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Barn-Find 1972 Yamaha XS650 off the road for at least 10 years. Will it run and ride again? Let’s get to work on the MC Garage Ran When Parked series.
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https://www.batterytender.com/collections/powersports?utm_source=Partnerships&utm_medium=Television&utm_campaign=Octane%20Media&utm_term=powersports
Barn-Find 1972 Yamaha XS650 off the road for at least 10 years. Will it run and ride again? Let’s get to work on the MC Garage Ran When Parked series.
Looking to buy? Get prequalified
https://octane.co/vehicle-selection/?partner=jAYmx9P&a=303&flow=long-prequal&appTheme=3a49337c5724d18079602a4ca5a91626
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SportsTranscript
00:00This series is called Ran Win Parked. It's an MC Garage production. I'm Mark Hoyer and I love getting old things running.
00:09Today we're working on a 1972 Yamaha XS650, otherwise known as an XS2.
00:14The aim here is to get the bike on the road and take you along for the ride.
00:18How do we assess it? What do we look for? What do we work on? How do we make it run again?
00:22It was a pretty good looking bike. It's relatively complete original headlight shell.
00:26The only kind of deviation here is somebody bobbed the fenders a little bit.
00:30So they cut the stainless fenders down. Let's see what we got for mileage.
00:33It's a little dusty, but 36,000 miles, not unreasonable.
00:37Hey, where's the key?
00:40It looks like somebody's tried to hit this with a screwdriver.
00:43We do have the key. I was partly kidding.
00:45Anyway, pretty complete. It's got all the badges. That stuff's hard to find.
00:48Very cool. A tuning fork, gas cap.
00:50Yeah, let's open this and see what it smells like.
00:52See what we got. Oh, that's not good. The rubber's coming apart here.
00:55Our flashlight in here.
00:56Actually pretty clean. The gas color is not great.
01:00I'm gonna do the worst thing I can do.
01:02Oh yeah, that's gross.
01:04That's the smell of, you know that once you try that a few times,
01:07you actually know what old gas smells like and it's bad.
01:10Car boots are looking decent. Carbs, meh, fine.
01:13A little bit of drool coming out of them.
01:14A mouse turds, that's not a good sign.
01:16They're indiscriminate chewers. Let's get under the seat.
01:21Oh, so that's a big turd.
01:24Unfortunately, I know the difference between rat and mouse
01:27and I don't want to touch it, but there's that antivirus thing.
01:29But that's mouse turds and then there's a big one in there that's definitely a rat.
01:33So that's gross. We'll get that over here, wash our hands.
01:37Battery box is empty except for chewed acorns.
01:41I think it has a center stand. Thank goodness.
01:44It rolls. Yeah.
01:47Okay, we'll just not look at that for a minute.
01:50Yep, spark plugs are in. Is that too easy to kick through?
01:53That's promising.
01:54I got this bike for free from a guy who left it in San Francisco.
01:58He left it with a shop that was supposed to, you know,
02:00get it running and build it into something.
02:02And they were going to split the proceeds and that guy never touched it.
02:05It's more faded on one side than the other.
02:07So when you put the kickstand down over here, this side of the bike is more faded.
02:10So it's probably sat outside most of its life.
02:13Oh, let's check the brake.
02:15Oh, that's all right. It's not great, but it's got pressure.
02:18No battery, that's one thing.
02:19Let's move it into the shop and see what we got.
02:22I don't want to take all this dirt in the shop.
02:24Should I hose it off first?
02:26Yes.
02:26Here's the answer.
02:27We won't go crazy.
02:34They are 450, 480 pounds.
02:37They're not made of titanium.
02:39We'll vacuum it out real quick, clean the box,
02:42and we'll get some power on this and see if it powers up.
02:44We know it kicks through.
02:45Cleared for takeoff.
02:48Fairly nutty though.
02:49Feel that down there?
02:52We got the key.
02:53It's got a little Buddha attached to it,
02:55and it looks like an original key with a key number on it and everything.
02:59The plating is obviously kind of worn off because it's been around.
03:02It turns on.
03:03Okay, we got nice crisp clicks.
03:05It's always good to have a to-do list.
03:07It's more to come because we've got to figure out what to do,
03:09but I make to-do lists.
03:11Check!
03:12Did it.
03:12Got her done.
03:13We have a new battery.
03:14I put the battery acid in it.
03:15It's a flooded lead acid battery.
03:18Very old school.
03:19Got it because it was cheap.
03:20I have it hooked up to a battery tender
03:22because when they're dry charged, they're usually not, you know, tip-top.
03:26It's got brand new acid on the battery tender.
03:28Step three we could ride in,
03:30but we're going to put power on the leads using a jump box.
03:33This is a 1500 amp jump box by Battery Tender.
03:36I've been carrying it around in my pickup truck because I'm limping the battery.
03:39I'm trying to get the most battery life out of it,
03:41so in case I need to squeeze a little juice into my battery, I could do that.
03:45This comes with a wall charger.
03:46It comes with these clips.
03:47Reverse connection protection,
03:49so if you don't know your pluses and minuses or you goof and it's dark, it fixes it.
