First startup for the XS650. Bike was bought as a non goer, in terrible condition. It had a large chunk missing from the top crankcase, aluminium was badly oxidised and most everything was rusted. Damage to the crankcase was more extensive than I realised, looks like the chain had come, tearing a large chunk from the crankcase and tearing the shifter drum bearing housing off. I tore it down to the last nut and bolt and bought new, used, crankcase halves. The bike was on the stock bore with very little compression. I couldn’t get 1st OS pistons so, I bought .50mm OS and had the barrel bored to suit. Cam chain looked alright so I just re riveted it. I bought new cam chain guides, a new auto advance unit, complete gasket sets for engine, carbs and petcocks. I also bought a stainless allen head set and had the head nuts, point/govenor covers and oil line re chromed. The crankcase, barrel, head and rocker cover were bead blasted and painted. Carbs and petcocks were also bead blasted and rebuilt with new kits. The valve faces, piston crowns and inlet tract were polished, no performance increase there, just makes it easier to de coke. The tacho drive housing was broken in half so I turned up a new stainless one and installed that. The starter gear wasn’t engaging so I re shaped the gear spring. I cobbled a rudimentary ignition system together using the original regulator and condensers, the rectifier and starter solenoid were cactus, original rectifier was $70 and solenoid was $40 so I bought a three phase bridge rectifier on ebay for $4 and a Honda solenoid for $9. Hang a classic sign on a bike and prices go through the roof. I did the same for the rocker shaft bungs, four stainless allen bungs with the right thread cost a few $ on ebay, whereas, original bungs were around the $30 mark. Coils were a couple of Bosch units I had lying around. I added an ignition switch and starter switch, fabbed an ally backing and wired everything up. Wasn’t expected the carbs to work as the diaphragms slides didn’t behave as they should when the inlets were blocked, I’ll replace them later with 34 mm Mikuni round slides I think, not keen on CV carbs, for now they seem to work OK though. The wheeled stand I made up so I could wheel the motor around the workshop, It is low so I sat on a low stool to put the motor together, works out well as my tools always end up on the floor anyway. The money pit roared into life on first push of the starter, loudly, very, very loudly. Can’t beat the sound of a 360 degree twin with short straight through pipes. Just needs to be timed with a light and the carbs synchronised, otherwise it goes pretty good. Anyway, a short video of the startup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm2jBGDRfPY









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