Topic: XS650 project thread - April 2011 - Getting set for 2nd season :)

[Tim.]

More work done!  Electrical plate made up and mounted using rubber bushings to isolate it from the frame.  Also made up the plate that bolts to the bottom of the seat, which holds the battery in the hump and will then bolt down to the frame.  It will sit on rubber cushions on the frame rails to further isolate my arse from the vibrating monster and also raise the seat up a bit.

The last few inches of the back end of the plate is going to be bent up 90 degrees and may serve as a mounting place for a tail light/license plate bracket.

Both aluminum plates are going to be powdercoated gloss black like the frame.

Oh, and in case you don't notice, I installed my VM36 carbs and UNI filters   It's starting to look mean!

[Spikeybike]

man that is a awesome gas tank, who made it ?  your right it is lookin mean

[Tim.]

Tank is made by Evan Wilcox.  I didn't buy it new.  I bought one alloy tank for $350 (what a deal!) and then I came across this one for sale for $600.  Bought this one and sold my other one for $600.  So I got the $1500 Evan Wilcox tank for $350 

http://www.wilcoxmetal.com/

[Tim.]

Ok - got the seat mounting sorted out - bolts together very nicely, and I'll be able to remove the seat itself from the battery tray which wasn't planned - best things aren't!

Basically the battery tray sits on foam (looking for something denser like rubber) and is bolted through to the electrical tray, which is in turn bolted to the frame with rubber bushings.

The seat then bolts to the battery tray with 4 bolts embedded in the fibreglass.

Lots of room under the seat for the electrical bits.  I'm thinking a surface mounted weather proof ignition switch will go in the cutout area of the seat.  Will have to look at marine applications for that I think.  It's the surface mount that's the challenge.

There will be a good sized rubber grommet in the battery tray towards the front for the leads from the battery to go down into the tray.  The negative will be bolted to the frame, on a spot where I'll grind off the powdercoating, on the underside of the plate welded across the rear of the seating area.

The battery tray and electrical tray will be powdercoated black to match the frame - will drop them off this coming week once I get the hole drilled for the grommet (7/8 inch hole isn't easy to drill through metal without a $20 holesaw I'm not interested in buying.  A friend of mine will punch the hole in it for me next week at his shop).

[Tim.]

Alrighty then.  Got all my electrical bits in the mail from Z1 Enterprises (my fave), Mikesxs and Cable Ties & More.  Lots of fun.  Dropped into Sayal yesterday (now that I have a car again, errands are a bit easier) and picked up a whack of heat shrink.  Rainbow of colors.

Today, I managed to sneak in a bit of time in the garage.  Got my speedo mounted - made a nice little bracket.  Just need to smooth it out a bit and then polish it and sort out the bolts - need bigger washers and slightly longer bolts for the stock rubber-bushing mounting points.  I had to tuck it in quite a bit to allow the speedo cable to clear the Lucas headlight bucket.  Had I been running two gauges each off to the side, I wouldn't have the problem and could have used the mounts that came with the gauges (was tempting, but a tach would run me another $50).

Also sorted out the new foam for the seat pan support - the nice adhesive foam supplied by Pat cuts like butter on a bandsaw.  You can see my fancy bolts I found at Home Depot - closet bolts or something I think.  Need to adjust their lengths a bit.  The grommet in the seatpan is for the battery leads to enter the wiring area.

[Tim.]

Played around a bit today.  Got some 1/8" x 3/4" angle aluminum and made up brackets for the coils and ignition module under the tank (photo's later).  Also got some more rubber washers and grommets to play around with the mounts of my electrical plate.

Also found more of these 'connector bolts' at Home Depot, this time in chrome finish!  So they'll look nicer.  Pics of those to come.  Need to grind some of them down to a better length.

Cleaned up the garage too.  Was a mess

And finally I dressed up my grey speedo cable.  I may do it again, first using a Sharpie or something to color it black, and then putting the sleeving on it.  Looks great on the bike.  I'll be doing the brake cable, throttle cable and all the wiring like this.  Every individual wire will be sleeved, with color coded heat shrink on the ends to help me put it all together.

[cben750f0]

M8 as always looking great, though you do need to hurry up!!!!! i want to see it finished!!!lol


great work

peace

[Tim.]

Have been getting into the wiring.  Hope to have a lot more done on it heading into this weekend.  Time consuming stuff.  I could have bought a brand new wiring harness from Mikesxs for $80 and modified it for my purposes, but NOOOOO.... I had to go and make my own!     Ah well - it's tailor made for the bike and I think it looks awesome (not that you'll see it).

The big grommet on the harness is for the headlight bucket.  I figured once all the connectors were on it would have a hard time getting through it.

Got the main run done from the front to back of the bike, and last night did the rear brake light switch (lengthened the wires and wrapped it all up nice and neat).

Click on the images for full size pics.

[mrbreeze]

Have been getting into the wiring.  Hope to have a lot more done on it heading into this weekend.  Time consuming stuff.  I could have bought a brand new wiring harness from Mikesxs for $80 and modified it for my purposes, but NOOOOO.... I had to go and make my own!     Ah well - it's tailor made for the bike and I think it looks awesome (not that you'll see it).

The big grommet on the harness is for the headlight bucket.  I figured once all the connectors were on it would have a hard time getting through it.

Got the main run done from the front to back of the bike, and last night did the rear brake light switch (lengthened the wires and wrapped it all up nice and neat).