03:54If it's dark, you can hit this flashlight.
03:56Super bright flashlight.
03:57Okay, so I got a green light here.
03:58Don't touch the leads.
04:00Although they are spark protected, you can touch the leads,
04:02but as a rule, I try not to.
04:04This terminal is connected directly to the frame,
04:07and this is a negative ground motorcycle,
04:09so we will hook the positive up,
04:12and it's not touching any chassis parts,
04:14and we'll hook the negative up.
04:16It says it's ready.
04:17It was fully in the green.
04:19Wall charged it.
04:20Oh, there it goes.
04:21Ooh.
04:23Uh-oh.
04:25Okay, it lives.
04:26So this is protecting itself from trying to run the bike.
04:28Well, we'll get the battery in,
04:30and if we need extra juice on the battery,
04:31if it's not 100% with that battery connected,
04:34this will detect the resistance of the battery.
04:37I think that's what's happening.
04:38It's not detecting the resistance in the circuitry.
04:41Because there isn't a battery.
04:42So we'll hook the battery up,
04:43and if it doesn't have enough juice, we'll use a jump box.
04:45Flooded lead acid battery.
04:46It's a quality battery, but it's the least expensive type.
04:48It's just a regular flooded lead acid, not AGM.
04:51None of that.
04:52I have it on a battery tender.
04:54It's 800 milliamps.
04:55It appears to still be charging.
04:56I didn't put it on that long ago.
04:58So also, I use this plastic bucket just as a safety measure,
05:02only with this kind of battery, really, because it's vented.
05:04And if for some reason I overfilled it,
05:06and or I got it hot,
05:08the battery acid wouldn't go all over everywhere.
05:10It would stay in this plastic bucket.
05:11One downside with this kind of battery
05:13is that they can blow out noxious vapors.
05:17You have the vent over here.
05:18You hook up a tube,
05:20and you run that tube down past all the metal bits.
05:25We're going to need to insulate.
05:27You don't need to murder these.
05:28Just get them snug,
05:30and then see if you can rotate the terminal.
05:32If you can't rotate it, it's tight enough.
05:34We'll have to do something to protect the positive
05:37from this metal tray.
05:38You can see that's just dangerously close.
05:40So we'll put a insulating cap over this.
05:42The negative, you can touch anything you want,
05:44because the chassis is the negative.
05:46So there's no electricity flowing.
05:48This wire goes directly to the engine,
05:50and the engine is grounded to the frame.
05:52This is the positive.
05:53If we touch this to this,
05:54we'll make sparks or even weld
05:56with all the amps that are in there.
05:57Big arcs, big sparks.
06:00There's no way this is a 1972 battery.
06:02Hold down.
06:06What did I just say?
06:07We'll cover the terminal with tape,
06:08and I'll find a rubber red insulator.
06:10Let us know what the polarity is.
06:12Keep that arcing-ness from happening.
06:14And now we're just going to put this piece of cardboard,
06:17and it's just a little extra barrier.
06:19Let's try the starter button.
06:21Oh, no, let's check the oil.
06:22Let's check the oil.
06:23Good idea.
06:25Oh, mouse turd.
06:27Let's clean the filler cap before...
06:29I don't want a mouse turd in the oil,
06:30even if the oil is very turdy itself.
06:33Look at this.
06:34Wow, metal dipstick.
06:35It is oil, I think.
06:38Oh, yeah.
06:38It smells like the floats might have got stuck
06:40and let fuel into this at some point.
06:42I feel confident we're going to take these carbs off
06:44and work on them.
06:45All right, well, there is oil,
06:46so we're going to power.
06:47We have lights.
06:51Oh, hey, that's cranking.
06:52Okay, that's great.
06:53That was a pretty healthy crank, too.
06:55So battery tender was doing the Lord's work.
06:57We're going to pop a side cover,
06:58get access to the air box,
07:00and get some of this ether.
07:01That's what starting fluid is, ether.
07:03And then see if it makes a pop.
07:04When I smelled the gas earlier, disgusting.
07:06My connoisseurship of aged gasoline
07:09would date it at least five years.
07:11All right, ignition parts.
07:12Oh, boy.
07:13I'm pretty sure that this is a selenium rectifier.
07:16Once we get it running,
07:17we'll know, we'll kind of assess the charging system.
07:19Air box, see if we can get some ether in there.
07:22We'll just go crazy.
07:27Might need a direct line,
07:28or we're not getting spark.
07:31It's cranking over really nice.
07:33Sometimes the starter clutches on these are no good,
07:35but this one's doing great.
07:37So exciting.
07:38It rolled over.
07:39I don't have to kick it a thousand times.
07:42This is a 72.
07:43It's the first year for electric start.
07:45Oh, look at that.
07:46Are you kidding?
07:48That's so cool.
07:50It's on a hinge and it has a little clip.
07:52So you just pull it right out
07:53and then we want to get you out.
07:56It is a pull tab.
07:58I'm sure of it.
07:59Well, let's give it a try here.
08:04Oh, that's all I need.
08:18It's noisy, but it's probably not circular.
