jvdavidson
'78 XS400-2E
Man it's been a while since I was last here... well to sum up what I did with my 78XS400 since I last posted...I finally got it to run equally well or better than the Hamilton Swiss Watch on my wrist... seriously folks... it's gorgeous. From dead cold I can start it in just a couple kicks. To do this, I first said to heck with the fluid-based manometer I previously used to balance the crabs and bought a gauge-type manometer which comes with adjustable dampers to cut down the wobble and get a perfect reading. Having my carbs exquisitely in sync made a HUGE improvement...I then threw a cherry on top in the form of an electronic ignition module... maybe not necessary but dang...I smile every time I stop at a light and don't have to worry about it dying out at random... had enough of that crap back when I used to live in inner city Chicago - not fond of those days.
So what I NEED to do to my xs...well my rear turn signals/ brake lights are dangerously dim as explained by a friend when we went riding together last year - I'm OK at night but during daylight it's nearly impossible to tell if I'm braking or turning... it's not the bulbs... when I hook them straight to the battery they're way brighter than when I hook them up in the sockets. They otherwise work just fine - turn signals blink fine and they respond to both brake switches... haven't ridden it much at all since I became aware of how bad my lights were.. Last time I looked into it I found myself with nothing but a blank stare and no improvements. For your consideration, my rear lighting consists of twin trailer lights which are dual-filament so they're simultaneously my brake, tail, and turn lights... there's gotta be someone else out there with the same configuration as opposed to the stock one tail/brake and independent turn signals.
Other than that I need to buy a shorter Speedo cable since I lowered the bars with clip-ons... maybe a different Speedo/instrument setup altogether... something more fashionable... last time I posted on this site I was unemployed in between school and finally getting a job... now I have a job... and some money to blow. On a bigger scale I want to buy a small lithium ion battery and clean up my wiring configuration ...it presently leaves much to be desired.
So if anyone has any input on my turn signal woes or a recommendation for battery and/or instrument upgrades it would be sincerely appreciated!
Cheers!
- J
So what I NEED to do to my xs...well my rear turn signals/ brake lights are dangerously dim as explained by a friend when we went riding together last year - I'm OK at night but during daylight it's nearly impossible to tell if I'm braking or turning... it's not the bulbs... when I hook them straight to the battery they're way brighter than when I hook them up in the sockets. They otherwise work just fine - turn signals blink fine and they respond to both brake switches... haven't ridden it much at all since I became aware of how bad my lights were.. Last time I looked into it I found myself with nothing but a blank stare and no improvements. For your consideration, my rear lighting consists of twin trailer lights which are dual-filament so they're simultaneously my brake, tail, and turn lights... there's gotta be someone else out there with the same configuration as opposed to the stock one tail/brake and independent turn signals.
Other than that I need to buy a shorter Speedo cable since I lowered the bars with clip-ons... maybe a different Speedo/instrument setup altogether... something more fashionable... last time I posted on this site I was unemployed in between school and finally getting a job... now I have a job... and some money to blow. On a bigger scale I want to buy a small lithium ion battery and clean up my wiring configuration ...it presently leaves much to be desired.
So if anyone has any input on my turn signal woes or a recommendation for battery and/or instrument upgrades it would be sincerely appreciated!
Cheers!
- J
That isn't right, but we'd have to look into it later as we had a bike night to attend. Since we were effectively done tuning, we connected the battery tender to get a bit of a charge back into the battery and started assembling the bike. The tank was flopping around loose and it's bolt was MIA. 
It looked like the rubber bumper that goes across the frame wasn't touching the tank, which allowed the tank to flop side to side on the front and rear mounts. I quickly fabricated a spacer to go between the tank and the rear frame rubber from some soft 1/2" plastic plumbing tubing and found a bolt that would temporarily secure the tank.
We quickly removed the tank and found two cracks in a soldered repair that had been done to the rear tank mount years ago. Apparently my spacer, and the wiggling about, had stressed the solder and broke it.
That should have been brazed! 
Regardless, it was my mistake that broke the tank, and now 
for leaving her bike worse than when I arrived. 
