Barn find freebie 1978 xs1100E

[olinrj]

I also had an xj650, my cousin has it now, sitting at his parent's house. If he doesn't do anything with it soon, I may have to get it back.

What material is recommended for the fuel line? I would like to go with clear and have heard tygon is good but would like any opinions.

Thanks,
Bob

[HalfCentury]

I also had an xj650, my cousin has it now, sitting at his parent's house. If he doesn't do anything with it soon, I may have to get it back.

What material is recommended for the fuel line? I would like to go with clear and have heard tygon is good but would like any opinions.

Thanks,
Bob

I did all of this work and purchasing back in 2008, so memory may be a bit faded. Its just standard 1/4" line. It was either an auto parts store or at a Walmart. It may be a yellow-ish translucent color. You may find it in the lawnmower section instead of the auto parts section. The fuel filters I used were intended for a lawnmower. These are seasonal at some auto parts stores. In the winter, these items are not on display.

[olinrj]

I've got a couple short lengths of clear tube, mainly as accessories for my mity-vac bleeder. I will check to see if I have enough to get the bike set, once I reach that point.

I spent the last two hours going through the rear brakes. The master cylinder was rusty behind the dust boot but everything came apart well. The seals and plunger between were in great shape. I cleaned everything and confirmed the spooge hole was clear. Moving to the caliper, aside from some oxidation of the caliper body, the piston and cylinder wall was in good condition as well. There was a bunch of sediment in the bottom of the cylinder but it all washed out fine. I still need to bleed it out but feel good about progress.

While I was in the area I found the right rear shock bottom eye was cracked clean off the shock body. Looks like I'll be buying new shocks sooner than I planned.

I'm a bit tired but have plenty of pictures that I'll post at my next opportunity.

Thanks,
Bob

[bikerphil]

Better make sure that tubing you have will handle fuel without breaking down.

[olinrj]

Here are a few pics from last night

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[kristo.thaler@gmail.com]

Milwaukee Area

Hey there,
I'm an xj rider from Milwaukee. Also doing a restoration on mine. Let me know how yours is going and we can go for a ride some time.

[olinrj]

Thanks for stopping by. Getting together sounds like a great idea. I figure my xs should be road-worthy in a few weeks. What kind of shape is your xs in?

[HalfCentury]

Here are a few pics from last night

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I used a grease gun to free two seized front calipers. If you push hard enough, a normal zerk fitting of a grease gun will fit over the bleeder nipple and let the grease force the piston out. You then have a small task of cleaning the grease out of the caliper.

Boiling the caliper parts in lemon juice will get rid of all of the rust.

Wire brush on a Dremel to remove the pitting and vulcanized rubber from the caliper bore.

The most difficult part was getting the dust seal to seat properly.

[bikerphil]

A good trick when using the grease gun is to first fill the caliper with brake fluid, therefore not much grease will be necessary, less cleaning up messy grease.

[olinrj]

I was able to get it out by soaking the piston edge in Kroil then pushing it down. Once it moved I used plastic pry bars to work it out of the bore. There was no rust or pitting on the bore, just sludge in the brake fluid. I'm not concerned with cosmetics at this point, just trying to go through each system and get it road-safe. This winter I'll go through the bike and pretty things up as I see fit. Probably will get stainless brake lines and repaint everything then.

Thanks,
Bob

[HalfCentury]

I was able to get it out by soaking the piston edge in Kroil then pushing it down. Once it moved I used plastic pry bars to work it out of the bore. There was no rust or pitting on the bore, just sludge in the brake fluid. I'm not concerned with cosmetics at this point, just trying to go through each system and get it road-safe. This winter I'll go through the bike and pretty things up as I see fit. Probably will get stainless brake lines and repaint everything then.

Thanks,
Bob

Kroil is awesome. I have a spray can on the shelf and use it often. I am with you. Make it road safe first. My calipers are not pretty but they are ultra-clean inside and out.

[edwardruth]

Hello. Nice find. My bike sat for 20 years they say, it took me 3 weeks of working on it every day after work and on my days off to get mine going. Still got a few things to do before it's first 8,000 mile checkup is completed.

I'm still new to the forums and I'm sure you'll find this in the tech tips somewhere but, when I got my bike, the guys said he "cleaned the carbs" but it still ran just like yours. He was a dirt bike guy but still missed this next part. Main Jet emulsion tube. I think it's easy to overlook or not notice that the main jet emulsion tube comes out for cleaning. Although it's part of the "Main" system, it still affects idle if they are clogged.

Also, the choke can be seen as a self destruct system if you think about it, and running the bike for long periods of time with the choke on is bad. What happens is you flood the cylinder with too much gas and that extra gas is too much for the oil to lubricate the cylinder walls and piston skirts. It washes the oil away leaving metal on metal grinding against each other. I would rather sit and hold the throttle open a little before using the choke for warm up or at least shut it off as soon as the bike will run with a little throttle and no choke.

Hope you get it going soon.

[olinrj]

Thanks for the heads up on the main jet emulsion tube. I'll verify those are good once I get into the carbs. I haven't touched the bike in a few days, cut down some trees in our front yard that leaned over the driveway and am finishing clearing the mess. We're heading out of town this weekend to visit family. Once home I need to get the garden ready and then can focus on the bike again.

Thanks,
Bob

[olinrj]

Last night I finished my initial work on the brake systems. Started trying to bleed the rear but didn't seem to make any progress getting fluid through to the caliper. Took a break from that to knock out the fronts. Replaced all the fluid and gave everything a good visual check.

The rear needed to come apart, as I thought I didn't prime the master enough, but once the master was out, there was fluid in the first banjo fitting. I separated the hoses from the hard line and found that there was a blockage in the caliper banjo on the rear flexible hose. I used 14g solid wire from my electrical parts bin to work my way through the hose and after a short while had cleared the blockage. Reassembled everything and had a beer to enjoy the minor success. Finished bleeding the system and put the right hard bag back on.
I changed focus to the engine and got the cam cover off, need to order a new gasket, and changed the plugs. All 4 were black and oily.
Next up is checking cam clearances and replacing the cam chain tensioner.

Thanks,
Bob

[edwardruth]

Last night I finished my initial work on the brake systems. Started trying to bleed the rear but didn't seem to make any progress getting fluid through to the caliper. Took a break from that to knock out the fronts. Replaced all the fluid and gave everything a good visual check.

The rear needed to come apart, as I thought I didn't prime the master enough, but once the master was out, there was fluid in the first banjo fitting. I separated the hoses from the hard line and found that there was a blockage in the caliper banjo on the rear flexible hose. I used 14g solid wire from my electrical parts bin to work my way through the hose and after a short while had cleared the blockage. Reassembled everything and had a beer to enjoy the minor success. Finished bleeding the system and put the right hard bag back on.
I changed focus to the engine and got the cam cover off, need to order a new gasket, and changed the plugs. All 4 were black and oily.
Next up is checking cam clearances and replacing the cam chain tensioner.

Thanks,
Bob

Fun stuff. With those oily plugs, it might be a good time to do a compression check. If nothing else, good to know anyways.