08:20It's probably really dry.
08:21It isn't circulating oil yet.
08:33Okay, we got something.
08:35We're going to drain the fuel
08:36so we don't put this garbage into the carbs,
08:38but we're going to get a siphon and drain that
08:41or we'll drain it out the petcock.
08:42Sometimes we turn these on after all this time they leak,
08:45but they sometimes swell back up and work.
08:49And that's what we're going to cross fingers for.
08:51One more thing we're going to do is just make sure
08:53there's nothing going on with the gearbox.
08:54We're going to throw it in the center stand
08:55and just click it through the gears
08:56and make sure it engages.
08:58We know neutral is good because we push it in here
09:00and that's spinning real nice.
09:01So the resistance pushing it could be on the front brake,
09:04maybe if the caliper stuck, but it was hard to push.
09:06I think mostly because the tires are flat.
09:08She's free.
09:09There's first, back to neutral.
09:12Second's good.
09:14Third's good.
09:15Fourth, fifth.
09:17All right, we got five gears.
09:19Clutch.
09:23Okay, we got drag on the clutch,
09:25but we got an adjuster.
09:27We got, and I think maybe once it gets hot,
09:29you know, the plates will free up,
09:30but clutch works sort of.
09:32Don't siphon by mouth.
09:33You don't want that stuff in your mouth.
09:35I use a pump, make a vacuum, get it low.
09:37Clear tube so you can see the fuel coming.
09:39Here it comes.
09:40Oh, there she goes.
09:41I took a whiff of this gas sitting in the shed.
09:44Ronald Reagan was probably president.
09:45I'll probably check the plugs.
09:47Looking at them from here, the bodies are kind of shiny,
09:49which is promising.
09:50I should probably check the gap
09:52and then the color of the plug could possibly tell us something
09:55depending on whether the plugs are new or old.
09:57First thing I want to do is just get it running,
09:59like triage it, get it on the road.
10:01I want to take it on like a 200 mile ride
10:03up north of Santa Barbara to a restaurant
10:05in kind of a biker place above,
10:08in the mountains above Santa Barbara.
10:09And then after that, go through system by system
10:12and make it into like a daily rider,
10:13like it would have been in 1972,
10:15but with maybe a few upgrades here and there,
10:17like electronic ignition,
10:18because I'm virtually certain there's going to be points
10:20and everything's original, I think.
10:22We'll pull the points cover off and we'll look
10:24because they stick them under here sometimes.
10:26Bring it back, put it on the road.
10:27Gas is out.
10:29There's a little bit at the bottom,
10:30which what I'm going to do is I just,
10:32I looked at the carbs, there's a drain on the float bowls.
10:35So there's fuel in here.
10:36I'm going to undo the drains and get a little tray.
10:39I'm going to open the petcocks and just cross fingers.
10:42All right, the question is, do I make a huge mess
10:44or do I get a container?
10:46Let's do the right thing and get something
10:47I can slide under there.
10:49So the petcocks are in the stop position.
10:51It looks like not a drop coming through,
10:54which means I probably just drained the tank pretty well.
10:56Let me get the other plug out.
10:58Of course, I don't have two bowls,
11:00but I do want gas to come out of both at the same time.
11:02Oh, this says on, huh?
11:04Who did that?
11:05Fuel gets sticky and sometimes it's sticky
11:08like residue on the intake valves.
11:09This is just like a safety measure to keep the valves moving
11:12when it has a little pre-mix in it.
11:13So this is 50 to one pre-mix and it's ethanol free also.
11:17You know, it's only a million dollars a gallon.
11:21You don't want to run her every day.
11:22Oh, that smells good.
11:24Don't do that.
11:25We'll put a little bit in
11:26and see if anything happens underneath the carbs.
11:28How's that?
11:29Oh, that's a nice, pretty color.
11:31I wonder, does it have a vacuum petcock?
11:34I wonder if I should read a manual.
11:36Nah.
11:42Wow.
11:42I guess I left it in gear.
11:45Yep.
11:46Okay, let's get back into neutral.
11:47That was more excitement than I was expecting.
11:51Let's pull the fuel hose.
11:52That's an idea.
11:53So this looks like fuel
11:56and there's a crossover hose in between the carbs.
11:58Let's just commit to in a whole can.
12:00Come on.
12:05Oh, there's a goof on my part.
12:06Well, it's kind of good the fuel wasn't running
12:08because the fuel lines are like rock solid.
12:11They would have leaked everywhere.
12:12I had them on regular, just normal,
12:14turn on the gas, not reserve.
12:16And that's, it wasn't putting gas out
12:17because it needs to be on reserve
12:18because there's not that much fuel in there.
12:19So I'm turning off the fuel and I was like,
12:21oh, I'm going to run this fuel hose,
12:23which was our siphon hose because it fits.
12:25But I don't see anything really holding the tank on
12:28and I could see in between the carbs.
12:29So I'm just going to see if I can lift the tank off
12:31because you see here,
12:32there's just a pin with a crusty bushing in it.
12:34And I think if I just,
12:36since I disconnected the lines,
12:38there doesn't appear to be a crossover too
12:40between the sides.
