1974 XS/TX650 rebuild

**th62** · Aug 30, 2022, 02:17 AM

The clear coat on the forks and sides wasn't up to scratch so I stripped them and re polished them. I also re-polished the chain adjusters, headlight brackets and brake backing plate. I might make some new headlight brackets, these ones are looking a little shabby. Brake backing plate came up pretty good with just a quick rub on the mop . The wheels have been sitting on the floor of the study for a couple months now so have lost a bit of their shine. When I've finished with the other bits I'll de spoke and polish up the hubs and rims again.

**th62** · Sep 6, 2022, 08:30 PM

I've clear coated most of the polished aluminium, smaller bits, just have the wheels to finish. Unfortunately, the clear coat dulls the shine quite a bit. Funny stuff to spray on polished aluminium: I had to spray a very light coat first, give it a few minutes then hit it again with a heavier coat so the paint would pool and flatten out. Still a bit of orange peel though, particularly on the triangular engine mount. The clear coat doesn't behave the same over painted surfaces, just polished aluminium, very disappointed in the finish. I may not clear coat the wheels as they'd be hard to get the clear to pool, there's a very fine line between pooling and a run. Float coating seems to just run and build up on the edges. I'm also thinking of painting the side covers black, they just didn't come up to scratch.

**th62** · Sep 15, 2022, 03:08 AM

A little premature, but I did a little detailing. Stainless fasteners don't look the best straight off the shelf, so I've started neatening them up a little. Allen heads have striations on the side of the heads and numbers stamped on the face of the heads, so I chucked a heap of them and turned them down a little before polishing. Hex heads were very rough, so they were ground down a little before polishing. I ground and polished the ends of any bolts that were seen as well as removing the excess thread..
I've only done one side of the bike, tomorrow I'll tackle the other. Then the engine fasteners, a few little ones on the carbs. I haven't done the washers, can't figure out how to hold them without polishing the ends of my fingers.
The footpeg holes to which I mount the mufflers are 12mm, heads of the fasteners on the inside looked like they'd scrape against the swingarm, so I turned up some brass shim tubes and pressed them into place so I could use 10mm fasteners, they just clear the swingarm.
Once I've finished, I'll remove the clear coat and just leave the ally bare.

**IntheGroove** · Sep 15, 2022, 03:46 AM

To polish the washers turn an Allen head down then put the washer on with a nut and polish away...

**th62** · Oct 10, 2022, 08:32 PM

Reed valve engine breather.
I made this little gizmo yesterday, finished it off this morning with the bead blaster. I was going to polish it, but damn this gizmo looks good with a bead blasted finish.
Petal was taken from a pit bike read valve and cut in half, two holes drilled and screwed to the base plate. Base plate was tapped M3 10mm deep to take the petal. Not fun tapping this small, but, this time around the tap survived.
Main body was carved out with an endmill to give the petal room to move and air to flow. Base plate has a channel on the engine side for any oil to run down back into the rockers. Topside was channelled either side to get the Allen heads level with the top surface. Stainless Allen's were turned to make them shiny, I do like shiny baubles.
Outlet spigot is 16mm with a 10mm hole. If it's not big enough I can take it out to 12mm later on.
Air from the engine enters the main body from the reed valve is channelled upward, does a U turn and travels downward to the outlet spigot, losing a little oil on the way. Any oil trapped before the reed valve is channelled back to the rockers.
I'll have to design and build a catch can now, thinking of mounting it behind the downtube between the carbs. But, it's getting a little busy in that area.
Manual machining only, would love a CNC, but not in my budget, would've made things a lot easier

**tonyfoale** · Oct 11, 2022, 01:48 AM

I am a fan of using reed valves in the engine breather line. Here are a couple of pix of the one that I use on my Aermacchi race bike.

**th62** · Oct 24, 2022, 03:07 AM

A while back I made two wiring harnesses, one for ignition, the other for lights. I wrapped both up in plastic insulation tape, not an easy job keeping the cables straight and in the same order for the harness length. I managed that reasonably well, but after wrapping the harnesses were s tiff as a board and twisted.