Click on the images for full size pics.

Thats the way to do it.....build your own harness...blueprint that sucker and you should never have any problems as far as bad connects,ugly harnesses hanging out,etc. I plan to do the same when I get a project going (some day!!). For now....Its the stock harness modified to Yami controls and it works great although too messy in the headlight bucket for my liking. Keep up the progress....its gonna be a kick ass ride!!!!

[DarkRider]

Looks good man! I think one of these days im going to rip the harness out of the GPz and take a good look at it along with either mending its bad spots or making a new harness using the original as a guide along with a bunch of connector kits from Z1 enterprises.

[Tim.]

So I've done a bit more on the wiring.  I took the switch apart, cleaned it all up, polished it and have now got it all back together with the wiring all ready to plug into the harness.

Getting closer.  Just a few more sections of the wiring to work on and it will be time to fire it up.

[jevfro]

Man!
What a wiring harness that's going to be! 

Where do you get the cool sleeving? every wire is wrapped individually along its entire length?
That must be time consuming... It'll last forever like that though! Nice work

[Tim.]

I got the braided sleeving from www.cabletiesandmore.com

On the switch, each set of 4 wires (each 1/2 of the switch housing has its own set of wires) is in a length of 1/4" heat shrink.

Then the exposed 4-5 inches of each wire is covered in the braided sleeve with 3/16" heat shrink covering the ends.

Then those two sets are in a single 1/2" length of heat shrink, overlapping on the heat shrink on the individual wires.

Then (oi!) I put 1/2" braided sleeving on the combined set of 8 wires, with each end of the sleeving capped with 1/2" heat shrink.

Next I crimp on the terminals, and put a small length of colored heat shrink to identify the wires.  Some I had to color with permanent markers (used white heat shrink).

For the larger female connectors I have to put the insulating jacket and colored heat shrink on the wire first, then crimp on the terminal.

[fang]

I hate to bump a ghost.... but I just spent the last two hours reading this whole thread.   Tintin, where are you when we need you?  Are you riding the bike yet?

peace and grease,
-fang

[ev0lve]

Another 26 pages and more pics on do the ton? No update there either.

http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=448.0

It is a jaw-dropper I admit 

[mrbreeze]

Well...now he's workin' up one them old Honda 305's or such.......can't wait till he gets back to this Yami...........its gonna be sweet!!!!!

[Sam Green Racing]

It's a 150 Freddy

Sam.

[mrbreeze]

Aw hell Sam!!!....I don't remember!!!!!........Those are back in the old stone ages!!!!!! (I used to have a 305 scrambler before they invented dirt).

[Tim.]

Sigh...

Yeah, I know I've been neglecting this bike.  My only excuse is I was working on it last July.  Then summer vacation hit with the family - out of town for a couple weeks.  Then in August my friend Dave and I started planning a big ride from Toronto to Deals Gap, and started prepping the BMW R75 and R90 for the trip.  Rebuilt the shocks etc. etc. etc.

Did the trip over the last 10 days of September, and limped the bikes home.  Both ran like crap towards the end, and his rear wheel bearing disintegrated, leaving us in a U-Haul for the last 100 miles home.  Could have been a lot worse I guess.

Then this winter saw me getting my garage organized, insulated, electrified properly with a 40A circuit etc.  We ended up with a leaky roof also which took my time and money away from the XS650.

Anyhow - enough excuses!  My garage is organized, all my tools are out there, and I'm beginning to work on it again.  I also picked up a 1963 CA95 Honda that I'm tinkering with.  Just getting my hands working again before jumping into the XS650.  The CA95 is my warm-up to get back into the mind-set.  Don't want to finish the 650 with cold hands.

It will be done and on the road this season, along with the CA95.  I'm not going into the fall/winter with unfinished projects.  I just don't have time in the winter to work on these things.

[greenjeans]

I love it when I stumble across a thread that I haven't seen before....

TinTin, that is going to be a spectacular bike....don't know what else to say.   Really is jaw dropping.

Can't wait till you get it out on the road.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, hurry up Tinny and get that thing on the road and stop making up bullshiit excuses about "Cold Hands" etc, that's about the pisssy-est excuse for putting off the 650 (again) that I've ever heard!

I thought I was the only one here with an original working ACME "Excuse-o-matic" machine, but it looks like another one has turned up on your side of the pond, so much for exclusivity, ha ha! Cheers, Terry.

[hoodellyhoo]

I had forgotten all about this thread...

[Tim.]

I'm working on it tonight - sorting out the regulator/rectifier wiring to the stator and battery.

[Tim.]

Now we're getting somewhere!

Regulator/Rectifier wired in.  Battery is wired in.  Ground is solid to the frame (bare metal).  Things are working properly

Only one scare - when I turned the ignition for the first time, I got SMOKE!  But it was only out of the light socket for the speedo.  Pulled it off, pulled out the bulb and noticed the crappy construction of the light socket.  As the wires bend, it exposes the wires right at the base of the socket outside the speedo housing.  They made contact with the mounting plate and hence the short.

Wrapped it up, put a layer of shrink wrap, and then another layer covering the white rubber light socket as well.  No exposure anymore, looks better too!

Aside from that no issues.  All wiring is working as designed   Just need some signal lights and a brake light.

[Terry in Australia]

Now that's more like it Tinny, beautiful work mate, well done!