Finally got the bike back from the shop....

[Lucien Harpress]

...and here's what I found out about it. I've been having a few issues lately, some carb related, some electrical related. The biggest reason I dropped it off was to find EXACTLY what was wrong with it.

The Bad- When the guy called, he gave me a whole laundry list of problems and what was going on with my ride. In addition, to fix them all, he said it would cost me over $3300.

The Good- 90% of the problems had to do with the carbs. Most of them stem from my rusty gas tank, and all of them I know how to take care of, or feel confident taking care of them myself. Also, he said my charging problems were the result of a few loose connections and faulty grounds. That was taken care of. We'll see how well.

The Other Stuff- I guess there's a few other issues I don't know about. He recommended bleeding the brakes (rear one has already been done, not a big issue), and said that my front and rear shocks were leaking a bit. As of right now I don't know how big an issue that is/will be, but I'm confident putting off getting that fixed for a little while.

Altogether, this little excursion cost me around $200. Not great, but not bad (considering now I know what's going on). Biggest thing is to address the carb/gas tank issue. Still not sure if I'm going to try to save the tank I have or just get a new one. It's already rusted through at one point, and is probably getting ready to in about five other places. I was considering re-painting the bike anyway, so this isn't a huge deal.

Let's just get the bike back (still at the shop) and go from there.

[madmax-im]

no way that should cost you $3300 bucks...thats a ripoff for sure...do it yourself and perhaps with the help of some fellow XSives near you.

[Lucien Harpress]

That's kinda what I figured...

The guy quoted that I was going to drop $1200 in parts, with the rest being labor. Looking thorugh my reciept, it looks like he wanted to completely rebuild the carbs from the ground up- new jets, needles, gaskets- the works.

He also wanted to clean and re-coat the inside of my gas tank. Not sure how much it was, but I'm almost positive I could get a new gas tank for what he wanted (which I might do anyway).

Heck, the $220 I paid was just for three hours' labor for them to look at it!

As I said, it isn't all bad, though. Now I have a handy list of everything I need to get fixed (and can decided if and when I want to get them fixed).

[foreda]

Parts

"The guy quoted that I was going to drop $1200 in parts"
Holy crap Batman!!! You know how many sets of carbs you could get off of Ebay for $1200?? The kits should go for less that $150 depending on where you buy them. They are not that hard to clean and rebuild. Depending on how bad you're tank is, you might try this method.
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/20...cle-gas-tanks/

Hope this helps.

[DGXSER]

That's kinda what I figured... The guy quoted that I was going to drop $1200 in parts, with the rest being labor.

I wonder who he pays off to stay in business at those prices!!!

Looking thorugh my reciept, it looks like he wanted to completely rebuild the carbs from the ground up- new jets, needles, gaskets- the works.

Four new carb kits included pilot and main jets, float seat and needle, gasket, and mixture scre wwith al appropriate components = $75 (not a piece, for all four!)

He also wanted to clean and re-coat the inside of my gas tank. Not sure how much it was, but I'm almost positive I could get a new gas tank for what he wanted (which I might do anyway).

About $50 in materials, even les if you went for electolysis to clean it first.


Now the price for doing the work yourself seems to equal about $125 in parts. The feeling of doing it yourself and knowing it was done correctly IS priceless!!

[latexeses]

You can clean the tank with $.5 of sodium carbonate (washing soda) some steel wire (coat hanger), a battery charger, a little time and some home made plates w/gaskets to cover the petcock holes and sending unit hole in the tank..

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...ght=rusty+tank

http://twinoak.altelco.net/~jacil/cl...ElecSetup.html

You shouldn't need to line the tank unless you have pin holes in there.

If I can do it anyone here should be able to pull it off!

Rodger

[DiverRay]

If the tank is REALLY that bad, send me a PM. I have a few spare standard tanks, and one or two don't need much more than paint. The carb kits from georgefix on ebay are great, and run about $75 to $90 for ALL FOUR carbs! If you send him an email, he can set up the main jets with the ones you need if they are not stock, but I usually use the old mains....

[MindWebs]

Hmm,..

If you pay for the parts and shipping i can rebuild your carbs for $50..



but unfortunatly you will still have to sync them (it's not hard)

all of these things are not as hard as a person would like to think, it just takes time and care to complete the task.

just take 1 thing at a time and work on it till it's done.

if you start on too many thing at once it'll bite you in the end.

as someones signiture says:
"wether you think you can, or you think you can't, Your right."

give it a shot, read some directions and give it a try.

