XS650 Foot Rest Upgrade

Step #1 Take off and drill out the peg holding your foot support to your stock foot rest
#2 Buy a set of these pegs from ebay...
#3 New Pegs...Drill out the bolt and disassemble pegs
#4 Cut off the threaded screw on new peg with an angle grinder and sand smooth where bolt was, you will need to trim just a little bit from both sides of this piece so it will fit into the stock mounts.  Take your time.  I used an angle grinder with a cut off wheel and sanding disc.
#6 With an angle grinder, sand off a little bit from both sided off the new peg so they will slide into stock mounts.
#7 Once you have everything fitting snug, but slightly loose, screw everything together.  I used stainless hardware on my gloss black powder coated foot mounts.

Thanks to speedindoug for the photo   

'78 xs650 carbs, a little bit closer

Thanks to Rick at http://oldskoolcarbs.com/ for rebuilding a crusty set of swap meet carbs.  These things are better than new

A couple of XS650 engines

Here's a good example of a frozen/locked up engine. Next to it is another pretty sad XS650 engine, both motors have been taking up space in my work area for a while.  My 1978 XS650 project needs something reliable, and it looks like it's time for a NC trip for some crisis intervention/engine rehab/engine lovin.  So see you in a couple of months engines, get rephased, get a pma and new ignition system, do this for yourselves.

Making a seat for my XS650

It's been cold, and I've been riding a little bit, but this weekend I spent a little time trying to get my seat right for my '83 XS650.  I have a couple of extra frames to use for experimenting with.  The plan is to get a seat that is super easy to install and remove if needed.  Progress is going ok, but this is definetly a learning project since I've never messed with a seat before. 

Updating my XS650 Foot Rests

Here is a set of crusty old foot rests I had lying around in a box of XS650 parts.  They were not really good for anything, so I thought I'd hook them up for use in 2013.  First I used a cut off wheel on my angle grinder to remove the foot rests.  Next, I sanded that cut area smooth with a sanding wheel on the angle grinder.  Then these things got sand blasted in my cabinet.  Finally, the left side rest got drilled and the right side got a tab welded to it. I'm not completely happy with the right side tab though and am planning to beef it up before these get powder coated and put on.

My Trimmed Up XS650 Left Engine Cover

I spent a little time working on a left engine cover I plan on using yesterday.  First step was to pop off the cover and small cap and remove the worm gear clutch cable holder and spring.  Next I soaked this thing in gunk/engine degreaser for 40 minutes while I got lunch.  After lunch, I used a scotch brite and a smaller size platic brush to get the grease and dirt out.  Once it was cleaned up I marked off the area to cut with a sharpy and trimmed it up with an angle grinder.  It had some sharp edges, so I spent a little while filing them down to clean them up also.  Then I hit this cover with some 600 grit wet dry sand paper and followed that up with some steel whool.  Finally, it was time for the Mother's Aluminum polish and bench grinder polishing wheel.  I like the older motorcycle brushed aluminum look.  This took a little while but is well worth it.        

XS650 Valve and Points Covers swap

 

Winter sucks, but it's a good time to do stuff like this.  Here is a before (top) and after (bottum) shot of my valve and points covers I swapped out yesterday.  I had an extra set I had picked up at a swap meet or somewhere.  I just wanted to clean them up and get them back to respectable.  After removing the gaskets with a tiny nail, I used a green scotch bright pad and some degreaser under some water to get them clean.  Next step was some 600 grit wet dry sand paper to get them relatively smooth.  Then I followed that up with some steel wool.  Finally I used some Mother's Aluminum polish and polishing wheel on my bench grinder.  This only took a couple of hours and it looks all right.         



Winter is a good time for...

beard growing, getting fat, and polishing up some aluminum...yup...

Well, My weekend...

Partially consisted of replacing some ugly yellow spark plug wires and black NGK caps on the '83 XS650 (from previous owner)  and some riding on Saturday and Sunday

Here's the new wires and caps.  Wires are black 7mm (picked up from ebay), caps are NGK vintage red, also from Ebay.  Well this was an easy swap that took about 5 minutes.  I noticed that I'm getting a lot better performance from the new stuff.  I also swapped out the rusted engine bolts for some new chrome acorn bolts.  The new bolts are shiny, look at them^^^^up there. 

Been a crazy past few weeks, but finally a day off work

Hurricane Sandy gave me a day off which ment some much needed free time to spend on the XS650.  It's far from finished, but it's cool that it's starting to look more like the motorcycle I've had in my mind for so many months.  

Installing tapered roller bearings on the XS650

I picked up a 12" x 1 1/4" pipe and cap from the plumbing section of my local hardware store for this job.  Step #1, put the lower roller bearing on the steering stem.  Next, place the lower bearing race that was removed on the stem.  The 1 1/4" pipe lines up with the lower bearing race perfectly, so now just tap the bearing into place. If you haven't done this yet, do it!

Saturdays...

In between a morning and afternoon ride I got to spend some time working on the '78 frame Saturday. Yeah, it was a fun day.

XS650 Rear Fender

Progress has been slow the past couple of months, I've been riding alot and just enjoying an amazing summer.  My attention/focus is starting to return back to the '78 project though.  I got this ribbed wassell style rear fender in the mail yesterday.  It looks pretty amazing up next to the tank, bars and frame.  I think it's a thing where taking it slow will pay off in the long run.   

Pulling Mikuni Carburators off an XS650

Remove filters, unhook throttle and choke cables, loosen carb boot clamps, pull gas line (and plug with bolt), pull carb off carb boots, remove carb boots, slide out carbs.  Now the fun part.... Made sure I had a fresh set of pliers and a set of replacement carb screws handy.  Expecting that every screw on this carb would be frozen/overtightened/stuck like hell.  They were.  Got a can of Silicone spray and some Carb Cleaner.  Hooked up the air compressor.  Time to work...