been better for a bit, but I've been very busy. I decided that my daughter doesn't need a morning nap anymore, partially so I can have a longer uninterupted period in the afternoon to work on the bike, but it seems that instead she just isn't sleeping at all.

But we shall persevere.

In the meantime, I got the engine up onto my workbench and under the halogens. Here's why I'm bothering to replace the head gasket:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...6-13.31.46.jpg

You can see that the left hand cylinder is leaking oil. I'm hoping when I open her up that it's just the seals, and not something bigger.

Before opening her up, I wanted to get her nice and clean. As you can see, her bottom is a little dirty:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...6-13.50.28.jpg

She still needs some work, but she's looking better:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...6-14.00.03.jpg

I had better luck with the back and sprocket area:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...6-14.21.54.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...6-14.21.47.jpg

And then I finally took off the cam cover:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...6-14.44.52.jpg

I love how that looks. I stopped there because I realized I still didn't have my new gaskets, and there's no use moving forward without them. Tonight I instead pulled the rear swingarm to inspect the rear brake, rear shock absorber, and make everything clean, and I have a few shots to share, but right now they're stuck in my phone.

So, until tomorrow!

Subscribed! :happy1:

Last night I had some time, and no gaskets, so I turned my attention to the frame for a bit. For the most part, it's in really good shape. There isn't even much surface rust, and so I'm not going to have to touch it. I was a little concerned about the gunk on the swingarm, though. Here's the before picture:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...9-12.57.42.jpg

The swingarm came off easily enough, but I was horrified once I started cleaning it with some engine degreaser. The black paint was coming off! But hang on, now the alignment marks were appearing, and they were silver. A quick check on google images confirmed that the swingarm is not supposed to be black - it's supposed to be silver. That's a lot of grime.

While cleaning:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...9-17.55.30.jpg

I reinstalled everything, retorqued the bolts, and then removed the front fender so I could inspect the front brake. The caliper is in great shape, and should just need a bit of cleaning.

With the fender off, you can really get an idea of what a chopped XS might look like:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...9-20.02.40.jpg

Um... I suppose it would just need an engine. More on that later!

subscribed.

I have wanted to do a bob'ed version of a xs for awhile now.....but I think my wife would kill me if I brought another bike home.

Looks great so far!

Ugh - wrong gaskets. I hate delays.

All right, so where were we. Here are the DOHCs:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...0-10.33.51.jpg

Which were carefully removed. Now it's a NOHC:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...0-14.10.24.jpg

I love egg cartons for this kind of work. It's like having little small parts dispensers that can get covered with oil, while making sure that I don't lose anything, and all the parts stay mated:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...0-14.10.30.jpg

I was really worried about losing the chain into the engine compartment.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...0-14.10.40.jpg

And here's what I found when I got the head off:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...0-14.32.03.jpg

You can see exactly where the oil was leaking out through the gasket on the bottom left of the photo.

I cleaned off the oil, grime, and gasket remainder using the flat of a screwdriver, a 3/4 inch chisel and tin foil, as well as lots of carb cleaner (is there anything carb cleaner can't do?)

While cleaning everything off, I discovered something that absolutely delighted me under all the grime at the front of the engine:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...0-14.48.57.jpg

An Easter Egg! This little logo is completely invisible when the engine is assembled, sitting between two fins on the engine. And especially when it's under all that grime.

After an hour or so of cleaning, it's all looking much better:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...0-15.40.27.jpg

And that's when I discovered that I was sent the wrong replacement gasket set. Which means I'm now stuck. Fortunately, there's still lots to do, such as cleaning the cylinder head, which will be tomorrow. Then, we paint!

Great job, looking forward to seeing the end result. I've got an XS650 Cafe/fighter/mutant, love the old XS's :)

BTW, there's now a forum dedicated to the XS400, http://www.xs400.com/ XS650.com is run by the same guy and it's a great board.

Thanks for the tip. I'm actually cross posting over there, and they've got some great ideas.

Whew! It's been a long weekend.