This morning some cloth insulation tape arrived, so I cut the old plastic stuff off and wrapped both harnesses in the cloth tape, boy what a difference. The harnesses are now quite straight, pliable and easier to thread through the frame. Big improvement. Good stuff this cloth insulation tape.

Tomorrow I'll solder on some more terminals for the rear end, shorten a couple of leads and hook everything up.

**NeiljohnUK** · Oct 24, 2022, 03:36 AM

Nice and neatly done, loom work can be very satisfying, I know of a local company to me that makes looms for industrial vehicles, the loose non-glue back PVC tape they use allows movement, with glue backed tape stabilising the exit points. Cloth tape is more 'period' for many vehicles, my long ago sold Series 1 Landy had cloth wrapped looms from new.

**tonyfoale** · Oct 25, 2022, 12:52 AM

Originally Posted by th62

A while back I made two wiring harnesses, one for ignition, the other for lights. I wrapped both up in plastic insulation tape, not an easy job keeping the cables straight and in the same order for the harness length. I managed that reasonably well, but after wrapping the harnesses were s tiff as a board and twisted.

I have had similar experiences. Then for a long time I used some plastic tape made for looms. It was a big improvement, although it could be difficult to use because you had to keep tension on it or it would not stay in place. For the last loom that I made I got some cloth tape. As you have found, that is the best.

**th62** · Dec 16, 2022, 11:21 PM

I've slowed right down now, I can only manage an hour or so in the workshop before the elbow complains. But, I haven't been totally idle: I stripped the clear coat off the forks and gave them another polish. Pulled the front wheel apart, polished the rim and hub and re laced it. I stuck the caliper together, hoping the pistons would seal, no such luck, so I'll have to,order some new pistons. Still haven't re painted the seat and covered it yet or bought tyres.

Most of my interest is making stuff, and mostly machining, but being as the bike is all but finished I didn't have anything more to make. So, I thought real hard about it and decided on some air cleaners, pods just don't do it for me. I turned up an aluminium base and a couple of knurled nuts, then beat up a rear plate and polished them. I was going to use the black, stainless mesh to hold the foam in place, but changed my mind, just don't like the look of it, so I'll look around for some perforated sheet and use that.

I was going to use a catch can for the engine breather, but being as I'll have pancake air filters I'll plumb the breather hose into the filters via a T joining piece.

I finally decided on a shrink fit for the base of the filter, so did a little experimenting with heating and freezing.: The carb bell mouth is tapered slightly by around .05mm,, so I chucked the carb body and trued up the bell so it measures 57.38mm, then stuck it in the freezer for a couple of days to see how much it would shrink - virtually nothing, .01 mm. Next I bored out the centre of the air cleaner base to 57mm and stuck it in the over at 250C, it expanded by .18mm. So, I chucked the base again and turned the hole to 57.20mm. So if I heat the base to 240c it'll expand to 57.38. That of course won't fit over the bell mouth, because it's not a clearance fit, so a little light pushing in the vice will be required. That should give a good tight fit and just to make sure it won't come off, I've tapped the side of the air cleaner base for a 5mm grub screw.

So, you'd probably think freezing the carb body is a waste of time as it doesn't shrink enough to make a difference, but there is a good reason to freeze the carb: Bringing the air cleaner base and carb together to press fit them can't be done quickly, so heat transfer will take place and the carb will heat up slowly, if I'm quick enough it should reach normal temperature sometime during the press fit and hopefully the air cleaner base won't cool down too quickly.

Tomorrow, I'll find out if my plan works, if so, all I have to do then is is make another air cleaner for the left carb.

Well, it's not quite that simple: A while back I made a fuel distributor block that bolts under the front lip of the battery carrier to neaten up the hoses joining carbs and taps, and also to get a level fuel flow in both carbs. Unfortunately, the distributor block hangs too low, so the filters interfere with the fuel lines, I've made the filters as small a diameter as I can, so another 'narower' fuel distributor block will route the fuel hoses around the filter.

There is a method to my madness, I've now got more stuff to machine up, Oh happy days!