Up and Running

Got the XS up and running today, no problem, started almost straight away. Took it for a little trip round the yard and everything seemed to be fine, apart from the front brake which is a little soft. Hopefully a bit of adjustment should sort it out. Had a go at balancing the carbs also, but the readings where a bit too wobbly to make a decent job.
 

Next up - MOT.

Click no more

The answer is simple ladies and gentlemen - tighten your camchain tensioner.

I had to tighten it right up though - to the point of removing all freeplay, and there should be a small amount (1-2mm) apparently. Also it would appear that I am missing a copper 'damping washer' under the plunger which should help too.

You can see in the video that when the clicking occurs, the tensioner pops out. Why it happens at that point in the cycle, why it feels like the exhaust valves, I have no idea.

Anyways, lesson learned, and one day years in the future, when some little twurp goes 'my engine wont stop clicking!' I will be the wise old man with that golden nugget of advice 'ah, av yer checked yer chain tension lad!'

El Bandito eh no go-o

Went to pick up the bandit this morning, was really excited as I havent ridden it since march time when i first started stripping it down. Was greeted by the sight of my mechanic buddy running it up the yard to warm it up a bit, got me really giddy! But then he explained that unfortunately its only firing on three cylinders and wont run right :-(

Anyways, after several minutes of hearty spanner-chat, we realised that the pilot jet that he had used to replace a broken one was completely different to the rest, and also that the pilot jets that I had used from my 'carb rebuild kits' had come from america...so all round they were probably completely wrong!

So plan of action is to just buy new jets for all the carbs and put it straight. Oh, and I also need to buy a new starter motor as mine is lazy/sticking.....and the battery is knackered so I need a new one of them too.......and it was blowing a bit of blue smoke so will probably need a top end rebuild at some point.......seems like Ruby aint finished with my wallet yet!!

One day baby.....one day.....

Clickety click click clickeroo!!

Ive tried just about everything on the head of the engine to figure out whats making the knocking/clicking noise and it comes down to this; the noise does not occur when you remove the large, outer spring from the valve assembly. So this would lead me to conclude that this outer spring is what is making the noise. For those that don't know, there are two springs (one inside the other) on each valve in the cylinder head on an XS 650.

 

I still can't work out how it is making the noise, it happens when the exhaust valves are closing (ie. springs are expanding). If I cant work it out now then I will just put it back together and run it anyways cos I'm sick of taking the head on and off. Any suggestions/ideas/moral support much appreciated.

Lack of progress...

 

Unfortunately progress have been back and forth on the XS. After completing the front end I put the bike together and got it running (woohoo!) but there is a worrying knocking noise on every revolution of the engine. The noise also occurs when the engine is turned over by hand, and I have been over all sorts of reasons from valve clearances to incorrect timing and I cannot figure it out. I have had to strip the engine down again to investigate.....

 

You can see the timing mark on the can sprocket is vertical, which it should be when the timing mark is aligned on the bottom end, which it is, so I think the timing is correct. Was no evidence of any wear in the rocker cover, on the rockers, or on the cams, so I removed the camshaft and took the head off.

No evidence of valves smacking pistons, all looks well and good. SO WHAT THE FUCK IS MAKING THAT NOISE??