once more, a few questions

[schooter]

is there an in house parts guy like on the xj bikes site? or who is recommended? I'd prefer to support someone who is passionate about these bikes and will stay and support a valuable forum like this, rather than ching chang on ebay

Also, anyone have a link to an online pdf manual for these hogs? took off the brake caliper and am a little confused about a little metal clip/ shield that fell off when i moved the bike.

I also gotta say, I wish my friend never bought this bike.. she's been ridden hard and put away wet, brass caps are still on the mixture screws, so i have no doubt in my mind the valves have never been touched. there is so much jerry rigging on this bike... and almost half the bolt holes in the head for the exhaust are stripped... love it.. he is clueless about mechanics, and i dont feel like learning how to dl a heli coil right now, so i may just see where some self tapping metal screws will get me.

[rpgoerlich]

Nah, Chacal doesn't carry XS parts(I asked him a couple years ago) But, Andreas has a number of reasonable priced parts available, just PM him.

Which XS/xj1100 you need a manual for?

[crazy steve]

Check with Andreas Weiss in the 'parts for sale' forum. He generally has a pretty good selection of commonly needed items. Cosmetic stuff (like sidecovers/seats) are harder and you may have to hit ebay.

For a downloadable manual, go to Catatonic Bug's site (here: http://www.ringler.us/family/mybike.html) for owners/service manuals.

Don't waste your time with self-tapping screws. Sounds like somebody swapped the threaded studs/nuts out for bolts; that's the quick way to destroy the threads. Helicoils aren't a big deal to do, but you are looking at at least a $40 investment in a kit. Your other choice is to replace the head....

[natemoen]

Helicoils are fast and easy. What I did when I last needed them was, I bough the kit from my local grainger, figured out what size tap I needed, went and bought the needed tap for about 12 bucks and then bought the helicoils alone, then returned the kit unused. Cost me less than 20 bucks.

As stated, self tapping screws are just going to ruin it altogether. Do the helicoils.

[crazy steve]

Helicoils are fast and easy. What I did when I last needed them was, I bough the kit from my local grainger, figured out what size tap I needed, went and bought the needed tap for about 12 bucks and then bought the helicoils alone, then returned the kit unused. Cost me less than 20 bucks...

I'm curious how you made that work. Helicoil taps are odd-sized and don't quite corrospond to 'regular' taps. You'll also run into problems with thread pitch as the size goes up; maybe not so much on metric threads, but for sure on US threads.

[natemoen]

I'm curious how you made that work. Helicoil taps are odd-sized and don't quite corrospond to 'regular' taps. You'll also run into problems with thread pitch as the size goes up; maybe not so much on metric threads, but for sure on US threads.

It was a helicoil for a standard sized bolt 3/8 I think. The kit I bought had the tap size and pitch stamped on it just like every other tap does. Went to ACE and bought the same size/pitch tap. It certainly was not a tap that would come in a normal off the shelf tap/die set but it was not hard to find. I think it was something like 21/64ths and a standard pitch (dont remember off hand though).

[crazy steve]

It was a helicoil for a standard sized bolt 3/8 I think. The kit I bought had the tap size and pitch stamped on it just like every other tap does. Went to ACE and bought the same size/pitch tap. It certainly was not a tap that would come in a normal off the shelf tap/die set but it was not hard to find. I think it was something like 21/64ths and a standard pitch (dont remember off hand though).

Hmmm, you probably found a 'generic' helicoil tap. I know their patent finally expired so you have more choices about where/from who to get these now...