New member, build issues

[mack]

Couple points

First, you should read the Clymers and familiarize yourself with the bike so we can communicate better. If you don't know where the major components are, it will be difficult for us to help you.
If it was me, I'd tend to the front brake issue first. These bikes are fast and heavy and the rear brake isn't sufficient enough to stop you with any control.
The last point is locate the sound "of a roll of nickles" -left side, right side middle or rear of motor.
This is what your middle drive looks like.
https://youtu.be/W6MSW2oiH1U

[beastcoastxs]

Yeah the Clymers doesn't say a whole lot regarding the middle drive gear. the noise is coming from the middle left area. Thanks for the link. Like I said forgive meon not being too familiar with the shaft drive. I'm used to belt or chain drive. I understand the principple on shaft drive bikes and how they work but haven't really worked on one.

[crazy steve]

looks to be Standard forks on a Special.............and that could get interesting at speed and 'twisties.

Yeah, should have noted that he needs to check to see if he does have 'mixed parts' on the front end. Standard forks with Special trees isn't a good combo....

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Link

Yeah the Clymers doesn't say a whole lot regarding the middle drive gear. the noise is coming from the middle left area. Thanks for the link. Like I said forgive meon not being too familiar with the shaft drive. I'm used to belt or chain drive. I understand the principple on shaft drive bikes and how they work but haven't really worked on one.

Don't if this link will come through, hope it helps

http://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/...8405#sch229870

[beastcoastxs]

I've had the bike in twisties at speed by the way and other than the fact that its not really known for great handling in high speed twisties it was a pleasure. Keeping it in the right gear and paying attention to the road with engine braking and rear brakes is way more fun than having that pesky brake lever in the way!!!I prefer choppers that are a trick to ride So no big deal on the brake right now. Once I get it moving more I'll get it stopping more. For now the rear brakes work wonders on the bike thats taken apart in the garage.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Hey

I've had the bike in twisties at speed by the way and other than the fact that its not really known for great handling in high speed twisties it was a pleasure. Keeping it in the right gear and paying attention to the road with engine braking and rear brakes is way more fun than having that pesky brake lever in the way!!!I prefer choppers that are a trick to ride So no big deal on the brake right now. Once I get it moving more I'll get it stopping more. For now the rear brakes work wonders on the bike thats taken apart in the garage.

Hey, not picking on you, just trying to help. These bikes are heavy and small back tire by todays standard, stop OK if you got time and the road is dry and free of oil, just trying to help a fellow biker

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Again,

Okay, here's a photo from the rear tire change pictorial in the tech tips/maintenance/wheels that shows the useless zerk fitting on the final drive..



Next, even though you're a H-D mech, you don't have to spend H-D type $$ for your parts, so don't spend so much on K&N brand filters, check out the sites I mentioned earlier for the XS brand of K&N style filters...nice tall ovals available.

Don't let the other guys scare you about the front forks. The specials and standards have the front axles in different orientations, and so Yamaha made the triple trees with slight variances in where they position the fork tubes to help maintain the same rake/trail whether the bike was a standard with the axle on the end of the slider, or a special with the axle on the leading edge of the slider. One of our members, Fredintoon, is a sidecar devotee, and they know about swapping TT's, NOT the actual fork sliders, between special and standards to reduce the trail to help make the steering lighter for the sidehack rigs. I'll have to draw out some diagrams to get an idea of if you'll be reducing or increasing your trail with the use of standard sliders with special TT's.

But I doubt if it's an inch or more either way. I experienced a severe front end collision and resultant bent frame neck that reduced my rake/trail unbeknownst to me from the stock ~6"'s to about 2" ! I rode the bike that way for 20 years without knowing or realizing it. YES the steering was a bit lighter/ tended to oversteer a little, but was otherwise just fine, and still stable at 100+ mph. So...only 1 inch change, you probably wouldn't even be able to tell it....IF you had ridden the special in OEM slider configuration.

In the email that was sent to you confirming your registration, you should have had some links to the member hosted download site where you can access an actual official Yamaha service manual for your bike? I'll send you another copy in a PM, don't want to post it publicly to help keep the spambots from harvesting it!

T.C.

[motoman]

Hey, not picking on you, just trying to help. These bikes are heavy and small back tire by todays standard, stop OK if you got time and the road is dry and free of oil, just trying to help a fellow biker

+1!..........front brake IS your main brake on a motorcycle, whether it be in a straight line or thru the twisties. Ypur taking a major risk without it! Wouldn't wanna hear about a devastating or fatal wreck cause of no front brake. To put it bluntly, your risking evil or fatal results without one. And again.....just as Steve said, whether you belive it or not, your screwing up the WHOLE handling of the bike having those Standard forks on a Special frame. The steering neck IS at different angles on the Standard compared to the Special..........to be more blunt, get the correct forks put on that damn bike before you crash with serious injury, specially thru corners at speed. Believe us or not, Steve, I and others on this site have been riding bikes longer than you've been in extistance.........and we're serious bout our reccomendations!...........that INCLUDES a fromt brake! Maybe you've been around HD's and HD wanna-be riders WAY to long! We've seen WAY to many "guess I should of listened" folks here on this site, and don't particularly wanna add YOU to that list! BTW, whether it matters to you or not, I got 50+yrs. of extensive motorcycle riding with 30yrs. of that being semi-professional moto-X racing. Don't be another statistic!

