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Alright, spent the past week taking all bits and pieces off of the bike so I can put it back together. 
I've also spent some quality time looking at pictures of how these bikes look in their prime, and, let me tell you, I'm having a hard time imagining that mine will ever look like that.
What I have done so far is use more wd-40 and liquid wrench than I ever have in my life. I haven't tried to clean anything yet, just get it off the bike without breaking anything. So far so good, even though pretty much every bolt, screw, etc was rusted and frozen solid.
What I've also realized is that I'm not going to be able to clean everything, so I'm currently planning on painting most, if not all uncleanable parts black after a good amount of scrubbing. The other option would be to buy used parts to replace what's rusted, but that'd be pretty much every part on the bike.
...and now for some pictures. This is only a small sampling.
If you're at all interested in all 182 of them, have a look here:
http://parrot820.smugmug.com/Motorcy...XS11-Tear-Down
Here's what I started with:
Tank off:
I think I've displaced and cleared out enough spiders that I feel I've destroyed a wildlife habitat:
The airbox is off:
How could this ever have been a shiny new engine:
I'm new to this, so please forgive the ignorant question, but does this look bad, or is it just me?
Hey, what's in that funky looking bag?
Ah ha:
Carbs off:
Most everything off:
I just can't get over how this engine looks, especially up front:
Not so bad from this angle, though:
The worst of the rust seems to be the swing arm, which looks to be removable from frame:
I'm hoping the frame is solid. Most of the rust on the frame seems to be surface rust.
Next steps are to roll her outside and give what's left a good scrubbing.
After that, I plan on taking the engine out of the frame and cleaning/repainting the frame.
That is one big 'ole engine in there. What's the preferred method to get that monster out of the frame? I knew I should have gotten a 350 instead.
I'm still reading up on what to do after that, but I think I'll ditch my original plan of tearing the engine completely apart. That seems overkill, especially after reading posts here about how solidly built the engine is. Instead, I think I'll just do the valves, carbs, cam chain, etc that are more "maintenance" than rebuild, replacing as many gaskets and seals along the way as I can. I'm just hoping the inside of the engine looks better than the outside.
I just read in another post about spritzing PB Blast into the cylinders. Just to show how new I am to this...is that from the carb side or the header pipe side? Anything else I should do/look at while I've got it all torn apart? I plan on removing the front and rear end once I've cleaned up the engine and then have a look at the final drive.
I've also spent some quality time looking at pictures of how these bikes look in their prime, and, let me tell you, I'm having a hard time imagining that mine will ever look like that.
What I have done so far is use more wd-40 and liquid wrench than I ever have in my life. I haven't tried to clean anything yet, just get it off the bike without breaking anything. So far so good, even though pretty much every bolt, screw, etc was rusted and frozen solid.
What I've also realized is that I'm not going to be able to clean everything, so I'm currently planning on painting most, if not all uncleanable parts black after a good amount of scrubbing. The other option would be to buy used parts to replace what's rusted, but that'd be pretty much every part on the bike.
...and now for some pictures. This is only a small sampling.
If you're at all interested in all 182 of them, have a look here:
http://parrot820.smugmug.com/Motorcy...XS11-Tear-Down
Here's what I started with:
Tank off:
I think I've displaced and cleared out enough spiders that I feel I've destroyed a wildlife habitat:
The airbox is off:
How could this ever have been a shiny new engine:
I'm new to this, so please forgive the ignorant question, but does this look bad, or is it just me?
Hey, what's in that funky looking bag?
Ah ha:
Carbs off:
Most everything off:
I just can't get over how this engine looks, especially up front:
Not so bad from this angle, though:
The worst of the rust seems to be the swing arm, which looks to be removable from frame:
I'm hoping the frame is solid. Most of the rust on the frame seems to be surface rust.
Next steps are to roll her outside and give what's left a good scrubbing.
After that, I plan on taking the engine out of the frame and cleaning/repainting the frame.
That is one big 'ole engine in there. What's the preferred method to get that monster out of the frame? I knew I should have gotten a 350 instead.
I'm still reading up on what to do after that, but I think I'll ditch my original plan of tearing the engine completely apart. That seems overkill, especially after reading posts here about how solidly built the engine is. Instead, I think I'll just do the valves, carbs, cam chain, etc that are more "maintenance" than rebuild, replacing as many gaskets and seals along the way as I can. I'm just hoping the inside of the engine looks better than the outside.
I just read in another post about spritzing PB Blast into the cylinders. Just to show how new I am to this...is that from the carb side or the header pipe side? Anything else I should do/look at while I've got it all torn apart? I plan on removing the front and rear end once I've cleaned up the engine and then have a look at the final drive.
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