My Dad bought me my first motorcycle, a Honda 90, in 1965. I was immediately hooked, and owned a motorcycle of some description virtually continuously from that day until roughly 1986. At that point, finances forced a hiatus until after I retired from the Navy, and I've owned several since then in various abortive attempts to rekindle my love of riding, blunted by the aches and pains of advancing age and declining reflexes and eyesight. None was really satisfactory for one reason or another (I loved that Honda XL500, but even at 40 I was too damned old to be riding dirtbikes...) and each was sold off after a year or so.



Of all the bikes I ever owned (and there were many) the 1974 Yamaha TX650 I bought new in the Summer of 1974 was my favorite. Bikes come and bikes go, but that one I kept for nearly 10 years. I've missed that bike since the day I let it go. Over the last 2 or 3 years, I've been watching for another. Yamaha sold a ton of them between their introduction in 1970 and their phase-out in 1984. When I spotted one, it was either too far away, too expensive, too trashed or I was stony broke.



Whilst surfing the local Craigslist, I spotted this gem: a 1979 XS650 Special. Relatively nearby, reasonably priced with an "OBO" option, and looked to be in decent shape. A couple of emails seemed to confirm that this was a likely suspect, so I made arrangements to go look at it.

The 650 "Special" was different than the "Standard" in several respects. Mag wheels, flashier badging, a stepped seat, "buckhorn" handlebars with exaggerated rise and pull-back and most of them came with a sissybar/backrest combination. I'd have MUCH preferred a standard (that '74 was one of the few bikes that I liked just as it was and inflicted virtually no modifications upon) but the late 70’s were all about Disco and pimped-out bikes outsold the "UJM" (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) probably 10-to-1 and the vast majority of survivors are the Specials. This particular specimen was blessed with the ugliest Vetter Quicksilver fairing I have ever seen, and a cheesy set of "highway pegs". Still, if I squinted hard enough, I could see the pearl peeking out from under all the pigshit.

It ran as advertised, I test drove it and found nothing major wrong with it, and the owner was willing to dicker. After calling the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles to ensure it could be titled and registered, we agreed upon a price. I plunked down a short stack of dead presidents and loaded it onto my trailer.

While it started and ran quite well indeed, it IS a 30+ year old bike and even with decent maintenance, there are bound to be issues. I bought the bike on October 31st with the intention of spending the winter going through it and making everything right. Not a "restoration" in the traditional sense, just a thorough mechanical overhaul with a few cosmetic changes. At the very least, it needed tires and mufflers to even pass inspection, and the fairing, sissy bar and highway pegs had to go before I'd be seen riding it.

The engine had a fairly significant oil leak, the headpipes and mufflers are a one-piece unit on this model, and disassembling, inspecting and cleaning the carburetors is a basic step in refurbishing any old carbureted engine, so I decided to pull the engine. Of course, the wheels had to come off so new tires could be mounted, so the bike got stripped down to basics pretty quickly. Also, part of installing that horrendous fairing included removing the stock headlight shell, mounting ears and turn signals, so replacements for all of that would have to be found, which meant the forks had to come off.

I fabbed up an adapter so I could mount the engine on my $40 Sam's Club engine stand (bought that in 198? and have rebuilt a half-dozen engines on it, I think I got my $40-worth out of it...) and started looking at various things.

I should mention at this point that there is a fabulous website out there dedicated to those of us who love the old twins: XS650.com . While I was once thoroughly familiar with this model of motorcycle, it WAS 30 years ago, and the slight possibility that I may have forgotten a few details does exist. XS650.com is a wealth of information, populated by a large percentage of old duffers like me. I spent a good deal of time reading to brush up on stuff that I knew about, find out about quirks and trouble spots in later models that I was unaware of, and find that there are sources out there for about every part you can imagine.

As a result of all that research, I went a bit further into the engine than originally intended. The oil leak, as suspected, was around the countershaft seal. If the sprocket isn't tightened to spec, the flange that the seal sits against doesn't hold the seal in place properly, and VIOLA...oil runs out. Fixed by the simple expedient of torquing the sprocket nut to the proper reading. While I was in there, I also replaced the clutch release rod bushing and seal, another place prone to leaking on this engine.

