difficult to roll

[lostsoul74]

Welp, heres hte stage that this bike is at right now. I picked it up off craiglist for 300 bucks, good title, started right up, but had been sitting for a while. Changed the oil, cleaned hte plugs, added oil to middle and final drives. When I first got her she was a bitch to roll, i figured it was siezed pads in the rear. They were, but not tight, followed hte forum thread on how to unstick them by cleaning the hole in the master cylinder. But to my avail, shes still difficult to roll. I have to put all my might to push this thing in reverse to get it out of my garage. I couldnt imagine trying to push it down the street to a gas station if ever needed. This is far beyound stiffer then what i'd expect. What else could it be??
Since I have your attention, perhaps you guys have other suggestions on this mod as well. She started off a full dresser standard (79 I think...might be a 78, bought two bikes that weekend for 500, one a gs-750, and this one, cant remember what year was what... titles somewhere around..). I got this tank off ebay for 50, dont like it, thought the color would go great with red rims and whitewall, but wrong hue of red for my taste, going with one off a special, just got to wait to find one cheap on ebay with caps and all.
Still not decided on a seat, probobly an Altima solo seat and 2 inch springs, 3's are in the picture, with a smaller different seat (off my xs). I'm curious if theres any other year trees I can use that have a normal riser hole. Found the perfect risers I want for this, but got em off ebay while on vacation and didnt realize cant use them on this one, Not happy with what risers I can find, so open to other suggestions. I'll be going with drag bars.
I'm thinking of using a pair of I think sv1100 floorboards but further up and at an angle. Also, whats the widest tire I can fit on our stock rims without fitment issues with shaft and all???
Also need to verify that regular headlight ears off a special will fit a standard, i've read somewhere here that hte forks were different sizes. I wish this thing was a special, it would of been done already... still got to deal with headlight, round guages, had to go with cut xs-750 shocks cause these were tapered and couldnt cut em and still land right on the perch, cut to 10 inch, theyre more for look then anything, theyre tight, real stiff, maybe 1/2 inch of give if that, but looks better then a bar and a little give is better then none. Dont know much about bikes, picked up my first one last year, and now i've got 5 of them i just cheaply mod and give em a lower updated profile. The last one in the pic is one i got for 120 bucks, and put 142 into it. Not bad for a first timer, i figure i spent 3 on this one, i'm willing to put 3 more into it, so i figure she'll come out allright in the end.

[prometheus578]

"From the beginning..."

Put the bike one the centerstand. Rock it backwards and spin the front tire.
(Just want to make sure we're dealing with the right tire/brake system)
Ok, several things...
Yes, a plugged return hole, etc in the master cylinder can cause pressure not to be released. You've stated that you have cleaned that.
The caliper itself can be sticking. Brake fluid that has degraded turns into a gelatinous mess, often with a hard crusty residue. This can freeze calipers.
Oh sure, the pressure when applying the brakes will make the caliper squeeze, but all the gunk in the system will hold it in place or prevent it from retracting.
Now, a quick, somewhat reliable test is to open up the bleeder screw on the caliper. This relieves any pressure build-up, Like from a gunked up master cylinder, and the tire should spin.
If it doesn't now spin nicely(taking into account the drag from the final drive, middle gear, etc), then you have a stuck brake caliper.
Common with bikes that have sat, or not had regular brake fluid changes(every two years is recommended, even for your car)
Disassembling a caliper is rather easy, cleaning is easy and more often than not, no replacement parts are needed.
The only hard aspect is in getting the caliper's piston out. Takes a lot of pressure. Some people use compressed air. Quick, simple, yet potentially dangerous as when the piston come out, it's REALLY flyin'! Better to remove the caliper from the mount and press it out using the brake pedal. Just keep refilling the master as the fluid gets displaced. If you let the master run dry, you'll get an air bubble and that bubble would rather compress than have the pressure push out a stuck caliper.
Once the piston is out, clean the caliper cylinder with VERY light sandpaper, etc, as well as clean up the piston itself. Shouldn't take much effort. Make a tool and clean out the ring where the square edged O-ring rides. Scrap the gunk offa the o-ring with your finger nail. I wouldn't use anything to clean stuff with other than clean brake fluid. If that O-ring swells up, it's trash.
Lube everything up with clean brake fluid, push the piston back into the caliper and reassemble.
It helps when bleeding the system of air to have a suction device of some sort.

