hello from a new member

[dansmith65]

I got it home!

Unexpectedly, the mechanic called first thing Monday morning saying the bike was ready to go. Apparently, the rear brake just needed to be bled, but he had to use pressure to do it. There was also a vacuum port plug missing on one carb. Since my cousin was in town and headed to Alberta in a few hours, I packed quickly and left with him.

First impression of the bike: It's like a big clunky diesel work-truck compared to the economy commuter-like Suzuki 250 I've been riding. It took a little getting used to!

I tilted the handlebars down at my first stop because my wrist's were bent at too much of an angle. Lucky for me it has an aftermarket throttle lock; that helped prevent stiff wrist.

It ran well enough, but something felt off on the front-end. I didn't have enough experience to diagnose what was causing it on the ride home, but once I got home I found that the front right brake caliper (the solid one) was warped. Also, the left fork had some pressure in it, but the right fork had none. I fixed this by firing up my compressor and letting it fill the tank to somewhere around 15psi, then shutting it off and filled the forks from that.

I burned a full can of Seafoam on the ride home, spread across almost 3 tanks of gas. After riding about 160km, it started to sputter a bit. I switched it to reserve and it ran fine again. The mileage on that leg of the trip was only 28mpg! There was a strong wind, but I suspect it needs some tuning as well. I did get 35mpg on the next leg of the trip, though.

Strangely, once I got home I noticed the same carb that the mechanic added a plug to the vacuum port was missing a plug again. I've rigged up a temporary one using a piece of hose with the other end plugged.

Now it's home and my temporary insurance has expired so I'll spend the rest of the year/winter fixing it up for next riding season. I'll probably start a new thread for the restore process, or individual thread's if I don't do a full restore.

Thanks again to everyone for your advice!

[spectra]

Good to hear you got it home!

And Diesel work truck................I had a F350 4 door that was my 10K sports car I had plenty of people ask what did you do to that thing............I could keep up with the best of them

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Dan,

Glad you made it home safely. As to the vacuum plug coming off, that's a sign that the valve clearances need to be adjusted, possibly too tight, so that during the compression phase the intake valve isn't closing and so the compression pressure builds up and blows back out the carb and pops the vac. port cap.

Check with Andreas Weiss, he's the parts broker and ships in Canada as well as USA, and very good prices competitive with eBay. Let him know you're looking for the slotted style.

Your mileage is about par, the specials have the smaller 16" rear and so you loose a little gearing advantage compared to the standard's 17".

I still think that the Inspectors wouldn't notice if you put on some Early model Gold Wing bars instead of the buckhorns, Andreas might also have that too, I think he deals with other models of bikes besides XS11's. Have fun tinkering with it this winter!

T.C.

[donebysunday]

What do people here use for syncing carbs? Carbtune, build your own?

Good idea to drain the bowls; maybe I'll ask the mechanic to do that to prevent debris from clocking jets, etc. on the ride home.

For the ride home, I'm going to try to stick to ethanol-free gas, to prevent breaking up potential deposits throughout the fuel system. But I am aware that some issues may come up after riding it for a bit, that weren't there from the start, due to things like you mentioned. Once I get it home, I plan to spend the winter giving it a good going-over getting it ready to ride next year.

~22,000 miles on it

I use the 4 gauge and the carb sticks with mercury and 4 pillars/tubes and another I made myself that is only 2 tube. As was said the 2 works just fine sync 1-2 then 3-4 (does not matter if you do 3-4 then 1-2) to finish up sync 2-3. Because I have all these devices I usually double check one against the others, just because, don't think I have ever needed to change what I set with one or the other.
I also made one that is just 7 ft. of fuel line with colored fuel in it, it is so sensitive you need to get the carbs well synced before using it or the engine will just pull the fuel out of the line and burn it up. This thing is so sensitive just touching the adjustment screws changes the level.
Jet suggested using it to adjust the idle mix screws but I've never even tried that.
BTW it does not matter what fuel you put in the tank as far as dissolving old residue, non-ethanol though is better for all engines.
If your mechanic finds what I think we all know he will, he'll strongly suggest rebuilding the carbs Mucho denairo, at 22K your bike should not need more than float needles and seats, unless someone has been in them and messed things up ? P.O.s can be you worst nightmare !!!!!
Get a Haynes, Clymers or best of all a Yamaha service manual !

[dansmith65]

And Diesel work truck................I had a F350 4 door that was my 10K sports car I had plenty of people ask what did you do to that thing............I could keep up with the best of them

Don't get me wrong; it's already grown on me, but it was an adjustment. I love the torque!

As to the vacuum plug coming off, that's a sign that the valve clearances need to be adjusted, possibly too tight, so that during the compression phase the intake valve isn't closing and so the compression pressure builds up and blows back out the carb and pops the vac. port cap.

Thanks, I was hoping someone would know what that meant. Checking valve clearances is on my to-do list.

Check with Andreas Weiss, he's the parts broker and ships in Canada as well as USA, and very good prices competitive with eBay. Let him know you're looking for the slotted style.

We have been in touch and he doesn't have slotted rotors; only solid.

Your mileage is about par, the specials have the smaller 16" rear and so you loose a little gearing advantage compared to the standard's 17".

Good to know. I just did some reading up on mileage on these bikes. I think I'll be able to get a little better mileage out of it next year after I work on it. Also, I forgot to mention that I was expecting the fuel light to tell me when I'm low, but it never came on. I took the seat off when I came home and found a disconnected/corroded wire, so I cleaned/connected it and I think it will work now.

I still think that the Inspectors wouldn't notice if you put on some Early model Gold Wing bars instead of the buckhorns, Andreas might also have that too, I think he deals with other models of bikes besides XS11's. Have fun tinkering with it this winter!