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

You came here for our help

+1!..........front brake IS your main brake on a motorcycle, whether it be in a straight line or thru the twisties. Ypur taking a major risk without it! Wouldn't wanna hear about a devastating or fatal wreck cause of no front brake. To put it bluntly, your risking evil or fatal results without one. And again.....just as Steve said, whether you belive it or not, your screwing up the WHOLE handling of the bike having those Standard forks on a Special frame. The steering neck IS at different angles on the Standard compared to the Special..........to be more blunt, get the correct forks put on that damn bike before you crash with serious injury, specially thru corners at speed. Believe us or not, Steve, I and others on this site have been riding bikes longer than you've been in extistance.........and we're serious bout our reccomendations!...........that INCLUDES a fromt brake! Maybe you've been around HD's and HD wanna-be riders WAY to long! We've seen WAY to many "guess I should of listened" folks here on this site, and don't particularly wanna add YOU to that list! BTW, whether it matters to you or not, I got 50+yrs. of extensive motorcycle riding with 30yrs. of that being semi-professional moto-X racing. Don't be another statistic!

I do understand the passion from Motoman, some of us including me have buried friends, and that is no fun. I know it sounds great to be the "wild one" who doesn't need front brakes and can control his bike better then all the rest. Hey, we all hope you get your bike built and have a great time riding it, we just want to help if we can and hope that is what you came here for. It is not a dare to suggest you make your bike safe, just bikers trying to help you have crazy fun and come home safe,

[mack]

I understand

I was in your position at one time. I've owned my SF since 79 but never really worked on it myself. Used to open the clymers and read stuff but it all seemed very intimidating at the time. I've since learned that these are very simple, straight forward and extremly well designed bikes. A joy to work on. If it doesn't come apart or go back together easily, your doing something wrong. Stop what your doing and read and follow the procedure outlined in the book.
OK so Steve and TC have you pointed in the right direction for your brakes. A close up photo of the lower front fork tubes would show us what caliper assembly would fit. I concur with with motoman and OEM on the requirement for front brakes. Bad things happen at the worst possible times, thats why they're called accidents. You have enough to deal with out there under normal riding conditions without having to deal with riding a bike with no emergency stopping power.
If the noise is left center then it's a pretty good bet the middle drive has had it. Drain it first ( the drain plug is located in center of the motor at the rear , inline with the driver foot peg/ rear motor mount bolt.) then remove the large hex head bolts holding it in place. I believe there are eight of them and some are quite long. Try to preserved the gasket. Once it's out, see if the noise is gone as well. These are very cheap and the best thing to do is replace it. Andreas will have boxes of them.
Once you have the new one reinstalled, clean up all the lands and grooves at the u joint, drive shaft/final drive and final drive/ rear wheel connections. Inspect them all for damage, replace as necessary. Get a can of belray moly and give all the lands and grooves a good coating with a brush. Then apply a liberal dose of moly grease to all the joints and put it back together working from the middle drive connection to the rear.
Put the proper amount of hypoid in the middle drive. The take it for a ride and check out your new front brakes.

[BA80]

He'll find out how important that "pesky" front brake lever is when he gets into that unplanned emergency that requires it's use to avoid a crash.

Hopefully he'll live through it and learn. But, generally those that put more stock into how they LOOK riding a bike rather than it's safety and rideability end up crippled or riding an underpowered Hardley or both.

[dbmb0416]

When you replace middle gear make sure you also use blue loctite on the 4 bolts when you put them back on. Trust me I learned the hard way. Luckily I was 200 yards from my house. On the way home.

[beastcoastxs]

So as I'm draining the middle gearbox I look up and think hmm... thats weird I dont remember being able to see the swingarm nut. The nut was hanging on by a couple threads and the cover is gone. Pretty sure I have some extra covers laying around but thats not my concern. So if this nut is loose, is it possible for shaft misalignment that could've caused my problem? Wouldn't surprise me if that was the case but might just be a coincidence. Regardless, glad I saw it.

[mack]

swing arm

The swing arm needs to be centered for the bike to track properly. Also the torque spec in the manual is incorrect. I believe it calls for something like 48.5 ft/lbs on the bolt that fits into the tapered roller bearing. That should read INCH pounds. The large lock nuts are what holds everything in place. The write up in the book is modest but feeler guages are your best friend here. This is what your looking at for one side.
https://youtu.be/1r-GpR5CTbE

Matt: I think you need to go over that machine completely and do a complete inspection with a torque wrench. IT WILL KILL YOU if you don't!

[BA80]

The swing arm needs to be centered for the bike to track properly. Also the torque spec in the manual is incorrect. I believe it calls for something like 48.5 ft/lbs on the bolt that fits into the tapered roller bearing. That should read INCH pounds. The large lock nuts are what holds everything in place. The write up in the book is modest but feeler guages are your best friend here. This is what your looking at for one side.
https://youtu.be/1r-GpR5CTbE

Matt: I think you need to go over that machine completely and do a complete inspection with a torque wrench. IT WILL KILL YOU if you don't!

Inch lbs on the adjusting bolt, ft lbs on the lock nut.