Reporting from Cleveland, OH

jdigga · Posted: September 28, 2006, 8:54 am Post subject: Reporting from Cleveland, OH

Just picked up an '81 XS 650 Special II yesterday. I was in the market for a late 70's Honda CB750 but I know the previous two owners of this bike and the deal was too good to pass up!

A European style handlebar set is on the way from Mike's XS because the stock pullbacks feel weird to me. Big kudos to Mike's--I ordered yesterday morning and it was already on it's way last night.

The bike is completely stock with just about 12.9k on the clock. The PO had removed the sissy bar and I took off the little luggage rack. It's a little dirty and needs some quality time with degreaser and chrome cleaner.

There's a small oil leak from the cylinder gasket area such that it drips down the cooling fins. I read in a thread here that the head might just need to be retorqued? If not, does the engine need to come out to change that gasket?

Other than that, everything else seems to working fine. I'm looking forward to get this thing cleaned up and running well.

5twins · Full Member Joined: Aug 05, 2006 Posts: 1616

jdigga · Posted: October 1, 2006, 5:45 pm Post subject: Re: Reporting from Cleveland, OH

Thanks for the tips, 5twins.

I tried the re-torque, but now the leak switched sides. Confused

Maybe I'll try it once more for good measure.

Snapped some pics this afternoon:

Front: European style bar is installed--much better

Back: I only have one rearview mirror because I snapped the other off trying to replace it Embarassed

Left cylinder: Leaky, leaky

5twins · Full Member Joined: Aug 05, 2006 Posts: 1616

royfisk · Posted: October 2, 2006, 4:20 pm Post subject: Re: Reporting from Cleveland, OH

jdigga
that mirrors left hand thread get ya did it? dont feel bad it got me once too.

jdigga · Posted: October 2, 2006, 10:44 pm Post subject: Re: Reporting from Cleveland, OH

5twins: Good reference pic; I routed the throttle cable just as shown; the others I'll do another time.

royfisk: Nah, I knew it was backwards; but I was too overanxious and should have used a little PB Blaster. I tried drilling it out but the little bits left in there don't want to come out.

Spent the evening pulling the carbs and cleaning them up. Found all kinds of gummy stuff and what I think are bits of air filter. My new filters come in Thursday (courtesy of Mike's, of course).

jdigga · Posted: October 17, 2006, 8:44 am Post subject: Re: Reporting from Cleveland, OH

Sometime between last night and this morning I became a "Full Member" Woo-hoo!

So far:

-Head retorqued; original leaks fixed and now have a tiny, tiny leak on the left cylinder head (same spot in pic above only not nearly as bad).

-Rerouted clutch cable. Need to do it again because it obscures the speedo.

-RH mirror installed. Only got about half of the original bits out but there were enough threads for the new one to bite.

-Found many more problems to fix. Rolling Eyes

All appear to be from old age and wear.

Great forum--I really appreciate all the help from everybody.

What Happened to 650rider.com?

Yamaha xs650