12:41They have peck hocks on both sides,
12:42indicating usually that they don't have a crossover
12:45and it's just lifting right off.
12:48Try that on your brand new FZ-09.
12:52Gray bike, probably don't ever have to take the tank off.
12:55And we'll pull this fuel line.
12:58Oh, it did come good.
12:59See how it was broken?
13:00It's broken.
13:01I thought I was going to have to figure out
13:02how to get that off.
13:03While that's open,
13:04I'm just going to blast the daylights out of it
13:06with some carb spray.
13:07Even though I don't have high hopes,
13:09but as long as we're running straight in,
13:11I'm just going to put some hot stuff in there.
13:13By hot, I mean, just a hot solvent carb spray.
13:15Dude, there's nuts on top of the engine.
13:19Acorns on top of the engine.
13:21No nibbles on the wiring, it doesn't look like.
13:25So that's good.
13:25Not clear.
13:26I like having it clear just so you can see the fuel flowing,
13:28but we can do a better job later.
13:32All right, that's home.
13:33And it was hard enough to push on there.
13:34I feel confident.
13:40Just long enough.
13:41You know, sometimes you think of things
13:43in the middle of a job where you're like,
13:44hey, you know what?
13:45This is a motorcycle lift.
13:47Why am I kneeling on the ground?
13:49We'll just roll with it for now,
13:50and then maybe we'll lift it up.
13:52I was just so optimistic, I guess,
13:53that I thought I could just roll it off and ride away.
13:55Cut it off right here.
13:58OK, dripping out of the floats.
14:00Oh, there's a chunk in there.
14:03Got a little chunk of something in there.
14:05Or that could be mouse turds,
14:07or it could be a death chunk inside the carb.
14:11I would hope for more than that,
14:13but I think I'm postponing the inevitable,
14:15which is taking the carbs off.
14:17We're just going to put this business
14:18right into the float.
14:20Solvent, carb spray.
14:22See, we knocked the gunge off.
14:24It's just coming back up the hose,
14:25so I feel confident I put a lot in there.
14:28See what happens.
14:29Choke is on.
14:32Oh, that's really good.
14:35Oh, that is not good.
14:36That might be the, remember I said sometimes
14:39the starter clutch isn't great on these things?
14:41Starter clutch sometimes isn't great on these things.
14:43That was a terrible sound.
14:47Oh, you're running on gas.
14:57I was so unprepared for that to happen.
14:59Everything's falling off.
15:00You get out.
15:02You are not idling right now.
15:05That was unexpected.
15:07The carbs are leaking,
15:08or it's just my poor choice of fuel hose.
15:11Let's figure that out.
15:12Fuel was raining down from the carburetors,
15:15not from the hose that I just put on the peckhawks,
15:17and not from the tank of the peckhawks,
15:18which is super great news.
15:20But each carb has a peckhawk,
15:22but then there's a hose I could see joining the two carbs.
15:25I think based on this scientific discovery
15:29that I bet this is the same hose.
15:31It's all cracked and it's rock hard.
15:33This should be flexible and nice.
15:35I think that crossover hose is leaking.
15:37We might end up pulling off the carbs.
15:39Right now I'm going to pull off the air filters.
15:41The good news about fuel raining down from the carburetors
15:43is it rinsed off the top of the engine
15:45where there was all the mouse turds,
15:46kind of dissolved them a little bit.
15:47Now what's cool about the popularity of this bike
15:50is that parts are everywhere.
15:52There's one in Florida, Mike's XS,
15:54they got a zillion things.
15:55They were really popular in Germany and they still are.
15:58There's a million carb options.
15:59You can get Makuni VM kits for them
16:01for not very much money.
16:02There's electronic ignitions, charging systems,
16:04all kinds of neat stuff.
16:05So it's exciting, the possibilities.
16:11Okay, it's bound to happen.
16:13It'll come out later.
16:14They make the filter replacement so easy,
16:16I guess they don't expect you to take these off too much.
16:19Oh, you know, if the battery weren't there,
16:21it would come right out.
16:22Do I dare take the battery out?
16:23Why not?
16:24You know, your 10 millimeter wrench,
16:25maybe you drop that across the terminals,
16:27can be really exciting.
16:30We'll get it back on the trickle charger
16:31since we're going to be doing this a while.
16:33We're back in the bucket.
16:35No leaks, great.
16:38Battery tender engaged.
16:40This should come right out, right?
16:41That's the joke.
16:43Yep, that was all we needed.
16:44That battery was my clearance.
16:46It's not the cleanest air filter ever.
16:48This cool, cute little pod, it's just real dirty.
16:50This paper is going to be fine.
16:52Ooh, nice little fine mesh screen in there.
16:54Wish we could restore that with some black paint.
16:56That'll look awesome.
16:57But you paint one part on a bike like this
17:00and then what happens?
17:01You got to paint everything else.
17:02So maybe we paint nothing and love it for what it is.
17:05Oh yeah, I dropped the other one too.
17:06I got to get that.
17:07If you drop something, get it right away
17:08or else you'll be looking for it for two years.