My plan had been to get the entire bike painted, or at least primed over the Easter long weekend. Alas, my wife insisted that I actually spend some time with family, so there was a bit of a break.

No worries - during the break these arrived!

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...6-13.13.01.jpg

Which means that I was able to replace the head onto the engine, and get it all back together.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...7-14.53.29.jpg

It still needs more cleaning. I'm debating whether or not I should take the time to strip the black spray paint off of it, or if it isn't noticeable. Hummm...

Anyway, back to paint. Here's what it looked like when I got the bike:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-10.59.33.jpg

I tried to get a shot to show just how much orange peel there is in the finish. I'm pretty sure a previous owner just rattle canned it in their garage and called it a day.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-10.59.41.jpg

As I stripped it, my suspicions were confirmed by the absence of any kind of primer. Still, now it's all pretty!

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...3-14.08.24.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...3-14.08.39.jpg

Which means it's time to prime. It's been a while, so I'm starting with the side panels, as they're smaller, so there's less cleanup if I screw up.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...7-13.21.33.jpg

More tomorrow!

In the end, I couldn't resist, so I took off most of the black paint. Now that is a clean engine:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...8-14.54.10.jpg

If I was going to cafe this bike, now is when the metal polishing madness would start. But I'm not going to. It looks great as it is, I think.

A couple of things are happening simultaneously right now, but I'll try to make sure this makes sense.

First, putting the bike back together. It seems it goes together much easier than it came apart.

I moved the engine onto a small platform under the bike, rolled it forward, and attached the bottom engine bolt.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-14.28.10.jpg

Then it was just a matter of pivoting the engine up to get the middle engine bolt:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-09.23.05.jpg

And attaching the top mounts.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...2-14.38.24.jpg

Reattach the carbs and air box, and we're ready to roll:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...3-14.08.13.jpg

Well, except that the gas tank is still not painted. So, while all this was happening over the last week, I also kept up with the painting. First, the side panels:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...9-14.25.43.jpg

I have decided that I like the colour - it's a pearlescent blue/violet metallic, that should sparkle and trick the eye once it's clear coated and buffed.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-14.28.28.jpg

They still need clear coat and buffing, but I've put them aside so I can work on the tank. I need the tank so I can test out the motor, so now it's primed too.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-14.28.42.jpg

I've just finished sanding and putting on the first 12 coats of colour. I'll take pictures after the next 12, when it should start looking like the final product.

Still to do: repair and paint front fender, paint rear fender, replace front brake pads, bleed front brakes, tune engine (timing and carb balancing) and take er for a test ride. With some luck, we'll be there by this weekend, next week at the latest.

Any news?

I didn't think anyone cared, so I stopped posting. Thanks for reminding me!

So... things have moved along, but I got lazy and stopped updating. So here we go.

First, the painting is done. What a pain. So much sanding. I don't have a sander, so everything's been done by hand. That means that when I got tired, and thought I was done, the tank looked like this:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...-12.52.070.jpg

Which was okay, I thought, until my wife informed me that "it doesn't look like the paint on my car." Right. More sanding, polishing, waxing, and it finally looked like this:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...7-14.09.38.jpg

To be fair, it does look much shinier now. The white bars are a reflection of some plumbing in my basement. Now, it does look like her car, only better.

So, painting done, I was very excited when my exhaust arrived. It was labelled on eBay XS400 all years. Right. Should have done my research.

Here's the old and new exhausts side by side:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...4-16.04.22.jpg

Those of you with older XS400s will recognize the bends (if you're really nerdy about exhausts). But these bends don't fit the DOHC engine. See?

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...4-16.03.58.jpg

That's pressed as far in as it will go, and the exhaust is a little bit blocked by the engine. Back it went, stern letter to the sellers, and I purchased the correct part. Now I know that when looking for exhausts for the DOHC XS400, include the key word "Seca" and you can't go wrong (for engine parts, that is.)

New exhaust came a couple of weeks later, and it's a beauty!

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...5-13.12.49.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...5-14.07.33.jpg

The reorder also let me get the 2-into-1 that I'd secretly been lusting after as a second thought. Nice.

