this sounds SOOOO familiar

[bubbavike]

My '79 XS std has just about pushed me to the limit of my meager ability to keep it running or the patience to keep trying.

I am looking for suggestions.

the details -
Indigo Blue,
12863 miles
Original stock except for tires.
Was good runner.
Exhaust stock but rusted
Minor scratches in tank.
Fuse box tempermental
Carbs ??? –
Tipped over on right side last spring trying to get onto center stand.
Since then I have had problems with stuck float / needle leaking gas.
Had it looked at by local shop twice but he was unable to resolve.
One carb tower for float broken.

[CatatonicBug]

What kind of suggestions are you looking for? Something like, "fix it" perhaps?

Replace the fuse block with the one TC sells, and take care of the carbs yourself. You'll have it fixed in no time!

[bubbavike]

suggestions?

TC fuse box - is that a brand or a member of XS11?

I may be at the end of my rope on this. I am not much of a mechanic, spent last summer on and off trying to get it to behave.

If I decide to cut ties - how much is my pride and joy / headache worth?

[mack]

Stay cool

Just stay cool, if it was a good runner before you dropped it, nothing much is wrong. Nice thing about these bikes is they are easy to work on. Get a manual from bug, fuse box from Top Cat( moderator) cheap easy to install and solves tons of problems. Someone here has a set of diagnostic carbs for 78/79's and will ship to you to try, at shipping cost. Can't remember who off hand but I'm sure they'll chime in. Do the work yourself and read the manual and then the maint. tips before you start. You'll never replace your bike, cheaper than you can make a simple fix yourself.

[DGXSER]

TC fuse box - is that a brand or a member of XS11?

Hey Bubba, TC is TopCat, a member and admin here on the site. He found a great replacement fuse box that he buys in bulk and then resells to members. The box and 90 clips to put on the wires goes for about $10 shipped to you. Realy nice piece and works very well.

I may be at the end of my rope on this. I am not much of a mechanic, spent last summer on and off trying to get it to behave.

We have all been there once, twice, or maybe more. This is a very easy bike to work on, but still, when it does not cooperate, they all suck!! As to the carb, there are lots of different methods for getting one repaired. Look on the site and I am certain you will find a few. Or you can find replacement parts.

If I decide to cut ties - how much is my pride and joy / headache worth?

Sdly, typically a bit less than you might hope for, but like all things, it boils down to does it work as is, what does it look like, are all the parts there, and the biggest determining factor, who wants to buy it and how much is it worth TO THEM! But one that looks nice and runs well will go for about $1500, one that looks nice but does not run, maybe $5-700, non-running and rough looking half that or less, those you can sometimes have given to you.

[natemoen]

TC is the administrator here. Easy to find his name, just look at the first thread in the tech forum here and his name is right below that TopCatGr58.

As to the carbs. Cleaning them and knowing them is your friend. Here is a link to a thread that will walk you through cleaning them.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24955&highlight=carb+cleaning+101

For the broken float post here is a starting place for fixing that.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26958&highlight=float+post+fix

there are tons of threads dealing with fixing those but this one show a brief overview of a few of the methods and even gives an option for sending the body somewhere and having them fix it. Do a search for float post repair or something similar and you can peruse the threads and see what might work for you.

[cywelchjr]

With the broken post, it depends on just where it's broken. If it's broken in just the right place, there are methods to fix it reliably, but you will need to pull the rack and take a picture and post it for us to see.

Now, lots of new members have trouble with posting pictures but it's actually simple once you get it down.

Just a few steps.

One, Get a photobucket account.
Two, upload your photos to your photobucket account
three, hover over the photo with your mouse, a little menu will drop down below the photo, one of the option will be for IMG line, click on that, it will say "copied"
four, paste into your message (when it said copied it copied the image link into your clipboard, so you need to have your message and photobucket open at the same time).
five, post your message.

