xs-o-s "help"

[ACE]

Top Cat, Chopper,
I'm reading all this.
I lived out in Washington for 14 years.
I now am back in Illinois again ,
oh well, that stinks.
But where do I find a hill a mile long?
We are lucky to have a hill you can't see over out here.
What do you suggest?
I'm not making fun of you guys but illinois from WASHINGTON eas a real change.

[ACE]

While i forgot, never mind.
Where would you suggest i find a color tune,
so far no luck but i still haven;t tried Yamaha or maybe Napa

[crunchbird]

Colortune at this place: http://www.rdent.com/

[TopCatGr58]

No offense taken

Originally posted by chopper
top cat my friend,that is not how you check plugs,if you were to follow your information all you get is a reading of the idle circuit.<SNIP>,for the pilots i use a "colortune" for the needles i rely on experiance(ride the bike at a steady speed 1/2 throttle,till your "flat spot" kicks in then open the throttle slightly if it picks up you need drop the needles,if not try rolling back the throttle slightly if it picks up then you need to raise the needles....no offence t.c.

Hey there Chopper,
No offense at all, glad you straightened it out.....I'm kinda "over the hill", and guess that's why I forgot about the "hill" stress part of the test, I remember NOW reading about that in some other posts, just brain farted!!

I've just been lucky with my bike, I don't really seem to have a flat spot, which is a good thing 'cause I can't adjust my needles anyways on this '81 beast. Yes, the pilots do contribute throughout most of the throttle band, albeit with a diminishing curve as the mains kick in under load....learned that at the carb clinic on NC rally from Rob Reil, carb guru. Thanks for setting things straight!!
T.C. ....mere novice survivalist!

[chopper]

hi top cat,can i ask why you cant adjust your needles?if it is because there are no grooves for the circlip to move to? you can shim them by putting tiny washers over the long end of the needles,i have done this with excellent results mate.some bikes dont have enough adjustment and this is the answer

hi ace,may i suggest if you have no hills around get the fattest person you can find to sit on the pillion,this has the same effect on the engine the MOST important thing guys is kill the engine when the throttle is FULL open ,and has been for 30 secs minimum,best of luck with the carb tuning guys..if i can get a scanner i'll upload fuel circuit diagrams these show the different paths through the carbs that the fuel takes at different throttle positions,makes it much easier to understand carbs,its like electrics when you split the thing down (charging ,ignition,lighting) its easier to understand

[ACE]

This web site is more valubale than any manual!
There are a few short hills out here that might do.
there are alot fo fat people to, most i'd really rather not be seen on the back of my bike!
This sh
ould be an interesting test.
I can't wait for spring.

[TopCatGr58]

Break in Winter

Well, we had a little break in Winter here in Va., nice sunny day, albeit rather blustery with 20-30 mph cross winds. Woke Godzilla from it's hibernation, and took a little trip across the river to do some work in the office. I could have sworn you-Ace had inquired about 7500 rpm, not 6700, and so while I was out, I did a little run and in 4th at 7.5k I hit 95mph, and didn't quite make it in 5th, was approaching 105-110 but my little windshield and that cross wind started making my bike do that little tail shake shimmy, so I shut it down before I started slapping the tank. I put some Sea Foam in the tank before I took off, so hopefully that will keep the pipes/throat clear for a little while, did the over the road battery charge technique, so now it can resume it's slumbers for a few more months....unless the weather breaks again!

[ACE]

Hey Top Cat!
Your pretty cool and been real helpful.
But now I'm jealous.
Sure i might get a break from old man winter but, well, not today.
I took a load to your town in the 80's, to a naval base, nice town!
Not to stray from Yamahas, since i switched back to the air box I don't have this watery syeam coming from my pipes .
Kind of what you see in the winter when a car is started in the cold and takes off.
It is cleared up now, kind of strange.
With this crazy weather i hope we all can sneak out for a nice ride this winter!
Stay cool!

[strom]

OK I see u've got off topic... but never mind.

I lowered fuel level in the bowls today... got me some new bolts for the bowls... allen head (phillips before), all new clean and shiny.
Put the tank back on, let some gas in the carbs... put the taps on reserve (yeah, full tanks are heavy).. switched the ignition on, set the killswitch to on, smiled, placed my right thumb on the starter button, pulled in the clutch lever and said
**** MOTHER****ER DAMN BITCH **** (and a lot of other unpleasant words, for which I'm grateful I live in this part of the world since bad language can be a lot more... juicy and thankfully cannot be interpreted in english).
To get to the point... the clutch cable broke.
To top it all off, the bike started, in neutral, but ran on 3 cyls only. OK, so it's still bitchin bout something, so I pulled it back in the garage and checked the pipes... 3 of them were hot, 1 wasn't. Checked the spark, no spark. OK, changed the plug, spark was nice and fat, put it in, the bike started and ran on all 4, but I couldn't test it, coz the $#$@@#%*&(^)*$%@! clutch cable was broken. Cursed some more, called a friend who's an expert on cable making, but he was still at work, so... I hope it doesn't snow tommorrow.

