1980 XS11 Special - Ugly Duckling Rebuild

[jetmechmarty]

That tank issue is easy. Go to Harbor Freight in Fayetteville and buy this: 5 lb. Rust-Cutting Resin Abrasive Tumbler Media


Put 2 lbs of that in the tank. Put the tank in a sleeping bag. Put it in the clothes dryer and stuff it full of pillows. Run it with the heat off for a couple of hours. Empty it. Vacuum out the dust. Rinse it with your favorite volatile solvent. Put a Caswell liner in it. You're done!


The radiator shop is going to destroy the paint. It's completely unnecessary. The Caswell stuff doesn't require all the rust being gone. I would want to be rid of any exfoliation in there. This is the easiest solution.

[jetmechmarty]

BTW, I'm getting my tires from the local Moto Guzzi dealer. They put the wrong tire on my back wheel. They replaced it at no cost to me. They even told me to just bring in the bike and they'd do the whole job. I brought them the wheel just the same.

[MaximPhil]

Kurt,
I had a chuckle at your first picture
My caption: Twin tanks will go twice the distance Yeah Now to find somewhere for the rider to sit

Access to a tire mounting machine is awesome. Ask him to teach you how to use it. ( it is not difficult but can damage the tire if not used properly)

These guys have HJC visors http://www.motorcyclegear.com/

Phil

[MPittma100]

Metal Rescue

I used this product after the tumbling stones. It took the metal to like new condition. They suggest that no tank liner is necessary. I did use the Caswell liner anyway. Therefore, a liner seems to be an option rather than a necessity unless the tank is rusted through and leaking fuel.

The old liner looked like the one pictured. It was undoubtedly not able to combat ethanol whereas the Caswell liner is. I used Acetone to get the old one out. Pix are of tank after treatment

Viewed from tank sending unit hole:


Viewed from gas cap hole:

[kboehringer]

NO more scary TT tire on the front!

That tank issue is easy. ....Put it in the clothes dryer and stuff it full of pillows.

That's a pretty cool idea.... BUT I'm not too sure how much the bride is going to like that idea in our fairly new Maytag. She puts up with the dirty & greasy clothes, washes the shop rags, and even hands me tools and assistance but not too sure the gas tank in the dryer is going to fly. If it gets done this way it'll have to be when she's not around.


NOW IT'S TIME TO RIDE!

Just got back from the daughter-in-laws "family bike shop" with my new TUBELESS PIRELLI tire mounted in less than 5 minutes and PROPERLY balanced 15 minutes later. They have something more of a "fixture" than a machine. It's got three arms/horizontal legs with adjustable stays to grab the rim. It also has a vertical post to pull a special tire iron around making tire changes a few minute event. I'd never seen one of them before..............

My daughter in law's brother is a weekly racer of every style (motocross, dirt track, road course, and enduro) and helped get the balance right. I felt like I was imposing a tiny bit and said: "that balance seems close enough since I won't be doing any 100+ driving" his response was: "that'd be great if you knew the vibration that's gonna pull the bars our of your hands was only gonna happen at 100+ but it just might happen at 35mph!!".... Guess I'll let you finish

I'm gonna go drop 'em off a case of beer a little later today.....

The Georgia sun is just popping out after 3-4 days of thunder storms. For now, it's time to drive!!!!!!!!

Have a great Saturday XSfolks!

Sincerely,
KURT

[kboehringer]

Quick DUCK Update.... Improvements continue...

XS Folks,
I've been driving the heck out of the XS11 and enjoying every minute. Drove it to work twice this week (70 miles round trip) and will do so again tomorrow. Still trying to continually make improvements and repairs while preparing to attend the XSSE Rally and shaking the bugs out....

I'm struggling with trying to improve gas mileage as it seems I could do better than 30.5 mpg. The guys on the Southeast Region thread have provided some good advice and I will probably pull the carbs again and double-check the float height AGAIN.

Meanwhile....I found a set of folks on Evil-Bay for $50 and couldn't pass 'em up. I recently rebuilt my stock forks and they perform VERY well compared to before the cleaning and seals. BUT, each inner tube has significant rust.

