81 XS 1100 Start

[Eveready1100]

One can of worms successfully opened, Jeff!! Much closer to 140kph at those revs in top.

Brett, I was getting a bit concerned when you hadn't posted for quite a while since fitting that advance unit. Not long ago, you were saying it was your first time at 100kph on a bike. Now look at you. Just be careful mate. Mine still surprises me occasionally after all my time spent on her.

[excess.11]

5000rpm in 5th.......now there s a  a can of worms !!!
The most accurate way would be to Rig any GPS or mobile phone that will display kph to your gauge area and go for a spin.
Or....get the missus to follow you to clock your speed......in a car of course.
On average the Speedos on these bikes are shy of the real speed by 10 percent proportionately.
I would expect you to be doing roughly in the order of 115kph at 5000 rpm.
 

[BrettS]

Been doing more riding than writing lately as I only have the iPhone to get online.
I have done the valve clearance, then the next biggest issue is clutch slip. Errol has recommended I swap back to Dinosaur oil and take it easy for a period. I felt I would rather a more direct solution and I recently added spark plug washers under the clutch springs. This has improved the situation but Not yet perfect. I could start by checking wear but first I think I will order new clutch plates before I strip it down.
The back brake cylinder has developed a leak, my guess is that since I adjusted the brake properly the extra force this excerted  on the cylinder caused it to fail. I have stripped examined the cylinder and now orderd the new quad ring seal.
Maybe not the best to follow a brake issue with this question  but can some one tell me approximately how fast I am going at 5000rpm in 5th gear?
Maybe a new speedo for Xmas
Chat more soon 

[Eveready1100]

Glad it made it to you before the weekend, mate. You're allowed to go out and have a little play but keep in mind that valve with zero clearance. You're at risk of burning it out if run for too long like that.

[BrettS]

Just waiting for tools and parts to turn up   

[Jonesy]

woo hoo
now for the valve clearances

[BrettS]

I put the mechanical advance in from Errol today and Blooooody hell, that blew the dust of Dusty 

It makes alot less noise but hell does it go. You could hear the difference straight away. The engine wants to rev now.

[Little Scotty]

Jonesy and Everready:pure gold re fuel

[BrettS]

Had no idea, Thanks, still looking for SAE 10 motor oil ?

[Jonesy]

TIP for the unwary
If your going to do the fork oil. Either do one fork leg at a time, or put a jack under the bike and take a slight amount of weight until the forks are fully extended. If you take both fork caps off at the same time the front end will collapse and youll find yourself trying to compress the springs that will now be poking out the top of the forks by about a foot or more. not to mention the filter housing will be resting on the ground.
Maybe you already new that but thought I'd mention it anyway. JIC.

[BrettS]

Hey Guy's, I haven't done much work over the last couple of days but I do have a little to report.
I have realised that Jeff is always about two steps ahead of me    I need to go back and read his posts at a later date when it makes much more sense. 
As I was reading back about the ignition system of this motor I found that the valve clearance is also different than usual. Then I noticed that Jeff had also mentioned this back on page 7.

On the first page there is a reference to "Valve Clearances".
I t s important that the intake valve clearances are correct for your particular motor as they talk about a reduction in clearance from other models to alleviate running noise.
Previous inexperienced people attempting to tune the motor....may have set these incorrectly..........possibly another reason for the erratic running.
Plug colors will be an indicator as well.

...............................................

Valve clearance has been reduced from 0.16 - 0.20 to 0.10 - 0.15, Jonesy helped me check the valve and most do fit in this tolerance. Except there is a 0.9 and also a 0.0. I was thinking of leaving the 0.9 for now as in time it will only get better and moving up 0.5 would put me at the extreme the other direction that ware would make worse. So I was just thinking of changing the one that we found no clearance on.
The shim in this valve is 2.75 so I would need a 2.60 or 2.65 and cross my fingers. Maybe I should just order both or would some one like to swap? (feel I would be a bother ordering one from the shim shop ?)
Also I had a nice chat with Steptoe yesterday while kicking the tires on the bike and we may have soughted the back brake issue. We realised that even though I had adjusted the brake full length I had not repositioned the brake pedal on the spigot to give more adjustment, or checked to see that It was even in the correct position. Apparently two arrows will line up.
So once the mechanical advance is soughted and this valve shim replaced it will be time to re-asses how it is all going. Personally I think there will be some other issue such as air leak or something else connected with a 30 year old bike but I still have other jobs such as replacing the fork oil so one step at a time.
But I should remind that on the compression check one cylinder was a bit low I believe number 3 and although my go with the colourtune was not a great success It did seem that number 3 could not be made rich enough to get a yellow flame. This would suggest that the carby does have an air leak. But as I said I will get fixed what I know is wrong to start with then do another full back yard diagnostic from there.

Edit: Brakes now A1 

[pgnz]

to do shims,  a 10mm socket to loosen cam-caps and a small screwdriver with it's tip filed to a thin flat sliver,    loosen -off the appropriate cam-caps to angle the cam high above the chosen shim, it flicks out easy with the screwdriver

to do the rear brake,  slap a syringe with hose onto the bleeder (bleeder threads taped with threadtape) and shove fluid clean thru the system till it blasts up thru to the reservoir,  She's primed then and you've got a firm lever straight away.  For the front brakes you can syringe straight from the reservoir to the calipers(bleeders cracked open) 

[excess.11]

I agree .....better to change the tci to the unit that suits the year/make model of engine rather than retro fit parts to suit the earlier ignition unit.

[petejw1966]

i havent read the whole thread,
but if u have an 81 engine i dont think the mech adv
will fit, i think ull need a 4ro tci,
whats the start of the engine number (5n5? etc)

[BrettS]

The advance mechanisim turned up today. It seems that there is a section missing. The part that slots into the keyway. It also seems that the keyway on my motor is larger than the keyway on the mechanical advance mechanisim.
I will have time tomorrow to look into it further. At the moment I am thinking the keyway section would also need to be changed out.
I will go over thye brakes tomorrow as well. Thanks again