LP

[strom]

OK, called another friend who has a friend who makes cables... he'd make a nice teflon one just for me, but the friend which I called was in Montenegro, so no luck till next week.
In Montenegro the sun is shining and it's bout 20 degrees centigrade, nice riding weather... damn, gotta pay the IRS so I can have a new passport made (cant get a new passport till u pay your taxes.... or in my case police fines for some speeding tickets) So, I'll go there in the summer...

LP

[TopCatGr58]

Driving Clutchless!

Hey there Strom,

Where's you sense of adventure, just push it down a little hill to get it going and then slam it into gear, just avoid all stop signs!!!

That was surprising that you had 1 plug fouled, but then you didn't mention whether it was new or old, glad it was just the plug!

Where did the cable snap, at the handlebar lever, or down in the clutch chamber?? They make those nifty wire clamps that you can fit over the end of a broken wire to hold onto, but definitely not permanent fix solution. Hope you get it fixed before the snow.

Ace, that watery stuff coming out of the exhaust is exactly what you think.....H2O vapor that has condensed since the pipes haven't heated up enough when you first start the engine and so they act like a distiller cooling the vapor on the metal surfaces so that the water condenses and is then blown out in liquid form. Once the engine and pipes warm up, it remains a vapor as it exits the exhaust. NOT seeing it with the air box on IMHO just means that it's NOT breathing as well. Proper and complete combustion should only have 3 byproducts at the end of the chemical reaction, heat, CO2 and water vapor, but the internal combustion chamber is not a perfect environment, you get incomplete combustion and hence the more harmful Carbon Monoxide and other junk from the additives, impurities in the fuel, not enough time for the fuel to burn, etc.. With the Airbox on, it may not be getting enough AIR to mix with the fuel to provide the most complete burning that it can, so less water vapor produced when first started. Just speaking my basic autoshop limited knowledge here, welcoming all to chime in and add or correct any mistatements I may have uttered here. And yeah, it's not a bad place, been here since the early '80's, not to many open twisties though, have to get into the mountains for any real fun roads!! Enjoying my weeks vacation, more for you to be jealous of!!!
Ya'll come back and see us now, ya here!!!! LOL

[strom]

The plugs are new... except the one I changed today... maybe it just needs a good cleaning.

I'll fix the cable... the cable end-round-thingie fell off, so the cable is intact. Will repair.

As for riding clutchless... did it on kawasaki, it was a breeze... quick, precise,... on a garaged yamaha XS1100... no thank you. Gotta push it up an incline just to get it to the street. And even there I have to stop every 50m... stop signs press.
Anyway, I'l fix the cable asap.

LP

[ACE]

Top Cat, I see you found another reason to put the indy filters back on.
When I get the bike put back together and lined out i want to try them again.
I still don't understand why tho air box made it run right again.
It's possible it was one of the many other things i did to it, we will see.
I still say the stock air box is not freindly, it is made to make me say things liks Strom!
Hey Strom, You and i do have this in common.
I've been told i come up with things no one has ever heard before.
One can not let things stay bottled up inside.
one must let the bike, or other mechanical thing, know who is boss.
I have spent different occasions reflecting on what went wrong that caused the hammer to be throw'n, why it hit the floor in just the right spot to fly up threw the window of the door.
why am i working on replacing a window and not still working an the bike.
Or, where did the tool that went flying across the shop go?

[strom]

Well, Ace, u seem to know how things work

I got my clutch cable fixed, rode for 200m (usually just 50) before the bike started to run on 1000 RPM... Will try another thing... reinstall the fuel filters and see what happens... maybe bits of rust prevent the float valves from shutting fuel supply to the carb bowl... and the bike runs too rich...
When I turned fuel taps to ON from RES (low fuel level in the tank, so I effectively shut off the fuel) the bike ran on 1000 rpm for 20-30 secs, then it reved up again normally.
Gotta be the carbs.

Another thing... the clutch... how to adjust the ****er... I just cant seem to do it. Right now, it's slipping when I let go of the lever and try to accelerate (not even hard), and it doesn't seem to disingage when pulled in.
So, I should take the spanner, untighten the bolt on the right side, take a screwdriver and tighten the phillips screw within the bolt, then retighten the bolt, right?

LP

[TopCatGr58]

Originally posted by strom
SNIP
Another thing... the clutch... how to adjust the ****er... I just cant seem to do it. Right now, it's slipping when I let go of the lever and try to accelerate (not even hard), and it doesn't seem to disingage when pulled in.
So, I should take the spanner, untighten the bolt on the right side, take a screwdriver and tighten the phillips screw within the bolt, then retighten the bolt, right?
LP

Well, Strom,
Your description has me a bit confused, cause if it wasn't adjusted right so that it was too tight, then you would have your first symptom, slipping. IF it was too loose, then you would get your second symptom, not fully disengaging the clutch to allow for smoother shifting!?!? And, if the clutch was working right before it broke, it shouldn't really need much adjusting, just taking the slack out at the lever.

To check it's adjustment, you unlock the lock nut, turn it a bit loose and hold it steady with a box/open end wrench, then take the screwdriver, first tighten till you get resistance/contact, then 1/4 turn back out, then lock the nut, and that should be properly adjusted. HTH