Hey all, introduction and a couple questions

[tom clisham]

Welcome!

Shop carefully on ebay. Pretty much everything you'll need you'll find there.
But, shop carefully. Prices can be all over the place, & there are bargains. Also, watch shipping charges. They can greatly affect final cost of an item. Irecently sold 2 wiring harnesses on ebay for around $10- 20 each. Look carefully. Good Luck Tom.

Where do you go to school? I know the windy like the back of my hand.

[foreda]

Harness

I would try to find a good harness and start from scratch. Replace the fuse block and apply di-electric grease to the connections.

[mack]

Andreas Wiess

Yes I was going to mention him as a parts source before. Send him a PM and tell him your bike model and year. He will send you a list of items he has available. His prices are as good as Flea bay and what he sells works. Pretty sure he will have an OEM harness. Don't screw around with the original fuse block, do yourself a favour and just get one from "Top Cat", here is one installed:

Since your going to be busy doing a lot of repairs, you should go to the forums and scroll down the page until you see Miscellanious, click on that then look for, "what to do with a neglected XS" or title to that effect. Steve mentioned "Geezer", by all means contact him. He makes a regulator/rectifier for these bike that is one of the best upgrades you could do.

[James England]

He makes a regulator/rectifier for these bike that is one of the best upgrades you could do.

I have one of these and it's been on a year and is excellent. I would suggest it's not necessary at this stage though and you'd be better off spending your money on other things.

Re your bike. I would look on eBay for a harness. I've sold two of them at about $45 each in the past. Although that depends how badly yours has been hacked about. Usually, when people start doing weird things with the harness, it's in response to faults, so fitting a fuse box may not cure anything. I'd buy a known good harness, clean all the connectors with De-Oxit aerosol and fit it.

You need OEM carbs and airboxes, IMO. I wouldn't re-jet anything with your present exhaust. I would use OEM carbs, cleaned, diaphragms checked etc and OEM filter box. I get the impression you just want to get the bike up and running, so sticking with OEM carbs and airbox is the way to go. If you start messing about with jets, you'll be doing it forever and your exhaust is hardly radical. I've run four XS1100's on all sorts of systems with no rejetting at all. Keep it simple.

Yes, there's a connector block in the headlamp which can kill everything if not connected or intermittent. Also, check the block connector from the right handlebar switch which runs under the tank on the right frame tube. That has to be making a proper connection for the engine to run, since it goes to the engine kill switch.

Check the tipover switch under the tank, sitting on the top frame crossmember, It's a silvery box (or rusty) in a rubber mount and it kills the engine if the bike tips over too far. You could bypass it by joining the wires together in order to try and get the engine going. It's better to run with it on and working though.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

wire harness

Here is one on Ebay at 10 bucks currently. It says 80 XS1100, so I will let other members speak up to how usefull it would be on your bike, ie, can you just switch a few plugs from your current harness and make a plug and play

http://www.ebay.com/itm/80-YAMAHA-XS...sories&vxp=mtr

[crazy steve]

Here is one on Ebay at 10 bucks currently. It says 80 XS1100, so I will let other members speak up to how usefull it would be on your bike, ie, can you just switch a few plugs from your current harness and make a plug and play

The harnesses are like a lot of other parts on these bikes.... close, but no cigar

There's enough differences between models/years that unless you're willing to make a lot of mods, get the right harness. The '78-79 standard harnesses will interchange no problem, but the later ones have enough changes that you'll have to pay attention. The biggy is they changed the 'type' of quite a few of the wiring plugs in '80 so a early/late harness swap is a bit of a PITA...

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Cool

Cool, thanks CS, Like I said, I don't know the differance so you guys pipe in, I always try to pass on bargins to members if I find them (some may be as tight on cash as me currently) But your input was what I was looking for before he bought, thanks

The harnesses are like a lot of other parts on these bikes.... close, but no cigar

There's enough differences between models/years that unless you're willing to make a lot of mods, get the right harness. The '78-79 standard harnesses will interchange no problem, but the later ones have enough changes that you'll have to pay attention. The biggy is they changed the 'type' of quite a few of the wiring plugs in '80 so a early/late harness swap is a bit of a PITA...

[fredintoon]

Hey all, I just picked up my first bike a few months ago, a 1979 xs1100 as a winter long project. - - -

Hi Josh and welcome,
all that good advice should get the machine up and running but the FIRST thing to do? Before ANYTHING ELSE?
The photo shows the bike is missing it's front brake calipers.
FIX THE BRAKES FIRST!
If you don't you will be tempted to "just try it round the block" the minute it fires up and riding that widowmaker with no front brake can convert you into a smear of forensic evidence.
Also, the front fender adds to the fork's stability so don't leave it off just because it looks cool that way.
Spending $103 on a TKAT fork brace is a good thing too. Having someone get you one for your birthday is even better.

[jmcvey1]

haha, yeah, I have all those pieces ready to be put back on.

The calipers were off the bike when I got it (the PO was going to chopper it) but I've been wrestling with new brake pads while I had them off. These suckers are getting the better of me, my old cutlass has four drum brakes and I can replace those easier than the time i've been having getting the old pads out of these calipers!

as for the fender, ive heard that before. Mostly it's off right now because I want to sand/chemical/wish the chrome off of it so i can paint it.

I'm not really looking to even ride the bike until spring or summer after i've taken some msf courses and chicago warms up a little bit...


Thanks for your input everyone! I've been impatiently waiting on parts to ship so i can keep working on this. updates to come