Double Yammy - A tale of two XS650 motorsickles

Where do I start? For years in my early tinkering stages I mainly messed with old junky motorcycles. I had a small garage, very little money, and a desire to build stuff. Most of the bikes I put together would cost less than $1000 and be a few bucks shy of purty. I imagine I bought and sold over 30 bikes in a 8 year period. Possibly more. It was a lot of fun.

One day I was being a total dingus on my sweet ATK 605 and broke my collar bone. Scraped up my leg and ankle pretty good too. While it hurt a bit physically, it certainly made me more cognizant of my mortality. Long story short, I healed up, rode a few more times and hung up my helmet. I've put together a couple bikes since then, but mainly just to keep my hands busy. That's where these turds come into play. I bought them a few months back just because the price was right. They have sat at my FIL's shop waiting for my project queue to clear out, and as of yesterday they have finally nestled into my garage. I've had a few xs650s over the years, and while they are a popular bike, they never really did it for me. They vibrate like crazy, kinda heavy, and in stock form are pretty underwhelming. Sounds awesome right? Still contemplating what to do with these, but first we gotta assess what there is to work with.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

The red bike is a 77 or 78 and turns over. I haven't checked for spark, but the oil looks decent and feels like there's some compression there. Someone had UNI filters on it so I imagine the BS38 carbs have been re-jetted at some point. I managed to open the seat latch and gas tank with some cotter pins jammed in the key hole. Inside the tank is light surface rust, but nothing to worry about. I'll have to test it for leaks, but fingers crossed it's good to go. Seat pan is crusty in a few spots. Not sure if I make a custom one or try to recover this one. Oddly enough there is more rust on this frame than the other bike. No headlight. Wiring is cut in a bunch of spots. Front master cylinder is garbage but rear is functional. Missing left side cover. Fork tubes look straight with minimal rust outside of oil seal travel area.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

The black bike is a 79 or 80 and motor is locked up pretty good. Milkshake on the dipstick, tank is beat up and not worth saving. The drum shoes in the rear were seized up. Frame looks better than the red bike as well as wiring harness and electric bits. Also has stock air filter box and headlight. No exhaust. Carbs are the bs34 and look to be in good shape. Forks are a little rusty and may be pitted enough to have seal issues. I cut some of the rusty seat pan away to open since the seat lock wouldn't budge. The pan was trashed anyway with no future in being salvaged. Front master cylinder is also garbage.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

My plan is basic. Get the red bike running on the least amount of cash possible. Set valve lash, oil change, check spark for spark, clean carbs and get ready to fire. Hopefully the diaphragms aren't torn. If they are I'll at least try to breath life into the thing to see if things are healthy. Tonight I'll probably just try to do some cleaning so I can touch things without getting covered in shmutz.

Carbs were pulled last night to begin the cleaning process. UNI filters just crumble looking at them. Carb holders are cracked pretty bad on the outside, but I don't see signs of any where it counts on the bore. I'll leak test them when I get the bike started. Slides were stuck, but a little carb cleaner and some carefully placed leverage broke them free. Diaphragms were in good condition. Choke plungers were stuck, but after a little effort was able to break free. Points look clean and in decent shape. I need to check the advancer for spring back. Stator plate has some engraving on it but not sure what it all means. Maybe it's been replaced at some point and the writing was to signify when?

Tonight it all goes in some carb dip while I adjust valves and points. Then I'll check for spark.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

cool! I had an xs500 when I was in college, I think a few years more recent than those, but it was a good cruiser for very cheap. 

Carbs got a quick clean in some Berryman's for jets and float bowl. Blew out all orifices with air and reassembled. Throttle plates bench synced.

Capped off the vacuum spouts on the intake boots while I run with my auxiliary fuel tank.

Cam chain tension set.

Valve lash set.

Points gap set.

New cheap AGM battery installed.

Wiring harness that normally connects to the switchgear has been cut so a quick scan of the diagram tells me what to hot wire.

AND....... no spark.

I was getting power to the coils and points but not even a small flash or weak spark. I figured maybe a safety switch was causing the issues, but nope. Hot wire of 12v straight to the coil made no difference. So I ordered up some new points and condensers thinking MAYBE that's the cause.

But, thinking back to when I set points, I mainly just cleaned them while assembled to the plate. Poorly I might add. I figured it was worth a shot to give another round of cleaning but this time sand them with clean emery cloth while waiting on the new parts to arrive. They were more pitted than I thought, but after a couple minutes we were back installed. Reset the points gap by eye and what do you know, the bike fired up. Lazily, but once it got some fuel we were off and running.

So now it runs. Not bad considering the low level of effort to get to this point. It was willing to settle into an idle with no air filters or adjustment from the idle screw. I still plan to run the newer set of points and condenser when they arrive and toss these in the spares bin. The video below you can hear a tinny kinda rattle. At first I thought a loose valve adjuster, but some research suggests cam chain loose. Potentially I am missing a damper washer or I poorly adjusted the cam chain tensioner. Considering how well my first cleaning of the points went, I'd guess it was user error. I set the bike on the centerstand and ran through the gears checking clutch functionality. So far so good. I think this one may be a keeper.

New to do list is get the cam chain tensioner noise sorted. Change oil and clean or repair oil filters. Install new points and condenser with proper gap. Set timing with light. Wire in a key/starter switch for quick test ride. Also need front master cylinder.

