It's 1979

[Grimly]

This was to remove the starter, which was leaking like a very leaky thing. PO's bodges included bathroom sealant around the nose of the starter (don't ask, it's a rubbish design), copper wire in place of split pins, loose front sprocket (I mean nearly coming off, type of loose).

The starter O-rings were both like this, just hanging out.


This is the oil seal that was plastered with bog-pan sealant...


I plugged the starter hole with a 46.5mm core plug...

[Grimly]

The core plug, and in place...




And, from the other side. The removal of the now useless starter gearing is a bonus...


The loose front sprocket nut...

[Grimly]

Progress has been slow, but a few odd things done.
Got rid of the YeeHaa bars and put a pair of lower ones on. These came from a vibey bike, I assume, because of the solid bar-end weights in them. They might help, but that wasn't my first consideration, that of height and width was more important.
Been straightening up the centre stand and attending to the vibe-induced wear on the pivot bolts and mounts - fairly takes its toll, that level of vibe on this bike. I don't expect it to be a pile-driver, but it's done 40K miles and that's long enough to have had an effect on cycle parts that are a bit loose. One leg of the stand was bent 15degrees forward, which made it impossible to pull it onto. I also welded on a substitute foot-peg for ease of use. Ugly but effective.

[wymple]

It's an XS650, it will be worth it when you are done. Great bikes, just not for me unless I'm riding Locally. Not my idea of a road bike, tho you can gear them up quite a bit. Stock gearing doesn't bother me until about 60 mph, and I have trouble with my hands. I use big and soft foam grips, not much problem. If you are into a rebuilding mode, it doesn't cost much to overbore some. We just did my son's chopper and pistons, pins, rings, and gaskets came under 250. If the stock bore and pistons are ok, it will be pretty cheap to refresh. One of the very best looking engines ever, and tough as a stone bridge if put together right. The entire engine is pretty much roller bearings.

[Rob S.]

I still have the '68 Cycle World that first reviewed it.

It was the cover bike, with the words, "An electric starter, and one hell of a stopper!"

It had nothing but praise for the twin, with it's single disc brake.

[GS1150Pilot]

Those are extremely good bikes. I almost bought one as my first streetbike, but was wooed away by an '82 GPz 550.

[wymple]

The bikes had these nagging little quirks, like most bikes do. Early electric starters were weak, they even had a compression release for awhile on one cylinder. I had a brand new one back in 81, the electric start was slow and iffy after it sat overnight. Started on the 1st kick, and then the starter after that would carry it ok. Until the next day. Saw this on quite a few of them. They also have a tendency to clutch drag slightly when warm. My current XS650 is the only one I've had that doesn't. Not bad, just a tiny amount. On older bikes the stators get iffy, as is normal. I've found that if the stator on these isn't old and crappy looking, they are most likely fine. They were good stuff from the factory. I like to do the tapered head bearing conversions, and will not waste my time or money on aftermarket electronic ignitions. Mike's, if you research that, is a crap shoot for parts. I've not heard anything good about his carbs, and the stock carbs are fine when proper. Also fairly simple, since even I can seem to get them working OK.

[Grimly]

Work continues not-apace on the XS.
Today, there are brakes on it again. Stiff and wooden brakes, but brakes for all that. There would have been brakes on it last week, but the double-banjo bolt under the steering head had disappeared, so one had to be ordered, and the shiny new braided lines fitted. I went with new lines as the OP had fitted SS braided lines already, but one had failed, which didn't fill me with confidence in the others.

It's simply a step forward to enable me to push the pistons out for cleaning and seal renewal, as necessary. It sat for so long I didn't recall if the brakes were binding before or not, but they certainly are now. Anyway, another small step.

[Grimly]

New clutch cable fitted today, which has transformed it from being a He-Man/gorilla type of operation to a simple smooth pull. It's heavier than I was expecting, so I wonder if there are some uprated springs in there. It's ok to live with for now, though. Cable disconnected from lever and gear oil being funnelled through it as I write, so that will improve it even more.

[Grimly]

Further to the above, the clutch is now a model of propriety, pulling in and releasing with just a hint of gruffness about it.
Anyway, today's adventures had me rooting around under the seat, preparatory to actually starting the thing up. The tank's on (but I'll take that back off and give it a proper flush out) and when I was looking at the wiring to / from the battery I started to cuss and swear quite a lot. Some PO has done their level best to create an underseat ass warmer - the main starter return current was being carried by a skinny 2.5mm cable from the frame to the battery box - the main negative lead was connected to the battery box and no further. This meant all the normal electrical returns were fine, but not the starter, and as a result the skinny wire was toasted nicely. No insulation left on it at all.
Also, in an attempt to fit the more commonly available YB14L-A2 battery (as is fitted to GS850s for example) which has the terminals on the opposite sides to the one normally fitted to the XS650, the utter brainiac of the PO had extended the Pos lead with a piece of braided ground strap and covered it with insulating tape. All brilliant stuff.
Jeez, where do these people come from?

[Grimly]

WooHoo! <happy dance>
It's running at long last. After some of the normal reluctance you'd expect (after all, it's been sitting for a decade) it fired up. Once the precautionary oil I'd put down the bores a few years ago had cleared away, it started quite willingly on the kickstarter. That bore oil don't arf make the workshop stink, though <cough>
It's got a nice thrummy twin feel to it, not harsh, but just as I recall them - of course, after having spent so long on fours, this feels like a different kettle of fish entirely and my immediate impression was something was misfiring badly No, it's just two cylinders are missing.
Occurs to me that modern twin owners, with their balance shafts and all that, are missing something of the real feel of what their engines should be like. Old-skool, yeah.

[Grimly]

It became obvious that one cylinder wasn't pulling its weight and this is what I found when I stripped the RH carb...




Dropping the drain plug on the LH carb revealed more of the same crud, so I'll strip that tomorrow.
Turns out they're VM34s with 185 main jets, so I'll have a poke around the Mikuni specs and see if there's a clue there that might give me an inkling if any tuning work's been done on the engine. I don't really know, at this point, whether these carbs, with that jetting, might have been nothing more than an off-the-shelf upgrade to a standard lump or not.

[GSX1000E]

Great news!!! All of your hard work has paid off. Now just to fix the little things like those carbs and it will be getting so much closer to being on pavement again.

[Grimly]

It's nearly there so bad I can taste it. The Motad pipe even makes it sound quite civilises and I think I'll leave that as it is, for now.
Heh; starting it on the centre stand with only one cylinder firing, it immediated started to dance backwards at quite a rate...On idle, with bot carbs actually working, it was smooth and docile, but with only one firing it turned into an unruly bad-mannered heap.

[GSX1000E]

Only small hurdles to jump over now. Would love to hear the sweet music coming from that pipe when you get it sorted.