The forks I purchased are absolutely spotless and they were maintained properly. I haven't pulled them apart yet but they may have been upgraded

I'm just gonna steal the inner tubes and replace my rusty ones. Much cheaper at $50 than anything I could find anywhere else and I get a couple spare parts too.

When the new forks arrived I realized they contained pieces my bike didn't have when I got it.... You don't know what your missing until you see it
I immediately added these missing brake pad guides to my current forks....


I also grabbed another XS1100 tool kit for a whopping $2 on Evil-Bay and scored: all the OEM tools I was missing, a nicer tool box with the cover that goes all the way to the top, and an OEM mid & final drive dip stick! Well worth the $2 alone!



Respectfully,
KURT

[Radioguylogs]

You are so industrious!

Tool kit looks like new. I'm jealous.

[kboehringer]

Final untouched area gets some attention.....DUCK Update

XS Folks,

The final area of my XS-Duckling that hadn't seen any PM was the swing arm. The manual says maintenance is required every 10k and based upon my PO's other work he certainly didn't pay any attention to this either.





One incentive to perform this PM and inspection is a bit of vibration that seems a little excessive. I thought there was a chance the U-joint was shot. In addition a peek behind the dust cover revealed an enormous amount of lubricant. I'm not sure what that crap was but there was about #3 of it in the drive shaft tunnel and the dust boot was full of it. Is it possible this excessive quantity of lubricant was causing a vibration in your opinion???

I pulled everything apart and it appears the driveline is in good shape. All the teeth on the drive shaft look good and the U-joint has no play in it. I have a good replacement on-hand but will likely continue with the current unit. The dust boot is a POS and shows evidence of fire (like the wiring did in this area).

Hopefully, Partzilla won't let me down and a new dust boot and bearing seals will be here BEFORE the big weekend. I don't want to do this twice but I WILL be riding this weekend! Although it could be my neglected Little Maxim..

Respectfully,
KURT

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Kurt,

I can't imagine the excessive grease would cause a vibration....it should have just slung off of the moving parts. We have had folks comment about finding lots of grease in the boot....apparently it can migrate forward from the final drive couple where the ZERK fitting is....from overfilling, then it gets worked forward from the spinning driveshaft action.

Just a warning....be sure to use the torque specs for the swingarm bearings bolts from the YAMAHA manual, not the Clymers...it's way wrong...can't recall the exact specs but think it quoted ft/lbs instead of inch/lbs !

T.C.

[kboehringer]

I can't imagine the excessive grease would cause a vibration....it should have just slung off of the moving parts. .............Just a warning....be sure to use the torque specs for the swingarm bearings bolts from the YAMAHA manual, not the Clymers...it's way wrong...can't recall the exact specs but think it quoted ft/lbs instead of inch/lbs ! T.C.

TC,
Thanks for the information. I just got finished reviewing the clymers manual as I haven't much to do waiting for the replacement parts from Partzilla (delivery tomorrow).

When I read the Clymer's I was a bit surprised at the high numbers; "Tighten opposite pivot shaft bolt to approximately 47 ft.-lb. (64 Nm). Measure gaps. When correct, tighten the pivot shaft locknuts to 72 ft.-lb. (100 Nm)"

I'm now wondering if they made other mistakes in torque values? I'm a bit of a stickler for torque values and follow them religiously. I torqued the front axle bolt to 76 ft.-lb. in accordance with Clymer and was also surprised by that high number..... Wonder if it was correct?

For some unknown reason I have had trouble downloading some of the online manuals. Some work.... some don't.... Might be a faulty security setting on my computer not really sure but I do not have the OEM Yamaha Manual. Know the PROPER spec?