17:11Now this crossover pipe is hard as a rock.
17:14Oh man, didn't want to pull carbs really.
17:18Or I kind of did actually.
17:19So they're racked carburetors,
17:21meaning that they're bolted together.
17:22I definitely have to replace this hose
17:24because I can spin it and it's got cracks in it.
17:26So this is the hose that joins the two carbs.
17:28Open the Peckhawk and see what happens.
17:31It immediately comes out of the crossover.
17:34You can see it just making a mess,
17:35cleaning up mouse poop.
17:36Let's get our hose selections.
17:38You thought it was a stool?
17:39It's a cutting board.
17:40And why don't I have a pad on the seat?
17:42You really shouldn't be sitting down
17:43in the shop anyway, should you?
17:44I actually do intend to make a nice little,
17:47a new base because you can see
17:48this particle board is disintegrating.
17:50I'll make one out of marine grade plywood, sure.
17:53Come on, get up.
17:54Hey, no drips, no drips.
17:56She's working.
17:57Maybe not the permanent solution
17:59for the next 60,000 miles,
18:00but I think we have a fuel type fuel system.
18:03It did idle, sort of.
18:04It seemed like it might've been running on one.
18:06We'll get the battery back in.
18:07We're still charging.
18:08We'll just use it if it gets low.
18:09We'll jump it with the jump starter.
18:12Anybody know where I put the bolts?
18:14Oh yeah, by the batteries.
18:15I made a great discovery that the seat,
18:17I could just take the seat off.
18:18It was kind of sticking up in the way
18:21and it actually has these two pins to slide on.
18:23I'll probably grease these,
18:24but there's a thread here and there was no nut.
18:27So you just slide the seat right off.
18:28I put the battery back in.
18:30I hooked the trickle charger back up,
18:32the battery tender.
18:32It's got a 12 foot cable,
18:34seven and a half amp protective fuse.
18:37And it was cool because it fits
18:38from my quad box of 120 volts over there
18:41to this 12 volt battery.
18:42And I've just been running that.
18:44It's not dripping fuel.
18:45And I think I left the fuel on for the last hour
18:48and there's no fuel coming out.
18:49So that's awesome.
18:50I knocked them all off.
18:51We got to bleed the front brake.
18:52We need tires, tubes, definitely.
18:54I would put a question mark after balance wheels,
18:56which I'm now racing.
18:57I can't ride with an unbalanced wheel.
18:58It makes me crazy.
19:00We're going to check the wheel bearings.
19:01Check charging system.
19:02We'll do that now when I fire it up.
19:04If I can fire it up and keep it running,
19:06I'll get the multimeter
19:07and stick it on the terminals.
19:08And then we'll see voltages while it's running.
19:11And hopefully it's 13 or ish.
19:13Definitely oil change, some filter.
19:16Is the clutch okay?
19:17Don't really know.
19:17I'm not doing anything to the fork in this round.
19:20Maybe in the future is what they're so pitted.
19:22I'm not even going to put oil in them
19:23because if I put oil in,
19:24it's just come out
19:25and it's going to lubricate the front brake.
19:26And we don't want that.
19:27Disconnect our battery tender and get going.
19:31Watch out.
19:31Oh yeah.
19:37Okay.
19:42Oh yeah.
19:43Slides are moving.
19:46That's shocking.
19:48I had to turn the idle way up though.
19:50And that spitting back indicates
19:53we may have a kind of cloggy idle circuit.
19:56See which one's doing that.
19:59Left cylinder.
20:02That could be the pre-mix.
20:05It's making smoke rings.
20:06Smoking out of the left cylinder more.
20:08Let's get the multimeter and check the voltage.
20:10Now I have a, this is a pretty nice.
20:11It's a Fluke.
20:12It's a bit craftsman, but it's made by Fluke.
20:14Auto ranging, pretty high zoot.
20:16But just to show you,
20:17you could do it with something that's like six bucks
20:19from the hardware store.
20:20And also analog can be nice.
20:21Having the needle when you don't want to know
20:23to the seventh decimal, how many volts it's making.
20:26You just want to know, is it like 12 or is it 13?
20:29Go to the 50 volt range and see what we got.
20:32Okay, it's reading 12 and a half.
20:36Rev it a little bit.
20:38Yeah, steady.
20:41Oh, cool.
20:42I'm going to take this off the fender
20:44before vibration ruins my cheap meter.
20:48All right, this is really good news.
20:49It's charging.
20:50And when you rev it up slow,
20:51the voltage went up, it would swing back.
20:53Meaning the voltage is rising
20:55because the alternator is spinning faster.
20:57And then the regulator would come in and say,
20:59no, we don't need 15 volts.
21:01And it would take it back to 13.5 or something.
21:04So we're in good shape.
21:04It's charging.
21:05Let's get this trash out of the engine.
21:07I've never changed the oil on an XS650.
21:11This is a manual from all models, 1964 through 72.
21:16And I have another one, XS1B.
21:19This is an XS2.
21:20XS1B was a 1971.
21:22The main difference being electric start.