So, then onto the front brake. While pressing in the piston to put in a new pad, I heard a pop, and suddenly had no brake pressure at all. When I finally pulled everything apart, there were a couple of problems found.

1. The master cylinder had broken. New kits are pretty cheap, and while the circlip caused me a great deal of swearing, the new one fit in perfectly.

Here's the old cylinder with my specialty circlip removing tool. Two wood nails did the trick to break the circlip free enough to get it out with my circlip pliers.

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...7-12.52.44.jpg

Old to new comparo (new on the left.)

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...8-08.57.09.jpg

New master cylinder in, I discovered...

2. Rusted out bleed screw. I couldn't bleed the brakes because the channel through the bleed screw was completely corroded. I went hunting online for a replacement part, and couldn't find one for less than $80. $*)#U@!!! So instead, figuring I had nothing to lose, I soaked it in boiling lemon juice. Cleaned it up in no time!

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...4-09.25.21.jpg

Which let me bleed the brakes, with the new pads and seals installed. Nice!

Next task was the leaking front forks. The right was leaking, but I figured the left couldn't be far behind. Now, this job sucks. Trying to get the freaking caps off the tops of the forks was a nightmare! Little circlips that can only be freed when there's pressure on the fork? Who designed that?

I figured there had to be a better way. And there was. Take notes, people, because based on my internet research, this job is frequently cited as brutal.

First, I loosened the handlebars. I took my 3 inch ratchet extension and an 8mm socket, and carefully wedged it between the loosened handlebars and the centres of the fork caps. Like so:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...7-13.18.03.jpg

A couple of things: a) don't let the socket press against the inside of the fork tube. No one wins in that situation. 2) make sure that you go slow, and try not to fire a socket extension into your forehead, and iii) if you try this too, and it works for you as well, you owe me a beer.

Cause it worked really well for me:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...7-13.21.36.jpg

Next problem with the fork tubes is getting to that little recessed 6mm hex bolt in the bottom of the fork tubes. I couldn't use my regular allen keys, and couldn't reach with my ratchets. So, another makeshift tool:

First, get yourself a giant 6mm allen key, like so:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.08.27.jpg

Next, chop off the little bit with something, like a dremel (I love dremels.)

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.11.35.jpg

And finally, load the long bit into your 6mm socket. Add a gigantic breaker bar, and you have an awesome new tool:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...1-13.20.31.jpg

Which loosens your damper tubes, and lets you disassemble your forks, easy peasy. Well, except for getting the seals out, which is still brutal. In my case, it took a whole lot of swearing and elbow grease. I'm open to suggestions for next time.

At this point, I have done the following to the bike:

Repainted all the tins, plastics and the tank.
Replaced the fork oil
Replaced the fork seals
Replaced the front brake fluid
Replaced the front brake pads
Replaced the front brake master cylinder
Replaced the spark plugs
Replaced the head gasket
Cleaned the carbs
Balanced the carbs
Checked the float levels on the carbs
Replaced the gear shifter (it was held together with electrical tape)
Replaced the exhaust
Discovered that under all the grime, the swingarm is silver, not black
Replaced a 20 cent fuse
Replaced the tired out battery.

And here's the result:

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...-18.18.291.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...-18.19.531.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...-18.21.311.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...-18.20.081.jpg

http://www.twitchdad.net/wp-content/...-18.21.091.jpg

This has been an awesome bike to work on. The whole time I kept thinking of things that could be modified. But instead, I think it's time to sell and move onto the next project. But you can be sure I'll be watching for anther XS400.

Looks totally awesome.

Ive got a 79, thats waiting to be rebuilt thats why I wanted more updates. Your project got me excited but Im nervous about opening everything up.

The 79 is the SOHC - much easier to find parts, but a little different from mine. If you haven't already found them, the guys at www.xs400.com are really knowledgeable about the SOHC engine.

Angle grinder is on sale at Canadian tire for $19.95 right now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freestyle72

Angle grinder is on sale at Canadian tire for $19.95 right now.

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Picked it up. Thanks!