RE: VIBRATIONS
I really won't know until I get a chance to drive the bike BUT the material that was held throughout the drive shaft chamber and within the boot was VERY thin. Unlike grease which would (as you mentioned) sling up and probably stick out of the way, this material which seemed similar to thin liquid anti-seeze, with a gold-ish color, would most likely have continually be falling onto and slinging around and about the chamber, shaft, and u-joint. The u-joint was actually 1/2 immersed in this "liquid-like" lubricant at all times. I think that this material COULD have caused an unusual vibration at highway speeds? I guess I'll need to PROPERLY lubricate all the bearings and shaft engagement points and test drive to determine the results.......

Respectfully,
Kurt

[jetmechmarty]

Check the middle drive oil. It might be leaking.

76 ft lbs sounds correct for the front axle. I'll check it for you if I can. Meanwhile, no news is good news.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Kurt,

I'll send you the link to Catatonic's site in a PM, they do work, but his server is just a little slow....just give it time to react...find the link to the PDF file among the list he shows on his page, then right click and select SAVE AS, then wait a while for it to show you the SAVE AS window once it figures out how large of a file it is....~200 MB's!

As to the specs....the pivot bolts are tightened to 43 ~ 52 Inch/Pounds.
BUT the manual also then states to set the LOCK NUT to 72 ft/lbs and ensure that the Pivot Shaft doesn't turn while setting the Lock Nut torque.

And 77 lbs is correct for the front axle torque!

T.C.

[kboehringer]

Thanks again TC & Marty

Check the middle drive oil. It might be leaking.

Marty & TC,
At first the liquid reminded me of the milk-shake you get with a blown head gasket (oil/water) so I immediately checked the middle gear for a leak and found nothing abnormal. A closer exam indicated this stuff was probably injected through the holes in the swing arm pin allen holes. It's all removed now.

• The swing arm bearings now have proper lube and new seals. Dust boot was replaced with new as well since it had some burn evidence.
• While working in that neighborhood (without a swing arm in the way) it was a simple task to pull the rear brake assy. out of the frame, clean it and its associated components properly lubricate them & completely re-assemble.
• Although all the fluids in the bike were barely used. Everything (engine, mid, final) has new lube and a new oil filter (in prep. for the XSSE).

TORQUE INFORMATION:
Thanks for the torque information... I just managed to get the download!!!

It's a good thing I got it as the Clymer has not spec stated for the "Middle Gear Flange & Universal Joint" which the OEM manual states is 31.8 ft. lb.

Gotta go get the wheel back on.......................

Respectfully,
KURT

[kboehringer]

Vibrations FOUND! & OOOOOPS

XS Folks,
Those that are still following the Duck here know I've been complaining about vibrations that SEEM excessive.

I took a nice ride yesterday and thoroughly flogged the bike. The whole time I was putting up with vibrations. They are worse at/about 3500 rpm. This morning, I decided to check the torque on the motor mount bolts. According to the YAMAHA manual the fronts should be at 48.5 ft. lb. The bottom front was good. When I attempted to torque the top bolt (the long one) the bolt snapped!

While I'm trying to figure out how to replace this aftermarket SAE bolt (PO use an SAE bolt to mount the engine guards since the stock OEM bolt is too short), I pulled the vibration dampers and found this:



The dampers are TOTALLY shot! One side is completely worn down. They fit so loose in the engine boss it's like they're doing NOTHING. The engine is obviously just bouncing around in there.

I checked three of the usual sources (Partzilla, Yamahapartshouse, partsnmore) and there are apparently three different versions used on our engines (front uppers, front lowers, and rears) all of them are no longer available! For the moment, I have a set of these in better condition I got with a lot of misc. parts on evil-bay. They are better but not by too much.


Unless somebody has a better idea??????..... I'm gonna grab some Energy Suspension Brand urethane leaf spring bushings from Summit and cut 'em down on my lathe to the proper dimensions. I also have some PVC round stock and some aluminum round but I don't think hard mounts are a good idea on a bike.

Respectfully,
KURT

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Kurt,

As you have discovered, a lot of the problems with our bikes have been hashed out before.

Here's an old thread that surprisingly still has the photo links intact!

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20612&highlight=urethane

Here's the tech tip with Updated info on the acquisition of the parts by Crazy Steve:

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36054

Hope this helps!?

T.C.