21:25This has electric start.
21:26This one did not, but it should be accurate for oil changes.
21:29Wow, it's detailed.
21:30We need to rebuild the engine.
21:31We can do it.
21:32Oh, look, float height.
21:34Everything in this manual is clean.
21:35What?
21:36This doesn't look like reality.
21:38It takes three liters total.
21:39It's on the side.
21:40It actually says 2,500 CCs.
21:43So we'll drain this out, let it drain.
21:44We also have to take the sump off.
21:46It was really nice of Bradley to remind me to lift this up.
21:49Otherwise I'd be laying on the ground.
21:51But yeah, if you have a lift, it's super useful.
21:53If you don't, it's cool.
21:54I've spent years working on concrete and I'm the worst for it.
21:58There we go.
22:00Oh, geez.
22:00Oh, geez.
22:01It's really coming out.
22:02What a mess.
22:03All right.
22:03Learning lessons.
22:04Sorry.
22:05It's just black.
22:06It didn't have a lot of bits in it.
22:08Well, look at that.
22:09Look at the surface of the black moon.
22:11It's at the bottom.
22:12It's fine.
22:13As far as oil changes go, you'd think I'd done this before, but maybe I haven't.
22:16Okay, we're going to get our fresh clean tray.
22:19What are the odds that this is too small?
22:21I think the bulk of it came out the trans.
22:24So the transmission, it's a unit construction.
22:26Meaning that the engine and the transmission share oil and there's a gear primary.
22:30Not a chain.
22:31There we go.
22:31That was a lot better.
22:33Ow.
22:34Hot.
22:34So this was the rear drain plug over the trans.
22:37Oh my goodness.
22:38Look at that.
22:39Oh boy.
22:39I'm not even sure what that is.
22:41It doesn't feel like metal.
22:42It just feels like gunge.
22:43Older oils tended to sludge more.
22:45They had more wax in them.
22:46They would get kind of almost like waxy when they got old.
22:48We got to get this sump plate off because with that disgusting bit in there.
22:52What are we looking at?
22:5310?
22:53I wonder how many hours of my life I've spent just unscrewing things.
23:01Okay.
23:02I have no idea what is under here other than I know it's a that.
23:06Oh, okay.
23:07Has a gasket.
23:08Great.
23:09Has sludge.
23:10Well, hopefully that kept all the sludge because this is gross.
23:13This is truly disgusting.
23:14That's the sump filter.
23:15I got a new one.
23:16Then you can see all this other gunge here.
23:18Again, just debris.
23:20Not metal.
23:21Nobody said it would be clean.
23:23We're not doing this because it's easy, but because we thought it would be easy.
23:28Oh, that's where it does its thing is right there.
23:31So this feeds into the engines.
23:33It goes here through this screen through here.
23:35And I think that's where the oil pickup is.
23:37It probably is cleanable, but I have a new one.
23:39This is going to need some cleaning.
23:41These are really neat.
23:42They're automotive seal tools.
23:44So when you're putting a door seal on a car, they have these different shapes,
23:47but they're also made out of, you know, nylon something.
23:49It's real tough, but it's not scratchy usually.
23:52And you can use them to scrape things.
23:54All right, it's getting better.
23:55It was really filthy.
23:56I have a small amount of solvent on it to kind of get into the nooks and crannies.
24:00I took most of the gunge off.
24:02I like to use liquid green grease cutter or purple grease cutter and water.
24:06This is made of aluminum.
24:07It doesn't have any complicated passages.
24:09So putting it in water, no big deal.
24:11It's just not as hardcore as solvent.
24:14Still getting more bits out of the corners.
24:16I realize this is kind of what they would describe, perhaps,
24:19as a fool's errand in the sense that this will be the cleanest part of that engine.
24:23How could you not do what I'm doing?
24:25Well, I guess if I was actually smart, I would have just ridden it how it was.
24:28I could have grabbed a helmet.
24:29It was running.
24:30Brakes, I bet, would have been fine for a 25 mile an hour zip.
24:33I could have gone through the gears.
24:35But I felt so sad about the oil when we checked it earlier and I looked at it
24:39and it was all black and liquidy and just gross.
24:42And I thought, you know, let's get that stuff out of there.
24:44I don't want to run this thing and cause problems.
24:46Hey, remember what I said earlier about the thing was parked on its side stand
24:49in the sun for decades?
24:52That is the sun side.
24:53See how it's almost pink and the pigment's almost gone.
24:56And then this is that really rich candy red color.
24:58This is our new sump filter, Fuji Element, made in Japan.
25:02And we'll take off this side where the supposed oil filter is.
25:06I know all you guys love, not all you guys,
25:07but many folks like to put stainless hardware kits on aluminum engines.
25:12I'm not a big fan of that because stainless can seize to aluminum.
25:15They're dissimilar.
25:16They can be very hard to get out.
25:17Regular old steel is a little, in my opinion, that's what I would stick with.
25:21Oh, yeah.
25:22Oof.
25:22You know, you worry.
25:24You really worry when it's, I give it kind of a snap, you know,
25:27like not the kind of, not the bad snap, the good snap.
