The adventure of a first bike and the young guy that owns it

I found those manuals in the garage section those will be extremely helpful. I have a bunch of good metric tools and a torque wrench from when I had the bmw. I don't have any spare parts yet. Does anyone have a link do how for a good check the spark walk through? Or is that in the manual? It does have a kickstart which I plan to use frequently because I think they're cool :)
 
try google;-) here is one "universal"
but I didn't watch the whole thing - so watch it first and see if its covering all you need to know:) I don't know is it in your manual really:)

I don't know if I wrote it already but when you are done with firing up the engine you should go through whole maintenance section of your manual and just do everything its covers:)

have fun:)
 
So I live in an apartment and don't have a garage. Last night the bike stayed in my neighbors garage but tonight We walked it to my friends garage 12 blocks away 3 of which are very uphill... He knows more about bike than I do and his first bike was an xs400. He looked it over and said it looked pretty good. Kicked the kick start and he said it sounds and felt right. I don't suspect that's a very accurate test but I'm feeling better about it. Other than that found out it is missing the big bolt that holds the forks... So I need to get one of those. Took a couple more pictures. Didn't get to do any real work on it tonight but took a couple more pictures that better show dents and such... There are only dents in the tank none in the exhaust.
image.jpg
 
yea you'll be just fine. Get a fresh battery, clean the carbs (take plenty of time and watch those vids), put in a fuel filter and do the oil change. Chances are that after that, the bike will fire up and you'll be able to ride it for a bit, until you decide to tackle the tires and the rest of the maintenance.
 
As I was driving to get a battery the fuel pump went out in my truck and that is why I haven't posted much. I got a new battery and all the lights came on which seems like a good sign. Haven't tested the spark yet. Tested compression and it was good. Removed the carbs and have begun the rebuild. Going smooth so far. More updates and questions to come.
 
Well it's been a long time since I posted anything. It was running but after riding about five minutes it would die. Also I realized I mounted the carb boots upside down :doh: which caused the throttle to hit the vacuum ports hence not much throttle to give. after fixing that I thought I had it running pretty well but then it died again and on my way back to the garage (about a mile) it died 3 or 4 times. The last time it died it was on a hill and when I started it again it jolted and well... I dropped it :/

The good: hardly a scratch from dropping it. The bad: it started running on only one cylinder. The spark plugs wires were old and would shock you if you touched them so I replaced those... still one cylinder... new plugs... still one cylinder. Took the carbs off and gave them another really good clean (this time I removed the pilot jet under the cap that I did not last time). Firing on both cylinders again... idle seems a bit high and it is making a slight click/popping sound I'm hoping that syncing the carbs will alleviate that to some degree... built myself a fancy bottle style manometer following the how to on this site and tomorrow we will see.

Also I got a new tank since the old one was pretty shot (used the petcock and cap from it though) I think it is from an xs250 but it fits fine and looks great
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photo 2.jpg

photo 3.jpg
 
Alright, started it up. It seemed to be idling pretty good, unfortunately just on one side again.:banghead: Changed the spark plug (the tip was black). Started it up, both cylinders firing ran it to warm it up. Turned it off... connected my homemade meter... then it started acting funny. The right cylinder (the one that hadn't been running) started making little pop sounds and it looked like the carb was trying to be kicked out of the boot. Then I saw something (vapor?) come up the vacuum port into the tube of my meter... I'm at a loss. I have no idea what would cause that. Help?!

(Other things I noticed... a rattling sound like something shaking inside the right exhaust)

Thanks for the compliments on the tank! they have really helped today with enduring the frustration :banghead:
 
Backfiring through the carb means you're probably too lean at idle or you have a vacuum leak.

How many turns out are the idle mixture screws?

Run the bike at idle and spray something like butane/carb cleaner around the intake connections and carb boots. If the rpms rise/surge when you spray there is probably a leak.

The rattling muffler internals are probably the remains on your rusting baffles if they are starting to go from the inside.
 
Yes, you could go as much as another full turn out on those. Play with those while its running.

Try and drop the idle speed as much as you can while keeping the idle stable. More turns out means more fuel at idle. More fuel at idle will tend to lower the idle rpms.

I think the technique is to turn the idle screw as far out as you can until the idle wont go any lower, then turn them in a little. You want to find that point just before the rpms won't drop any more. Do this for each side.
 
I was curious if it could be a valve issue. I have not done a valve adjustment (that would solve the valve not seating right problem, correct ?)All of this advice is great!

Would doing any particular one of these first be preferable?
 
possibly, but I also know a guy who had a bent intake valve which caused the problems you describe. He ended up taking the whole top end apart in order to fix the issue, a simple valve clearance adjustment won't help in that case.
 
...that would suck...
Would it be possible to tell if that were the case without taking the top end apart?
And if so how would you check?
(Sorry if that's a dumb question... I'm still fairly new to this)
 

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