The charging system on this bike was adequate at best on the early models, and on later models with more electrical foofooraw it's downright marginal. Optimal battery voltage with the engine running at high idle is 14.5v, mine was struggling to maintain 13.2 but at least it was working. Many have failed and the fix is not cheap. In my case the fix was new brushes on the alternator, cleaning up all the dirty and/or corroded connections, and removing unnecessary loads like the turn signal canceling unit, the "light checker" (the Nanny State was alive and well in 1979...) and the Reserve Lighting Unit.

The electric starter on this engine was put on as an afterthought about 3 years into the production run. As a result, the gear train between starter and primary gear is somewhat involved and prone to issues. As the starter wouldn't spin the engine fast enough to fire it when I bought the bike, I tore into things to check it out while I had the engine on the stand. The major problem was a low battery, but I felt better knowing all the gearing was in good shape, the bendix worked and there were no major issues. A couple of adjustments and a new oil seal and we're good to go on that. The carbs were actually pretty clean, but showed signs of being worked on by the PO (Previous Owner, often said with the same spirit as "SOB"...). I took them completely apart with the help of a tutorial found on the aforementioned website, and found one major booger in the main jet circuit on the right cylinder. Not too surprising, as the right cylinder was running VERY rich. Hopefully, cleaned and properly adjusted carbs will fix that.

Other things taken care of while the engine was on the stand include checking and lubing the mechanical advance, adjusting the cam chain, adjusting the valves, and setting the points.

For some inexplicable reason, I didn't take pictures, but the oiling system on this engine is another place that is known to have minor issues. There is no filter as such, just a screen in the sump and another on the suction side. Both needed to be cleaned (most owners are un-aware of the sump screen and never remove it. Even some that ARE aware of it don't because it's a PITA to get out) and the sump screen has a design flaw that results in the screen being torn in virtually every case. The fix is a bit of metal and some JB Weld to block the oil jet from impacting directly on the flimsy screen. That was taken care of as well.

With all the known engine issues resolved and the side cases cleaned up and polished a bit, the engine was reinstalled in the bike. As you can see, the new tires have also been mounted, balanced and installed and the replacement headlight bits obtained and installed. While the forks were off, I changed the oil in them, polished up the lowers a bit, and installed new wipers and boots.



Two areas of interest remained: the brakes and the wiring. The brakes worked fine and the rotors and pads have plenty of life in them, but being a nasty suspicious old man, I was not about to trust my life to 30 year old rubber brake lines, and I strongly suspected the brake fluid was probably the original factory stuff from 1979. So, both front and rear master cylinders were removed, disassembled (it appears that my suspicions about the vintage of that brake fluid were correct...) flushed with fresh fluid, new braided stainless lines installed and the system bled.

I dithered a bit about the wiring. Part of me wanted to just replace the whole harness with a new one, the cheap part of me wanted to inspect the old one and see what shape it was in. Seeing as I was removing a bunch of extraneous crap anyway, the cheap side of me won out. The battery box and all the frame mounted components of the electrical system were removed. The battery box was cleaned, primed, painted and reinstalled, and those components necessary to the operation of the bike reinstalled. Anything inspired by the Disciples of Ralph Nader was filed appropriately. The insulation all looked good and was reasonably pliable so the original harness was retained. The PO (remember him?) had done a respectable job of replacing the glass fuse holders with new in-line blade fuse sockets, but the result was just wadded up in a gob and stuffed under the seat. I fabbed up a mount and put a four-position fuse box under the left side cover and rewired it to suit.

A couple of weeks have gone by, and the new chain, mufflers and carb boots arrived so I installed them and the carbs, air boxes, various cables and finished the wiring. Now it's time for the tuning and tweaking. Note to self: Next time TAKE PICTURES OF THE CABLE ROUTING! I had the dang clutch cable on and off a dozen times before I got it where I think it's right. After double-checking everything, it was time to see if it would start:



Eureka! If you listen, it's obvious that much tuning is needed, carbs synched, jetting checked, etc. but it runs!

I forgot to set the float height before I put the carbs back on, so they'll have to come off for that. Also, the spark is weak on both sides and VERY weak on the right side, so a fresh set of coils is in order, and I might as well change the condenser while I'm in there.

I'm getting closer to my goal: