81 XS 1100 Start

[Eveready1100]

Just found this bit from a few posts back -

Perked up and I was game to reconnect the fuel gauge again which does not seem to work. Oh well.

Mate, the Sport / Special 15 litre tanks only have a low fuel warning sender which is basically a switch - ON / Off. The bigger tanks from the standard models have a fuel level rheostat / float setup (like an old school car) which sends varying voltages to the gauge which gives the level.
Nothing unusual about the gauge not working with that tank on it.

[Jonesy]

Hey Brett,
What you describe sounds right
motor runs clockwise like the arrow on the timing plate at rest the pickups will be against the stop in clockwise direction and when running will advance slightly in the anti CW direction. Also behind the timing plate and pickup coils there is an a centrifugal advance unit with springs and weights. you could inspect this to make sure all is well. Dont forget to witness mark everything so it goes back together all proper like.
Only having ridden yours at low speed I was looking to see if it had the low end flat spot these things are prone to with 4-1 pipes.....yours seemed pretty good in that respect, as for top end performance I cant comment.
Hope your not expecting hyabusa performance from 30 year old 2 valve technology?

[BrettS]

Oh that's interesting 
But I am not sure that is it. At rest (motor not going) the vacuum advance is as far clockwise as it will go. So my logical (not experienced) thinking is that the vacuum advance would work by going anti clockwise.
Start the engine up and it goes a little anti clockwise, seems reasonable. Rev the engine and it heads back the other way clockwise back to it's resting place.
Seems odd to me and when I manually override this by pushing anti clockwise as I rev it seems to rev much better. But for all I know it could be normal. The more in tune the carbies are the better the timing seems to get ?
Jonesy picked up that the air box rubber sleeve to one of the carbies was not on properly so maybe it could be as simple as that? I will go over it again while I scrape the money together for rego.
Next time a member has the vacuum advance cover off maybe they could look at how theirs works?

[steptoe]

on the vac advance Brett, mate these engines run backwards ,{for the shaft} which might explain a thing or 2

[BrettS]

I could be mistaken but it seems full 12 months rego will cost $432.84 GIO green slip and $114 goes to the RTA so just under $550 yearly rego. Then add blue slip number plate and stamp duty to put the bike in my name so maybe add another $100 this time.

Might have to sell the scooter 

[BrettS]

Ah so that's where it goes, Back to the drawing board 

Thanks for the kind offer Jonesy. I might wait until I get it registered and just ride it over 
With the makeshift battery clamp the bike is now ready to take a trip to the blue slip office.
But I don't see myself fitting rego in the budjet for some time yet as funds just ran low and we are planning a short trip interstate for Family.
At the moment I will order and fit the correct valve shims and other than a little tinkering will have to bide my time until trip is over and bank balance can take another hit 

[Jonesy]

Hey Brett your clamp looks like it'll do the job......but, if you want to copy an original this pic might help?


Maybe you need to get that thing on a ute or trailer and bring it down for day surgery.....also got back country roads for testing.

[BrettS]

I also spent a little time on the vacumn advance. All the wires seem fine. I watched the vacumn advance again while I excellorated hard and found that it was moving a little but in the opposite direction than I expected. Whaaaaat?
So to clarify. At rest the spring will hold the dial so that it can not turn clockwise any more. I start the engine and it seems the vacumn advance lifts some, turning the dial a little anti-clockwise. Then when I accelerate hard the vacumn advance turns the dial clockwise.
I would have expected the vacumn advance to turn anti-clockwise and this would advance the spark on excelleration??
If I manually push the vacumn advance/dail anti-clockwise when I accelorate hard it seems to accelorate better. If I hold the vacumn advance/dial clockwise it does not accelorate as well.
This is one of those "werll if I knew what I was doing, I might have a hope in hell of knowing what I was doing" cituations.

[BrettS]

I finally got some sought of a battery clamp together today. I now notice that the battery/electrics is a section that is rubber mounted. That put a spanner in the works of how I thought I was going to do it but I think this will be fine in the short term at least. I am looking forward to seeing exactly how the original works in the near future.





Not sure if you would agree but I think I will still decline the offer of the battery clamp at the moment Bryan. At least until I see a complete original setup. I get the feeling I am also missing some sought of rubber mount that what you have to offer will not fix. But maybe I am missing something? 

[BrettS]

Hi Bryan,
I will let you know by the end of the day. I just logged on to look at the pics that Errol put up for me to copy.

[AussiXS11G]

Brett mate....
have u dealt with the battery brackets?
or shall I send this down - it is surplus to my requirements

[BrettS]

It was a great morning meeting Jonesy. I soon realised thet he had set a decent amount of work for the morning with the valve clearence check and I tried to get the butter fingers warmed up at the same rate as the tounge. Usually with me the tounge takes over when nervous
Anyway we got through that with me almost droping a bolt down the guts of the motor. But eventualy the fingers caught up to the mouth LOL
After we got it together Jonsey went for a quick blurt up the 100m street and thought it was running pretty good.
It was pretty funny that my suposed headlight brake issues where really not an issue at all. I just had to turn the headlight on and the brake tail light was working except I had to turn a bulb around so brake was tail visa versa. (that was a new one to me) Also once I rrealised head light was working by flicking a switch then park light just needed a new bulb "sweet"
Since I now had head lights I had to take it for a run again after the sun went down. Alkthough Jonsey took it for a run over a hundred M or so and found no lag.When I take it on the open road I do find a lag here or there only occasionally. Jonesy stated that even a 4 into 1 exaust can cause similar issues so basicly the bike is running OK and would pass rego at the moment but I feel it could run better. I definetly would not do under 12 seconds on the 1/4 mile at the moment 
But it is running well enough to take for a run so thye motor should pass rego and it would be interesting to get it on the open road.
Jeff my feeling at the moment is that any miss in the timing has been only to the fuel tuning being out iof wack (never had a timing set on an engine before but the more in tune it is the more the timing seems to work) But since watching step toes vids I have considerd that there is something more suttle going on. I plan to take a reading o what vacum is on the vacum advance line and compare this to the manual and also double check the wires on the vacume advance.
 That will be the next step apart from fabricating the battery clamp.
Thanks again guys
Brett

[excess.11]

Brett , usually after a carb synch and colourtune adjustment ..........the most notable difference you "DO" see...is what your not experiencing...........the revs settle down quite quickly after a blip on the throttle or inbetween gear changing.
Where are you up to regarding the vacuum advance unit situation...... of it not getting enough vacuum to move it .........when you rev the engine ?
Have you delved into this and resolved it ?

[Jonesy]

Well,
Brett is now a certified Valve clearance checker and adjustorer.
We spent a couple of hours checking the clearance on each valve and then removing each shim to get the size and writing it down for later reference.
Probably a good thing we checked, all but one valve were out of spec (closed up) by at least 2 shim sizes and one of the inlets had no clearance at all.
On the carby tuning side of things, it seems like the slides maybe a little sticky, as it took a little too long for the revs to settle back to idle after a blip of the throttle, the sticky slide(s) is just a theory, someone else may know exactly what causes it?
And on the model identification, those rear blinkers were originally (?) down under the tail light, like a proper square XS, the holes for the original long stalks are in the rear light mount, and the frame mounted set up in use now is home done by another owner.
And finally it was good to put a face and personality to the name.
The boys might correct me here but when you order your new shims make sure they are 29mm diameter

[BrettS]

Hi Pete,
I did it with the throttle wide open and the engine slightly warm, maybe not at full operating temp. I double checked the 95psi but could not get it higher, being different than the others should be my main concern as I understand? Maybe I will try adding some oil to tell me more another time.

really??
first time at 100km/h on 2 wheels?
how was it?

I wished I could have rode for longer but not having the paperwork yet I didn't want to push my luck. The scooter would only go to 80 down hill  Not sure what speed I ever did on a trail bike but I doubt it was over 80.

No worries Jonesy, I haven't done that yet. I will have the bike preped for you. Could be BBQ weather on Thursday night 

Hey Steptoe, I want to start it up every time I walk past it now but the neighbours will wonder what I am doing    Just got back from a few hours fishing. Needed slight choke just to get it started