"This ends the block of instruction on stuck calipers and their cleaning. Students... what are your questions so far?"

[Renegade]

This may sound overly obvious, but have you checked your tire pressures? I know that even a few pounds low will make a huge difference in rolling resistance, especially the rear.

[prometheus578]

"Overly obvious, but often over looked."

I too, have been misled by under inflated tires.

[TopCatGr58]

Just another note,

Once you have first loosened the caliper's pistons so you can remove the caliper from the bike/wheel, with it still on the centerstand, make sure the rear wheel will THEN turn freely in neutral. IF it's still very hard to turn, then you'll want to look into the MIDDLE DRIVE GEAR, they have been known to get burned up thru poor care, leaks, draining and not refilling with proper hypoid type gear oil!
T.C.

[fredintoon]

Headlamp ears

"- - Also need to verify that regular headlight ears off a special will fit a standard, i've read somewhere here that the forks were different sizes. - - "
>
Hi 'Soul,
as background, I mix'n'matched Standard 'trees onto my Special forks to reduce the steering trail for sidecar use. The fork tubes are the same diameter. The distance between the Standard's upper and lower 'trees is less than that on the Special. All that's needed to fit Special headlamp ears onto a Standard fork is to carefully saw the ears' over-fork tubes off about an inch shorter at the bottom then they'll fit perfectly.

[lostsoul74]

Thanks for the help gents. It's not the brakes, as I said above, I already checked the brakes and cleaned out that clogged hole that is in the maintenence section, with brakes off, still alot of tension on back tire while on center stand. I remember the first time I took her out, you could noticibly tell when you let off the throttle there was alot of drag. It's not the clutch, (though she is clunky into first which i see is common). It has gotten better since i've takin her out a few times (not far, just up and down the street a few times, ny wintertime ya know. This is my first shaft bike, I've know theres soppose to be some drag cause of shaft drive, but my buddies that have also rolled it say definately not that much.
So if middle drive is suspect, is it a difficult swap if i grab another one off ebay? Whats the best way to test? disengage the final and try to spin the middle by hand?
Thanks for the info on the ears,
Is there other tripples for the 11's that dont have the built in risers? thought I saw some on ebay currently that look like they dont, but not sure if thier even listed properly. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1978-...spagenameZWD1V

How about the widest tire? anyone? thanks guys, appreciate the help.

[lostsoul74]

oh yea, one more, i've noticed i have a small leak on my air ride forks. I noticed the regulator was on 0 so I put 30 psi in it. Stayed for about a week then faded. Possabilities fixaflat will work?? seems like that would be perfect.
And thanks again prometheus578, sorry i should of been more clear that I had already done the brakes, but thank you for the time for all that. I'm also open to creative ideas on a fender strut or something to cover that ugly nub.

[lostsoul74]

while I have you gents, tell me what you think. If you scroll back up and look at hte last pic, you can see my 8.74$ suicide shift i put on the little xs. It originally was just an idea i had after seeing a bunch of 1200$ suicide shifter setups. Basically just attached a piece of threaded rod to a clamp that attached to the shifter, that way I still had dual use and still had shifter. and just a white doornob for a top handle to go with the nastalgia of the bike. Didnt go through the trouble at that time to rig up a suicide clutch/jockey shift, i just slap it at the right rpm and let off the throttle a tough, slides right in without any grinding or anything. At first it was just to see if I even liked it before going through the trouble, and I'll tell you I love it. So with this one I'm playing with an idea and doing it right (ok..... better.... maybe not "right", but good enough in Erics head). I'm still going to have forward controls, but I want to weld a snapon breaker bar (because the right height and handle layout) with a spline on the end to attach to the shifter/linkage with a hole drilled so I still can use forward controls. And attach a perch and clutch to the handle. (kind of look like an old school e-brake). run the clutch cable down the backside of the handle and take it to the clutch warm drive assembly (or what ever it's called on these), and somehow crimp the new cable to the existing clutch cable. So that I can have operation of both clutches for different uses. I'd still need to use the regular handlebar clutch for starting nad leaving a light, but want use of hte clutch on the jockey shift for when I want to play. Hows your feeling on this, or do you forsee issues? Not how the clutch cable on these attach to the clutch, but on a katana i got, i'd have the room to crimp together. Sorry boys, i'm home sick today, so this post might get long.... Anyone got anypics of of thier bike with red painted xs rims?? want to paint mine with white walls, but a regular black special tank. Red bobber grips i'm thi nkin.

