Yamaha 400 special

[nate]

Picking a 1980 Yamaha 400special up next week for $500.For the wife.Bike appears to be clean.Are there any know problems with these bikes?

[JWSanders]

I have an '80 400 Special. A common problem is supposed to be the stator vibrating itself to death, but I found on mine it was the voltage regulator. At least I have a spare stator now.

Even after a rebuild I couldn't make the petcock stop leaking. Ended up putting another inline cutoff to prevent the carbs (and eventually the airbox and crankcase) from filling up. (Yes, I know, they have a problem too. ) The carbs on mine are only slightly different than the ones on my 11. The diaphrams even fit!

They're fun little bikes, though you might want to look into handlebar replacements if it has the little buckhorn bars on it. For me, they were more like wheelbarrow handles.

Replacement parts seem to go on the cheap on Ebay, too. The PO of mine ran it without oil (apparently) and let the cam and rockers get scored pretty badly. I got a replacement head, top, and cam for the whopping price of 9.99! Was a snap to put on.

Definately a good bike to learn on and pretty easy to work on, to boot. Haynes makes a great manual for them.

Enjoy!

[nate]

Yes it has the buck horn bars but thats up to her.Ill definitely be looking for a haynes manual.

[Ljay40]

My budddy had one of those 400 specials and I had a real
hard time keeping up to him on my 750 kaw LTD
there fast little bikes .

[nate]

Are the bars suppose to have play in them front to back?

[randy]

YES!

They are rubber-mounted

[nate]

Thanks wasn't sure got on it to ride it home and was like WTF.I need to track down a manual.Now that its here.