I generally put a blank line before and after each image, as it keeps things neat, but that just involves practice. The first time you get it right you will have a big smile on your face and will likely never forget how to do it, and this process will pretty much work on ANY forum, even if they have a built in method, this one will still work.

Also, many times after a fall, the floats in the carbs will get cocked sideways a little and stick. In this case, you usually can fix it by tapping on the side of the carbs with a small rubber mallet of the wooden handle of a hammer (or in my case the rubber handle of a hammer). Never had to do this with my 1100, but I did have to do it with my 400 a couple of times.

The worse case would be that you might have to find a replacement carb for the one with the broken post, and replace just that one in the carb bank (you would need to find a single that was a matching model to your set and the same number carb, there may be someone on here who has one), but first lets figure out if you have one of those that's and easy fix or not, cause if it's an easy fix, that can give you time to find a good deal on the replacement carb to do the fix the right way (we always want to fix things right when/if we can) later on, as long as we can make a fix that makes the bike reliable and safe in the meantime right?

But as others have said. The fuse box is a known issue, and TC on here has an inexpensive replacement that is very easy to install in it's place that works VERY well, and uses modern blade fuses like modern cars use (only the larger ones like the mid 80's cars rather than the tiny ones like the new cars do), but they work nice, and even have a couple of slots to carry spares in.

[forexbob]

Don't Give Up!

.......there is far too much information AND HELP on this site alone to get you back on the road.

Admittedly, I have some maintenance background, but that was on wide body jets. And turbo fan engines don't have carbs! And the brakes on a 747 are just a little bit different than an XS11.

This has been and continues to be a huge learning curve for me (the old adage "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is BS)

I've only just started tearing my bike down and I've run into a lot of snags along the way and am working on two right now. But the folks here are a phenomenal resource. I've never torn down a set of carbs, brake MC or calipers before and had no idea what to look for or what to expect. But there is always help here.

I even took pics of electrical units that I had no clue as to their function and got answers almost immediately.

Patience? Riding season is practically here and my bike is in pieces all over the garage

Here's a couple of links to the TC fusebox mod:

One, Two

I got one from TC myself. Haven't put it in yet, but soon.

If you want it, the help is here.

Bob

[fredintoon]

- - - If I decide to cut ties - how much is my pride and joy / headache worth?

Hi Bubba and welcome,
my guess as to what your bike is worth will be no better than those already posted, but here's the thing:-
If it don't run good nobody will give you much money for it.
If it runs good it'll be worth way more but you will want to keep it.
the best thing about your bike is that if the true mileage is less than 13,000, the bike is barely run in. The XS1100 is good for at least 100,000 miles of normal riding.
There's good guides on carb rebuilds to be found in the list but here's two tips they may not mention:-
Do the carb work in a big cafeteria tray so the tray edges can catch all those little parts that'll fall out and try to disappear.
The best way to remove float pins is with an automatic centerpunch. Even if you have to go out and buy one.

[fredintoon]

- - - TC on here has an inexpensive replacement that is very easy to install in it's place that works VERY well, and uses modern blade fuses like modern cars use (only the larger ones like the mid 80's cars rather than the tiny ones like the new cars do), but they work nice, and even have a couple of slots to carry spares in. - - -

Hi Cy,
you sure about the fuse size? The unit that TC sent to me uses the small blades. My big banana fingers would prefer the larger size but that's what needle nosed pliers are for, eh? No matter! The fusebox upgrade works great.

[cywelchjr]

Hi Cy,
you sure about the fuse size? The unit that TC sent to me uses the small blades. My big banana fingers would prefer the larger size but that's what needle nosed pliers are for, eh? No matter! The fusebox upgrade works great.

Ok, I guess your thinking of the really big ones, where I'm thinking of the ones in my Malibu which are 1/2 the size of the ones in the box from TC. I know there are ones even bigger than the ones in TC's box, but the ones in the TC fuse box are the same size as my 89 Camaro uses, and I'm not seen bigger used in auto's with the exception of some high current circuits on my Honda passport I used to have.