Rebuilt Carbs, but no Tail Lights

Took apart the carbs. Not a total rebuild, took apart the major components and cleaned things up in general. Very dirty. About a thimble full of grime in each bowl. Will add inline fuel filters soon. Removed the grime and reassembled everything. Only one sheered bolt in the whole ordeal.


Painted the bowls flat black, rather sharp I think.


Still do not have rear running tail lights and the rear brake does not turn on the light. Front brake did light up the brakes until I reassembled the airbox. Must have knocked something loose. Might need to build a new wire harness, but that is a mess I do not want to muck in just yet. Will try to trouble shoot the existing harness tomorrow.

First Ride/Push/Tow With The New Seat

Have not cleaned the carbs yet, but I got brave enough to take the bike out yesterday. Other than being sluggish on the uptake and a bit irritable at stops, she ran fine and the newly upholstered seat was comfortable.

Unfortunately, as I turned on to University drive, to head up to work, she died. I looked the bike over, but did not see that the fourth spark plug wire had pulled out of the cap. As a result, I wasted the battery trying to get her started again. In the end, I pushed all 550 pounds up the hill to the Campus where I realized the problem. Plugged it back in and it started up fine.

Apparently, that was the last bit of juice in the battery and at four o'clock, after class, she wouldn't budge.

A very hearty thanks to Dave Bryant who brought a trailer and towed me home. I put the battery on a trickle charge last night and may try to ride it again this afternoon. Or I may buckle down and work on the long list of projects that I have to complete before the Campus Roundup this weekend.

And so... With the exception (there is always an exception) of a flame, painted on the seat to match the tank, a few studs and buttons on the upholstery, the cleaning of the carbs and assorted and miscellaneous electrical work, I am going call this rebuild complete. It may not run well, but it runs and it is fun to ride.

I first tore into this hunk of metal, on November 3, 2008. Now, after eleven month, a few bloody knuckle, a good deal of frustration and an even greater deal of confusion, I can honestly say that I have rebuilt a motorcycle. It was a great learning experience which I would recommend to anyone who is interested in learning more about the way our world works or who is just looking for a good "man" project. I am very happy with the results, the bike is really "mine" now. A special thanks goes out the the folks over at http://www.xs11.com. Without their help I would not have been able to complete this project. Maybe next I will build myself a truck!

Maybe not.

Here is what it looked like in late August or September when I bought it. I had already painted the tank by this point (poorly painted an not fuel resistant) and jettisoned the YAMAHA tank emblems as well. I wish I had an original image, c'est la vie.

Quick Photos of the padded seat

Found some carpet padding at Sutherlands hardware for a few bucks and used contact cement to attache two layers of it onto the fiberglass pan. very comfortable. A lot lower than the stock seat. Even though I opted not to drop the shocks or hardtail the frame like so many have done, it looks a lot lower in the back end. I really like it.

Still don't have rear riding lights and the brake light are sporadic when using the foot brake. Looks like a trip into electrical land for me.

Today I picked up a 1/2 yard of black vinyl and am working on attaching it to the padding and pan tonight. Who knows, maybe I will be able to tackle the carbs this coming weekend.

Probably not though, as I have a work related conference Friday and Saturday. But we will see what transpires.

Still looking for a spike to plug the two rear frame bars. I may have to machine some if I can't find something out there.

Seat Pan is Done

I forgot the camera cable tonight, but I pulled the seat pan off and cut and sanded it to size. Tomorrow, I will find some carpet padding and attach it to the pan. I think I will just upholster it myself temporary like so I can ride it before it gets cool here. I may need to add another few layers of fiber glass with metal mesh in between to strengthen it, but we will see.

Still need to secure wiring and hook up the brake/tail lights and cut the last eight inches off of the old frame and clean the carbs.

More photos tomorrow.

A Fiberglass Seat Pan

Went home at lunch today and bit the bullet. I have been afraid of working with fiberglass and decided to "just do it." I am sure that I won't win any awards for smoothness, but I was able to get eight layers of mat laid down before the 12 minute time was up. I will have to wait until after class this afternoon to see how it worked, but there were no visible bubbles and the resin and mat conformed to the cardboard seatpan alright. Lets hope it didn't leak past the tarp onto the bike!

