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Thank you. The exhaust is stock.

My son and I built a1980 XS400 Cafe Racer a few years back that hasn't seen much use since he's been away at college. The cafe build included installing pods and converting to Iridium BPR7EIX plugs with (IIRC) a non-resistive plug connector on the original plug wires. He's recently moved home...

Installing the resistors defeats one of the benifits of LED flashers (and stops) which is reduced load on your charging system.

You may find that after installing the new flasher that both sides will blink because of feedback through the flasher indicator light in the "dash" (it did on my son's 1980 XS400). That can be fixed with a couple $1 diodes from RadioShack (or similar) and a little creative rewire inside the...

For the clutch slippage, first try adjusting the clutch. After that, the next easiest thing to try is changing the oil. Make sure to use an oil designed for motorcycles with wet clutches. After that its wither clutch disks and/or springs.

Rather than dick with the jets, I would be looking for a good used stock exhaust system. I wouldn't worry too much about a little smoke unless it is a lot and remains after warmup.

For the seat of our project we decided the form we wanted by paging through hundreds of cafe racer images on the net and then adding our own twist. I mocked it up in cardboard and made a template I took to a local metal shop who cut it out and folded up the front section and rear section as 2...

For a winter project on a nice running bike you don't plan to customize: safety first. Rebuild brakes calipers and master cylinder, replace front brake pads and rear brake shoes. Check neck bearings for looseness. Check swing arm bearing. Check front and rear wheel bearings. Check throttle and...

You might also want to take a look at the ignition timing. I bought our 80 XS400 from a guy who had cleaned the carbs a few times but couldn't get any throttle response at all (bike would idle but engine simply would not rev up with the throttle). Setting the ignition timing correctly cleared up...

Despite the assurances of your mechanic, the most likely source is carbs and/or timing. The other possibility is some of the parts off the other bike are not perfectly compatible with your bike.

When I clean the carbs (soon) I will check the jets. I strongly suspect they are stock. I did not have this starting problem after the initial build (first year of use) and the jets are the same. I did try leaning the mixture screws during the initial build and 3 turns out was where it ran best...

Scorpio1963: I would expect the bike to run a little lean already because the pods already allow for extra airflow but the plugs are black and wet. Jetting generally is for richer fuel flow. Since the bike was stock and somewhat neglected when purchased I doubt the PO (or PPO or maybe PPPO?)...

Xschris: Compression is 140 in each cylinder, Idle screws set 3 tuns out (tried turning them in when build completed and 3 turns out is where it seemed to run best). Carbs were bench synced using the index card method prior to initial install after the rebuild. Valves do shound chattery so I...

So, since this spring, our 2 year old cafe bike will not start without starting fluid. The carbs were meticulously (and I mean meticulously) cleaned and rebuilt during the build 2 years ago (completely dissassembled and cleaned, replace idle mixture needle o-rings and throttle shaft o-rings...

I believe the neutral switch is under the side cover where the cluth cable enters the engine. Other issues to look at: starter switch on the handlebars may be going bad, kickstand switch may be going bad, solenoid switch may be going bad.

You can buy a cheap spot weld cutter at most auto body supply places (less than $20). They are like a small hole saw for metal used in an electric drill. I used to do a fair amount of auto body hobby work and used them whenever I had to seperate spot welded body parts.

I converted our 1980 unit to halogen using a $15 (IIRC) halogen bulb from the local Pep Boys auto store. I drilled a small hole into the base of the sealed beam bulb thru the actual bulb base and inserted a small screw driver thu the hole to break the actual interior bulb. I then pried the tabs...

Use a meter to check all the bulbs. They may appear good but still be bad.

If you didn't have any issues at the end of last riding season with the same jet setup, its most probably not the jets. I'd guess vacuum leak as noted by Scorpio1963 and also check the carb diaphrams for holes.

Great job. I really like the seat. Is that a factory unit or some kind of custon. I don't recall seeing any like it on this site.