25:31Oh, stuff's coming out.
25:32Oh, that's the stuff I just sprayed on it.
25:35All right.
25:35See what we got in here.
25:36Oh, that's the gasket I got.
25:38Oh, that's a little filter.
25:40Huh.
25:41Well, that wasn't too bad.
25:42This is looking pretty good.
25:43It's clean.
25:44Weren't too many sparkly bits in there.
25:46I'm gonna pop it back together.
25:48Click.
25:49My torque arm just told me.
25:51Probably could use a torque wrench on this, but I think we're okay.
25:53We're just, you don't want them to be murdered tight.
25:55Just tight enough.
25:56So this is pretty darn clean.
25:57The remaining bits on here are sort of like tattoos.
26:00The gasket should be okay to put on without stuff.
26:04I'm almost tempted to go get a quarter inch drive, but we'll be gentle.
26:09Well, they're a big thing.
26:09We don't want to crush this.
26:11Okay.
26:11That's pretty good.
26:12So what's clever is this seals off the pickup for the feed to the pump.
26:17And then it's off the bottom.
26:19It allowed the debris to settle here, be drained out.
26:22That gives the engine the best possible chance of survival
26:25instead of just picking up out of the swamp.
26:27So the nice thing about Japanese bikes of the era versus their British counterparts
26:31is their castings were pretty darn good.
26:33They were die casting a lot of stuff.
26:34This appears die cast.
26:35It's got a little Yamaha tuning fork on it.
26:37Very cool.
26:38Quite the reputation as leakers.
26:40These sump plates, but also some guys are like,
26:42no, if you just do it just right, everything's perfect.
26:45So all you excess 650 gurus out there, you can excoriate me in the comments.
26:48That's what they're for.
26:49You can tell me how wrong I am.
26:51If I ride down a dirt road, I don't want to be paving it at the same time.
26:54That's an oil leak joke.
26:55When you ride a lot of British too, you get a lot of oil leak jokes.
26:58You learn them and they stay with you.
27:00All right.
27:00But we're riding Japanese.
27:01So let's see what happens.
27:02Well, I have to get it on the right way so that the oil pickup picks up oil.
27:06Yeah.
27:06I just want to turn the motorcycle upside down.
27:08Yep.
27:08Opposite corners.
27:09Hold it up.
27:10Let's start all these guys.
27:12Sure.
27:12We can move that.
27:13Makes sense.
27:13Don't want to drop these bolts into there.
27:16Okay.
27:17Seven foot pounds.
27:19This is inch pounds.
27:20Seven times 12, 84.
27:22I'm an English major and I did that.
27:24I'm probably overdoing this, but I'm paranoid.
27:27That should be good.
27:28Oil filters back in.
27:29Plugs.
27:29We better put the plugs in.
27:30That's never happened to me before.
27:32Forgetting to put the plug in.
27:34Oh boy.
27:36These are big.
27:37Okay.
27:39What does it all mean?
27:40Maybe that we should put oil in it?
27:42That's so scary.
27:44But how could it be worse than it was?
27:46This dipstick is amazing.
27:48It weighs like half a pound.
27:49You know, if it was a steak, I would eat it.
27:52Why this is a mangled cork gasket.
27:55Mystery solved.
27:56So we had a cork gasket over here and I'm certain.
28:00I'm so certain.
28:01I'm going to cut it off and use it.
28:03I'm sure there's a YouTube video on this.
28:04Oh, wait a minute.
28:06Again, because it was 500,000 of these things sold.
28:09There's a lot of expertise.
28:10People have been working on them a long time.
28:12There's still, you know, techs out there who are working on them as new bikes.
28:15It doesn't look too bad.
28:16It looks pretty good.
28:18See some transmission gears.
28:19It's not covered in horrors.
28:21Two and a half liters.
28:22We're going to put two in and see where it ends up.
28:24Should have used a funnel.
28:25I didn't spill, but it's inevitable almost.
28:28So it's a 650 parallel twin.
28:29It's actually 653 cc's.
28:32I believe the bore is 75 millimeters and the stroke 74.
28:35So it's what we would call slightly over square.
28:37Parallel twin 360 degree, meaning the pistons move up and down together.
28:42Firing is even 360 degrees apart.
28:46So it makes a very even, very British sound.
28:48It's cool.
28:48I found a graphic in the manual that showed that you don't screw this all the way and
28:52you just put it in there until the threads hit.
28:55And you take it out and you read it and we're, it hasn't run, so it hasn't circulated in
29:00any oil, but I'm less than a liter to go.
29:02So I'll put that in.
29:04Okay.
29:04No terrible starter noises.
29:07Wow.
29:08That was cool.
29:08Better give it throttle, huh?
29:25This thing actually sounds pretty good.
29:26That's good.
29:27Rough throttle response.
29:29Headlights not on.
29:33Hey, what do you know?
29:34Headlight switch that before they were mandatory to be on all the time.
29:38So we have headlights.
29:39We even have high beam and low beam.
29:44Let's get the pen and get some stuff off of here.
29:46Some filter.
29:48You're done.
