Mechanic

[sermn8ter]

Greetings,
I just bought a 1980 XS1100 Special. Great bike, in pretty decent shape. My plans are to order the Clymers manual and the proper tools, and learn how to fix/repair/maintain the bike myself, but I do need to use this bike as transportation immediately. It is running, but rough. I live in Gwinnett County, in Lawrenceville, Georgia. I know there is a group of riders around this area, and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a reliable/reasonable mechanic who could look over my bike and do some work to it. Just from my limited knowledge, I think the bike has some fuel leaks, and needs carbs cleaned and synced. It might be necessary to replace the ignition coils also, but I don' t think so. Anybody know anyone that can be trusted to do good work until I can get my stuff together and get up to speed to do it myself?

Thanks,

Ron

[don07tncav]

Ron, between the tech tips and the forums you could do that work. Cleaning the carbs is fairly easy to do and syncing them is super easy.

The folks here answer questions well plus the site itself is a wealth of information. I had no experiance working on bikes when I bought my XS and thanks to the folks here, I'm much more comfortable.

[sermn8ter]

Thanks. I do think I could probably do this stuff myself, but I don't have the stuff together right now to do it. I want to order the manual, and I need some tools and other things to get the job done. I guess I am just looking for an easy way out right now until I can get things together so I can work on the bike myself. I may wind up attempting it to. What about rebuilding the carbs? I think they probably need that instead of just cleaning and syncing. And what about the carb kits available on eBay. Anybody try those out? Are they good quality and worth the money or not.

[DiverRay]

Most of the time, all you need for the carbs are new needles and seats, bowl gaskits, and CLEAN. Look for some of the links, as there are plenty of them about carbs.
If you take the carbs off, flip over the four WITHOUT taking them off the mount, and remove the bowls one at a time, it is easy to clean them. That's all I did with my bike when I got it December, and I've put 8K miles on it!!

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Sermn8ter,

If you'll do a search in this forum for Georgia, you'll find the thread where folks have posted where they live, and you may find someone close to you, that you could contact to possibly get together with to assist you with your fledgling mechanic skills development!?

Until you can work on it, go get a can of SEAFOAM, and pour several ounces into a full gas tank, and run it thru it, it may help to temporarily clean things up enough to make it a bit more smoother until you can get your hands inside it!!

The carb kits on EBAY have more stuff than what you will probably need! Unless you really bung up the main and Pilot jets, all you need to do is clean them and put them back in!

The 80Special carbs use the rubber tipped valve needles and seats combo, and you can get the NEEDLES separately. You can get a gasket and needle/valve seat set for $12.00 per carb from Mike'sXS as well as Partsnmore! $10.00 for a bucket of carb cleaner, and a few more bucks for a can or two of spray cleaner, and an old toothbrush and some wire, and you're good to go!!

Also, checking ALL of the Electrical connections for corrosion, cleaning the contacts, can fix many electrical gremlins!!

Also it's hard to find mechanics that know how to work on these old machines, and a shop that will allow them to work on them, vs. spending their time PREPPING the new bikes for sale now that Summer is here!! Best, to just work on it yourself!!
T.C.