doing my own repairs for a newbie

[Leon]

has anyone else run into this problem?
I have had 4 motorcycle shop refuse to work on my 79xs11special because its more than ten years old and to hard to get parts for !been visiting xs for over a year and know thats bull !my bike repair skills have been real limited as far as engine work i have built a triumpth chopper completely from scratch in the past and build hotrods so the skill is there just not the bike speciffic knowledge .the problem im having right nowis my bike will suddely loose power like 2 cylinders died .sometimes shutting off the ignition and turning it back on while rolling will correct it for a while .since no legit shop wants to work on my bike and i plan on keepiung it forever i,m gonna have to learn to repair it myself all i have at this time is a haynes manual and you folks at xs11 .one shop will (order what they can) they want 50+ for each of the rubber carb mounts! I have all winter to mess with it so i plan a carb rebuild/cleaning,replace carb mounts , new fork seals
and a paint job along with whatever the book cals for as general maintainance what suggestions do you guys have to aid me in this project as far as books ,suppliers for parts etc or special tools needed like carb balancers .I have a full suply of auto related tools . thanks in advance for youire help . leon
hammerman35 @ juno.com

[randy]

Leon,

Do a search here for pickup wire fix, that should solve your intermittent ignition trouble.

[andreashweiss]

Unless your rubber intake boots are cracked completly through you do not need to replace them. Outside cracks will not affect performance just looks. They are avaliable after market as well. I have some good used ones as well much CHEAPER than new. PM me if ya need them

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Leon,

Welcome, and both Randy and Andreas are right, sounds like your pickup coil wires under the left side engine cover, and your carb intakes may not be leaking. You can recondition them with black RTV applied to the outside cracks. Just do the test for leaks as has been described in other threads, spraying carb cleaner or such around them as the engine runs listening for changes in rpm.

There are a bunch of links in the "LINKS" section, many sources for getting parts, new or used. Ebay, partsnmore, bikebandit, mikesxs, oldbikebarn, etc..

When searching for info, you can combine several words and it will narrow down your results only showing threads with ALL items in your search!

And finally, YES, your bike shop experience and MORE!! Be thankful that they won't work on it, you'll be better off and much richer both in experience, feelings of self confidence, as well as $$
T.C.

[thumperjsa]

Losing power on the road and it feeling like cylinders going out could be fuel related. I know because I had the happen on my 80g. The fuel line was kinked just enough to not let the fuel flow to the carbs cleanly.

Check and make sure the lines are not shutting off fuel flow before you start looking at pickup wires or anything else.

Also, check to make sure all cylinders are getting hot by spraying some water on each of the exhaust pipes. This will be a good indicator of which cylinders may not be firing. They should sizzle the water when you spray them after you have let the engine warm up. No sizzle will help you tell if one or more is not finring properly.
Depending on the cylinders not getting hot, it could be carb, fuel, pick-up wires, coils or any number of things.

[wildbill]

Check and see witch 2 cylinders are not firing. If both are say 1-4 or 2-3 then you could have a bad coil. Start with the simple things first as they can be the most easily over looked and then go from there. Good luck.

[panshovel]

You have the experience!!! Internal combustion motors are internal combustion motors, they just have different configurations and different wiring. if you can make a Lucas (Triump) system work then you can surley get this to work, go to the basics and with the help you find on here this bike is pretty easy to work on.
Have fun and enjoy
Dave

[TopCatGr58]

Great Feedback!!

Hey Folks,

Leon PM'd me with this message, thought you'd like to see and hear some good feedback!

coil pickup wires
Hey TC;
I don't know if you will even remember me, I haven't been able to get on here for a few months but the last time I was on I posted on the fact that no bike shop will work on my xs because its older than 10 years.You were one of the guys to answer my question.Well you were all right the pickup wires were broken all4!I spent most of today out in the yard in 100+degree heat fixing the wires and cleaning out float bowls RUFUS is running fine now!couldn't have done it without you guys
Thank You
Leon

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hammerman35(at)juno.com