The fender is Mounted with new tail lights

I ran home at lunch and mounted the two tail lights. I will need to come up with a prettier bracket, but for now, I used four steel "L" brackets. I will have to replace the bottom one with a similar light that illuminates the license plate. The plate will mount towards the bottom of the fender. Centered, not out to the side.

I mounted the front of the rear fender by sacrificing a steel carpenters square. The longer end was bent to attach with hose clamps to the right side swing arm while the shorter end was bent up and bolted to the fender.

I moved the blinkers forward in preparation of the chopping off of the last ten inches of the seat and old fender bar. I hope to find two spikes to cap the bars off., but that will come later.

Next is cleaning the carbs. I am not looking forward to that.

The photo below is the original image while the one below that is a photoshopped version of what I am hoping for. Notice the seat and spikes on the Photoshopped image. The untouched seat is a cardboard mockup that I still need to build out of fiberglass and have upholstered.

Mounting the Rear Fender

Not much happened on the bike this weekend. I bought some steel plat and a small angle iron and proposed to attache the new rear fender. Unfortunately I could not figure out a way to attach the front of the fender to the swing arm. My original plan proved too weak and so I am going to try plan B. Now to come up with a plan B.

Here are a few shots of what it looks like with the two side supports on. I think I may need to have someone who understands metalwork better than I do, build some sturdy supports, but this was a fun experiment and I think that it would work if all else fails.

I am open to any thoughts about how to attach the front of the fender to the swing arm?

Notice the new chrome Road Star mirrors? $15 off of ebay.

I may have to attach the tail light with a little more than masking tape, but we will see what happens there.

OK, I need some feedback

The rear fender from the Honda CB 750 arrived and I set it on the XS11 to see what it looked like. I would need to remove the part of the plastic fender that you see and have a solo seat upholstered to fit. Maybe a tan saddle color with western tooling to fit the "Buckshot" name that I gave it. "Buckshot", because it is big and powerful. It was also the name of one of Wild Bill Hickok's horses. "Birdshot" or "Pellet" don't conjure the same image.

The fender is only held on by tape right now. I will mount it to the swing arm so that it can fit closer to the tire without danger of rubbing.

Let me know what you think.

Ah the open road.

Ain't she a beaut? Notice the chrome trim around the tank. I have since dropped the gauges about two inches to lower the profile. I ordered some oval chrome mirrors and won a 1972 Honda CB750 rear fender which is a full chrome half circle fender. When that comes in I will look at adding a spring seat or building a new solo seat pan out of fiberglass and having it upholtered in brown leather and tooled with a grapevine western pattern.

I am not really sure that I am ready to drive to Artesia or Hobbs, but I took it out and around for an hour or so and it seemed to run well. Stopped once and had trouble starting it up again. The RPMs top out at around 5K, and it stalls sometimes at stop signs. Sometimes the engine revs at 3K during a stop and other times it drops and stalls.

I added Seafoam to the gas, ran it a bit, then let it sit over night. It seems to have helped, I assume it cleaned the carbs some, but I am not entirely sure what it really did. The guys at XS11.com told me to do it, and so I did.

Not really sure why or how to fix it. I think I am going to take it to a mechanic and let them fine tune it. That involves money, so we will have to wait and see.

But wait, It's still twitching...

With the help of the very smart folks over at XS11.com, I learned to remove the #1 spark plug and added a 1/2 tsp to the #1 cylinder. Varoom! It started up.

I built a vacuum tube tool (neat exercise in the laws of physics) to sync the carburetors and adjusted the fuel idle.

Here it is before starting the engine. The fluid is 2 stroke engine oil and each of the four tube is attached to one of the vacuum tubes in the carburator boot. When you start the engine, each carb pulls air and fuel into the cylinder where the spark plug causes it to ignite and pushes the pistons which drive the bike... varoom!

here is how I have the fuel petcocks off of the gastank set up. The front tube is not used, so I cut it short and plugged it with a bolt head which I cut and sanded the burrs off of. The petcocks allow fuel to flow form the tank.

Here is the setup with the bike running. I have the tank elevated so that I can reach the adjustment screws between the carbs. Adjusting these in order allows you to sync carbs one and two and then three and four and lastly the two pairs are synced (SP?) toghether.

It runs now, though it sputters and dies on occasion. Not really sure why, but I will try tuning things a little and see if it doesn't pep up a bit.

Still not sure if I am brave enough to take it out on the open road, but it is ready for the back roads. As long as it's not too far to push back home.