I was looking at those Gold Wing bars; they are similar shape, but spread a little wider vs pointing toward the back of the bike. I might try that out.

I use the 4 gauge and the carb sticks with mercury and 4 pillars/tubes and another I made myself that is only 2 tube. As was said the 2 works just fine sync 1-2 then 3-4 (does not matter if you do 3-4 then 1-2) to finish up sync 2-3. Because I have all these devices I usually double check one against the others, just because, don't think I have ever needed to change what I set with one or the other.

Thanks; good to know that a variety of tools produce the same result.

BTW it does not matter what fuel you put in the tank as far as dissolving old residue, non-ethanol though is better for all engines.

I don't agree with that. I've heard that ethanol is more vigorous at dissolving deposits than straight gasoline, here's the first article I found that mentions that: https://roadguardians.org/september-...-chads-corner/

If your mechanic finds what I think we all know he will, he'll strongly suggest rebuilding the carbs Mucho denairo, at 22K your bike should not need more than float needles and seats, unless someone has been in them and messed things up ? P.O.s can be you worst nightmare !!!!!

Now that the bike is home, I'll be giving it a good going-over, including opening and probably rebuilding the carbs.

Get a Haynes, Clymers or best of all a Yamaha service manual !

I downloaded the manuals from http://www.ringler.us/family/mybike.html. I was planning on starting my work using those before I considered a Clymers.

[donebysunday]

Originally Posted by TopCatGr58 View Post
As to the vacuum plug coming off, that's a sign that the valve clearances need to be adjusted, possibly too tight, so that during the compression phase the intake valve isn't closing and so the compression pressure builds up and blows back out the carb and pops the vac. port cap.

Thanks, I was hoping someone would know what that meant. Checking valve clearances is on my to-do list.

Valves should be checked no matter, if you find that the clearances of the valves is not in need of adjustment ?

I've had the vacuum barbs cap/plug blow off when running to lean really lean causing a bit of a pop in a cylinder blowing the cap off.

[dansmith65]

I figured I should post an update before everybody forget's about me. I've been slowly rebuilding this thing... I was originally hoping to be riding it this spring, but now I'm shooting for next spring. So far, off the top of my head, I've done:

• thourough carb cleaning
• repair airbox
• adjust valves
• clean electrical connections (still have a few to go, though)
• grease u-joint to axle and axle to final drive
• check/grease swingarm bearings
• paint swingarm
• repair pick-up wires
• paint/rebuild brakes (master cylinders and calipers)
• touch-up paint on back half of frame
• new tires
• new wheel bearings

Since it currently looks like this, I thought I might as well flip it and check out 2nd gear. On my ride home, I either missed a shift, or it slipped out of gear; it was all too new to me to know which.

[skids]

I have never heard of anybody flipping their bike to check second gear I would just wait and run it to see if it's bad.

[MaximPhil]

I have never heard of anybody flipping their bike to check second gear I would just wait and run it to see if it's bad.

Skids,
Mine was certainly upside down when the second gear was repaired.
Is it a good idea to fix the 2nd gear if it is not broken (yet)
is another question ?

Dan, I hope you remembered to remove the oilpan BEFORE flipping it.

Phil

[skids]

Skids,
Mine was certainly upside down when the second gear was repaired.
Is it a good idea to fix the 2nd gear if it is not broken (yet)
is another question ?

Well, I have owned 4 xs11's and none needed the gear fix. I still have 2 of them and never an issue. My thought are that grinding would probably need to be precise to ensure that contact force is even between the opposite sides. Otherwise, one gets the lion's share. The other is that you might remove surface hardening. It's just me, but if doesn't need work, leave it alone.

[motoman]

As stated, Morgan Carb tune is your best option, and easily transported as it comes in a heavy stitch zipper case. Nothing to spill either. I've compared accuracy with my mercury manometer and the Morgan is spot-on. The optional color tune is NOT an accurate spark shown. I highly suggest using the 'lean-drop' method. One at a time, back mixture screw out several turns and gradually start in. When exhaust sound changes......stop and back mixture screw out 1/8th and no more than a 1/4 turn. Do other three mixture screws the same. You'll have to re-adjust idle speed after setting each one to approx. 1000rpm. Actually very simple.

[dansmith65]

When I said I was planning to flip it, I was referring to this: http://www.xs11.com/xs11-info/tech-t...lwalkthru.html

I'm still on the fence as to weather I'll do that. I hate to not do it while the bike is this much apart and relatively easy to flip, only to put it back together and have to do the work then. I'd also hate to mess something else up while I'm doing a job that might not be necessary. I like the piece of mind I'd get from actually seeing what condition those gears are in.

Also, there seems to be some disagreement on the subject. Some people seem to think the washer swap is all that's necessary, others think it doesn't do anything.

Yes, I'll definitely drain all fluids and remove the oil pan before flipping it.

On the carb sync, I ended up borrowing my brothers home-made 2 bank sync tool. I tested it out before tearing my bike apart and it seemed to work just fine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVO1pdY1dUk

[jetmechmarty]

Steptoes has a washer swap video on YouTube. Maybe you will find his visual explanation helpful. If you do the move before you lose 2nd gear, it may preserve it. 2nd gear failures are common on these bikes.

[dansmith65]

Found it, thanks! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cnoA7TwOXA

If you do the move before you lose 2nd gear, it may preserve it.

That was my thinking as well.

[MaximPhil]

Dan,
Just to add to your dilemma: When Tinman did my 2nd gear fix we were unable to get it together with the washer swapped. Mine would chatter llke a machine gun at the slightest provocation...yet was hardly visibly worn.
My point is i am not sure you can visual check it and determine what state it is in. Over 100,000 Km when it went which seems to be when many have the problem develop. Depending on the riding style of the various owners I think is a big factor in when or if the problem occurs.

Phil