Here's the pile of crap that fell, vibrated off of, or shot out of the exhaust.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Since weather was still decent I bagged up the carb openings, sprayed some purple power on the bike, and then power washed everything. Much better. The skank level has dropped dramatically.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

All dried off, it doesn't look too shabby.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Looking good.  I briefly had one in college.  In the summer of '91, I had totaled my street/race 500 Interceptor (with the bad-azzz hindle 4into1 pipe) like an idiot and my friend JT took pity on me, giving me a ratty XS650 that someone had given him.  No title (it wasn't stolen - the guy was just not interested in going to the DMV to get a copy).  I put a superbike-bend bar filled with BBs on it and beat it senseless until I managed to get and fix an '86 GSXR750 with a see-through block.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

I've always been a fan of the square bodied xs500 and xs360.

In reply to mfennell :

Both of these are without titles as well. Luckily the state of Arkansas makes it easy to get one via two bills of sale or through a bonded title. I've done both ways, but the bills of sale are the cheapest. I think this bike will probably end up with some lightweight aluminum superbike bar style bend as well.

I once inherited a XS650 from a coworker in boxes.  Was a great project figuring out how to put it all back together, and moderately fun to ride once that was done.  Sort of mix that old paint shaker from time to time.

Have one in the corner of my garage. Ran when parked but been sitting for many years. Rear brake is locked up. Every so often I pull the plugs and squirt for oil in the cylinders and kick it over a couple times to keep it from locking up. Plan is to sometime in the future restore it, redo the seat (never liked the seat on it), take it  to some vintage bike meets and maybe sell it. I stopped riding it mainly because of the vibration. I have some nerve damage in my right elbow that affects my hand and the vibration from this bike turns my hand numb. Wouldn't be so bad if it was my left hand but it's the throttle hand. What looks like a leak on top of the trans case is oil/lube leaking from the clutch cable. Clutch has always been stiff on this bike. My $500 special. Paid $200 for it and over the time when I was riding it regularly I had a total of <$500 into it. Coil, carb cleaner,battery, tires, mirrors, handlebars, fork seals. Needs all except the coil and fork seals again now plus brakes. Bought it off of a couple guys that worked for me when I was in the army. They were supposedly my best helicopter mechanics and couldn't get this running. I put a battery in it and gas and it started right up. Yep, that's right. My hotshot mechanics never checked the gas tank. Yep again, I gave those guys a hard time when I rode it in to work the first time.

Well looks like my cam chain guide has fallen apart and what's left is getting eat up by the chain. Pulled the side cover filter and sump filter. Side filter has aluminum and plastic bits from the guide. This isn't too surprising because of the rattle noise I heard, and my attempt to adjust the chain tension didn't reduce the noise. The sump filter is blown out on the typical mesh spot which is unrelated to the cam chain, but I see a little bit of sparkle in the oil. I assume it's some aluminum from the guide, but don't know for sure yet.

So now I need to pull the engine and do some more assessment before going any further. My mind is racing on what I should do.

750 big bore kit, yes.

Head work, yes.

Hot cam, yes.

Welded crank, maybe.

All this costs money of course, so until I know if this one is worth saving I'm not ready to dive into the deep end. I've done some basic top end and clutch stuff on other bikes, but never got to do any aggressive hot rod stuff. I've got research to do. Gotta figure out what the best bang for buck stuff is. Pretty sure cam and head are all doable at low cost. Blah blah blah.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

The after wash picture def. makes it look like a worth while project. For cheap and mostly stock, you have ta make the decision. With the mods in mind, the only decision is if ya want to throw that much money at it. Willing to do that much to it, it's positively a great starting point. Expensive, yes. Fun factor... Heck YEA!!

Passed up a 880 drag bike in late 90's ( raced by a friend's dad in the 80's) for $600. Just way to broke to have made it streetable at that time, even though I had a lot of parts to do so.

Had a few XS400's along the way... horrible bikes really. Never rode a XS650. Owned one, but resold it after getting it running without ever even taking it up the street. Had a friend rode one as his main transpo, from early 80's till mid 90's. That was one dependable bike.

I had a 1974 650 for a few years, it was a pretty good bike.

Looks like most places carrying a 750 kit are out of stock. I may do a 700 kit with Hoos Racing, but maybe my money is better spent trying to lose weight.

Front forks and triples can shed a ton of weight.

The mag wheels will be swapped for re-laced spoke wheels from the black bike to Sun rims. There's a sweet rear disc hub for more than I'd like to spend, but it's a nice piece of aluminum that would be an easy bolt in part.

Lighter and more rigid swingarm.

Hollow rear axle.

Better rear shocks.

520 chain to save some weight, more than enough strength.

Lighter fenders.

Aluminum handlebars.

Digital gauge.

Permanent Magnet Alternator swap to shed some weight as well as upgrade an old charging system. No battery required, just a larger capacitor.

With no battery, the already poor starter can go.

Lighter exhaust, but sounds like keeping it 1 1/2" OD or less is the best bet for a stock motor.

Head work can be done by me with port match and cleaning up the casting flaws. Don't want to stray anywhere past that mark, otherwise send it out to the proper place.

Lighter weight seat, but not sure I want to sacrifice comfort to that extent yet.

Foot controls are heavy cast steel, so maybe some mid controls that are lighter but function the same as stock.

Much to think about.