[randy]

lostsoul74;

PLEASE don't put fix-a-flat in your forks, you'll only gum up the entire works. Your fork seals probably need to be replaced.

Middle drives (if that is the problem) are available from Ebay and it's not a hard swap. There are threads about it here, do a search.

Your next move would be to remove the rear wheel to isolate the problem, could be wheel bearings are frozen, they get almost no attention.

[lostsoul74]

no fixaflat... damn... lol.

Thanks for the insite on the wheel bearings, that was my first impression, but one of my buddies said somethign about direct drive and that hte tire doesnt freely spin and that he thought itwas a solid rear end. But then again, hes a crotch rocket guy and even at that doesnt know much, but then again, i obviously know less. I'm gona pull a search now in the forums about rear bearings. Hey... I'm just an idiot, if i knew, i wouldnt have to come here to ask

[fvincent]

Bike with chain

What is the bike with the chain on it. Round headlight but in line axle mount. FJ?

Floyd

[lostsoul74]

Yea, i think it's cheaper and easier just to get a used rim off ebay, that way I can go ahead paint it red (with polished lip) and mount a whitewall on it, so I can be all set when i pull of that rear, if all looks good and it is the bearings, i'm all set with the replacement one, just bolt and go, if not, no loss, cause i'll still be one step ahead for like 30 bucks ya know.

That other bike is a little xs-400 80' spcl. Got it off craigslist for 120 bucks, just needed a stator (ebay 15 bucks). I had a katana last year as my first bike, but that thing spent more time in pieces then ridable, it sat since 94. Seemed everytime i got it running good, as soon as I put it in gear to go ridin, something else would break (clutch, clutch cable, throttle cable, etc.. etc..), the whole season last year I had about 10 hours riding, sucked. Still siting in the garage, runs good now, but now into rats and bobbers. Picked up the little xs for my roomate so I'd have a riding partner. (dont know many riders). But it was sat high, gay and outdated, and just sat there, he never did anythign with it, and the more it sat there, the more I decided to "try" a few things. 142 dollars later, thats the final result. Loved it so much, i ride it now... lol, and I'm sold on cruisers over rockets. So i also picked up a 79 gs750 (modded out, bored 900, stage 3, 4 to 1, etc..) for 350 on CL, and a 82 gr-650 mint for 300 off CL. gona make the gs a cafe bike (just a 150 dollar cafe seat and 25 dollar clubman bars), I love the look adn stance of the gr, great frame and profile, but it's got a mono shock, and more of a pain to drop the rear to the tail like i'd want. Basically, for around 1400 for all of em, i've got a different style bike for what ever my desire. My plan is to eventually keep the 11 (this is the only one i'm actually spending any real money on), and sell off the others (except hte katana cause its my only passenger bike for hte ole lady), sell off the other 2, and clear up my credit so i can be a homeowner soon. But so far, i'm really not happy in the direction the xs is going, it doesnt have the right stance and look I was going for. I love the way the little xs turned out, I really keep looking at that gr cause of that great curved frame on it, it would look mint as a chopper if i could drop it easily. But if i figure if i'm gona spend the money, my as well have a "respectible" bike once i'm done. Plus the 11 reputation for reliability. Maybe its just me or taking pride in my work, What do you guys think, hows that 11 looking so far?? Whats your opinion as 'real' riders?? I havnt a clue, i'm a total noob... lol. just trying thigns and seeing how they work out. I thi nk it's the tank at this point thats really turning me off from it, I thi nk the tear drop would really give me the look i want like in this one: but with a bigger seat. (altima seat i'm thinkin)

[mro]

Left/rear of engine under the rubber boot is the drive shaft to middle drive coupling.
Move boot back, remove the four bolts from the u-joint/coupling.
Now can see if it's the rear wheel or middle drive binding.


mro

[jgw1986]

I'm sure you've already done this, just had to say it. I had the same problem with mine but it ended up being one of the FRONT brake calipers locked up... just make sure that you check those out too.