29:48Oil change.
29:49You're done.
29:49Forks are no hoper.
29:50So that's done.
29:51We did check the charging system.
29:53Aired up the tires.
29:54The back had 3.6 pounds.
29:55The front had undetectable.
29:58Did hear a hiss when I put the gauge, you know, tire pressure gauge on,
30:03but it could have been air going in.
30:04It could have been a vacuum, man.
30:06I just want to check the axles because actually it was messing around.
30:09And this axle nut I can turn by hand.
30:12Pretty short handle, but that is tight.
30:14Looks good.
30:14Sounds good too.
30:15Actually.
30:16Chain's in good shape.
30:19Okay.
30:20Thanks.
30:21All right.
30:21Coming at you.
30:22I think that's good.
30:23Welcome to day two.
30:24We were very close to riding it last night.
30:27It was extremely late.
30:28It was dark.
30:29We thought, you know, we're not going to show the bike running.
30:31We're not going to get that experience.
30:33We're like, hey, you know, let's rest up.
30:35We parked it, put it on the lift.
30:36It was complete.
30:37You can see the seats off again.
30:39The battery is out.
30:40The fuel lines I selected yesterday were not fuel proof.
30:43Imagine my disappointment to come out and see a little bit of fuel under the bike.
30:47This black rubber hose, it was real pliable.
30:50It's nice hose.
30:51And I thought, oh man, this would be great, but it was leaking, unusable.
30:54So we had to get rid of that.
30:55Basically re-hosed it.
30:56The disappointment is of course, taking the battery out again.
30:59Cause every time I take the battery out, I see mouse poop.
31:01I got to clean that, but it's just a, you got to take that out to get the filters off,
31:05but we're in good shape.
31:06Few more minor details and we'll take it for a ride.
31:08Hey, real quick.
31:09We wanted to thank Deltran for sponsoring the video.
31:11We've been using the products throughout the whole program.
31:13Ramon parked.
31:14We've been using the battery tender junior 800 milliamp charger.
31:18It's a trickle charger.
31:19We use it to juice up the brand new battery before we install it.
31:22And we also would put it on between takes.
31:25We cranked this thing so much.
31:26We also use the 12 volt vehicle starter.
31:28It's 1500 amps, which is vastly more amperage than we'd ever need for a 72 XS 650.
31:34Can also use it to start your pickup truck.
31:36It's small, compact, has a really nice carry case.
31:38Circuit protected.
31:39It's got USB, USB-C and an output for laptops and a very bright flashlight case.
31:45You know, you need that, which we might, we actually might need that.
31:49There's a link in the description.
31:50You can go check them out.
31:51It supports our work here.
31:52And we thank you for the support Deltran.
31:54And thank you for watching.
31:55We'll get back to the video.
31:56Let's get this thing off the lift and take her out and go for a ride.
31:59First time in many, many, many, many years.
32:02It's been a pretty good process and journey.
32:06Can't believe we dodged the carburation bullet.
32:10You know, solving things with solvent.
32:12Maybe that's why they call it that.
32:13I'm gonna get this thing out of the yard.
32:16I'll meet you on the road.
32:17Oh, big turd.
32:18All right, here we go.
32:19Moment of truth.
32:20I'm gonna start her on a Kickstarter, we think.
32:25Yes!
32:49I heard the cocks.
32:52All right, we just finished the ride.
32:53It was amazing.
32:54You know, after a very long time dormant.
32:56It ran continuously.
32:57I've been riding about 45 minutes.
32:59Never stalled.
32:59Turn off with the keys.
33:00It starts on the Kickstarter.
33:02Idle's pretty good.
33:03Stop's okay.
33:05I could see why they were popular because it sounds really nice.
33:08And especially on the meandering back roads that I've been riding on.
33:11Really fun, really nice size.
33:13You know, this is a nice size of motorcycle, even for a gorilla like me.
33:16It just feels like a good place to sit.
33:18And it sounds good.
33:19You know, five speeds.
33:20You get up into fifth.
33:20Very cool.
33:21Just a really fun bike to ride.
33:23I'm so glad it's out living again.
33:25And we can do more stuff to it to improve it.
33:28So I'm really looking forward to that.
33:30I think the takeaway from the project is the worst thing you can do to a motorcycle is let it sit.
33:34I can't blame myself, can I?
33:36It was my fault.
33:37I'm sorry.
33:37It was my fault.
33:38Luckily, in our case, it didn't take too much to bring it back.
33:40There's more work to be done.
33:42I think we were thoughtful with the oil change and cleaning the underside of the bike.
33:45And just getting as much detail as we could to get it to this state.
33:48I just love putting heat back into something that's been sitting.
33:52I'd love to do more of it, especially with you guys.
33:54Hey, hopefully this inspires you to get your own bike out of storage.
33:57Or go find something that's been sitting and revive it and get it on the road.
34:01We're going to do a few more things to this bike and get it ready for a long ride.
34:06See you next time.
34:10I mean, Yamaha.
34:12XS650 lives.
34:15I gotta go.
34:16I'm going to the gas station.
34:19I'm going to get a steak.