1982 XS400 project

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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!

[El Bandito]

Ugh - wrong gaskets. I hate delays.

[El Bandito]

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



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



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:



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



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



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:



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:



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!

[Lunatic]

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.

[El Bandito]

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

[El Bandito]

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!



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



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:



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.



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





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.



More tomorrow!

[El Bandito]

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



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.



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



And attaching the top mounts.



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



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:



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.



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.



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.