Good luck

[Lucien Harpress]

Rebuilding the carbs is not something I'm worried about in the slightest. Heck, that's what I spent my whole summer doing! I'm going to clean them after I get the bike back, and this time I'm going to take them off the rack and soak each of the bodies in addition to all the stuff inside. You know, do it RIGHT.

The only thing that might worry me is that he said the shocks were leaking a little. I have no clue how hard this would be to take care of, but I feel like it's something I can put off doing for a little while.

[Clerek]

HA $3300?!?!

Alright so if you do the tank, I would strongly recommend Electrolysis, and then POR-15 tank coating. I kept my standard tank, which I am sadly giving away (not really sad ), on the electrolysis for about 3 1/2 days. ALL the rust was gone. Then I rinsed it out with the stuff I got in the kit and coated it with the por-15. This coating is kind of like truck bed lining, only gas proof and a million times stronger. I got some on my hands and couldn't get it off for about a week!

With the carbs, don't be afraid to just tear into them. I was a little freaked out at first but as soon as I did the research and actually got into them, it wasn't that bad! All I did was take all the parts of (jets, needles, seats, etc...) and boil them in LEMON JUICE. For some reason this works really well. Boil them in the pot for about 20 minutes and then right away put them in a second pot of boiling water. This rinses them off so you don't get sticky crap in your carbs. Works like a charm! Better than ANY carb cleaner!

For the brakes, most of the time you can rent a vacuum bleeder from an auto parts store and it takes about 10 minutes top. Just open the reservoir, attach the vacuum hose to your bleeder valve, and as the fluid is emptying out poor more in. Don't let ANY air in but just do this until the fluid looks clear (as it can be) and do the other one the same way.

Other than that the only thing I can tell you is that these bikes are really easy to work on, once you get over the fear of working on these freakin HUGE bikes!

Oh and don't drop it...they are heavy!

-Rick

[fredintoon]

- - - I'm going to clean them after I get the bike back, and this time I'm going to take them off the rack and soak each of the bodies in addition to all the stuff inside. You know, do it RIGHT. - - -

Hi Lucien,
don't fully immerse the carb bodies in any fluid that dissolves rubber unless you take the butterfly shaft seals out first.
Removing and replacing the butterfly shafts is a right swine of a job.
You have to drill off the peened-over tails of the butterfly retaining screws to dismantle and buy new screws to reassemble.
Better you do a partial soak with the butterfly shafts kept above the fluid level.

[Larrym]

Common Ground?

It appears that your mechanic really did diagnose your charging system instead of going "cowboy" on it and just swapping components. That's a good thing cause I have owned bikes where this "swaptronics" has failed and the PO had to bail: $400 in new parts and still won't charge a battery.

$3300 sounds about right to bring a 30 year old bike back to full functionality. One of the unwritten rules of the mechanics trade is that whatever you pay for a part you will also pay the same amount to have it installed. ($100 part will cost you $100 "labor" to install.) It's just the way the service industry works. In your case about $1500 in parts is gonna cost you that much in labor to R&R. It all comes down to about 20 hours at $75 per hour. (If you take any vehicle and wanted to replace all the parts in it with aftermarket "new" then it would cost three times the original cost of the vehicle...)

If you were making $25 an hour at your job then it would take you a full work week and half another to pay the "shop" to do the repairs for you. Fortunately for us these bikes were made in the era where an ordinary person with a repair manual and some tools can do most of the repairs/replacements. (Contrast that with today's vehicles where you can't adjust your own timing or change a spark plug without a special tool available only from the dealer..) I, like so many others have spent a little time every weekend and brought my bike back to roadworthy condition. I/we also tend to keep the bike in that condition.

That's way easier than funding the local bike dealer/shop owner's lifestyle. Also a better return on our own investment of time and money.

Hope your charging system stays fixed!

[psycoreefer]

Hey, glad to here your going to take it on yourself. I'm offering help again, if you get in and think you need a second set of eyes, or hands, or whatever let me know and we'll set something up.

The shocks aren't that big of a deal. The easiest way to fix a leaky rear shock is to replace it. You've got a few options, many love the progressive shocks but they are kinda expensive. Another option is the shocks from mikes xs, they are cheap and not nearly the quality of a progressive but they will be functional and way better then the broken ones you took off.