1987 XL600R

Yes one came up for sale in my area and I have been looking for a play bike. I have 40 acres that have good trails and ATV/UTV route that runs by my house. I thought what the heck. So now I get to have fun bringing all the maintenance up to speed.

Pulled the carbs yesterday and they were normally bad. I guess one of the tips and tricks it to enlarge the choke hole from the bottom of #1 carb. This bike has two carbs on it with only one piston. The left carb is the starting ckt and has a intermediate jet. The right carb is only for primary jet and starts to open at about 1/3 throttle.

It is a kick start and I am not really happy about that. I removed the decompression cable from the kick starter to the head. I left the hand lever connected to the head, this seems to be one of the starting tips to find TDC and jest get past it. The bike did fire with some starting fluid so I have spark.

The air box was full of mouse nest items and the foam was all eaten or used for the nest. The oil is like a buell and it is held in the neck of the bike frame. Will change that today and also check the valve clearance.

 

Watched a bunch of vids on this bike. They say the hardest part is getting it started. After finally getting the spark plug out and finding it was bad (no spark) and drilling the choke hole out a little (recommend by many on you tube), I tried to start the bike. Well didn't go so good. Then I gave it a shot of starting fluid and she started right up. Ran supper good and was on the table running for about 20 mins with a nice fan giving it fresh air. Turned it off and tried to give it a kick to start again. Nope....just LOL at me.

Ordered all the parts needed to restored it today including the little 12 battery that it needs. It will take a while to get here but then I will serious about getting it to run from a cold start.

 

Guy on youtube "Harrys Garage"...he raced Dakar in the 80's. He talks about starting XT500 from cold...quite the procedure in this vid. 5:26



He has a vid on the xl500r as well..might be worth a watch.

 

watch the timing on that big bore, i had a tt500 back in the day and retarding the timing 2 or3 deg made a difference. then i changed to electronic ignition and it started like a 125

 

Thanks guys, I have been reading up on the bikes and have a manual on the way. If I can get it to start easy it will stay in my stable. Nice light little bike and I don't currently have a multi purpose bike to play with.

New bars and lever came in yesterday. I also was doing some plastic welding on the small screen and headlight cover as that had lots of cracks and brakes in it. Slapped a little heat paint on the exhaust as well.

Once the batter gets here, I will get it started and take it out on my trails. Forks are bleeding bad and need a rebuild. I just want to do a shakedown of the bike over all. Front brakes are checked and flushed. I will take a look at the chain and rear brake today.

 

Here are some pics. This was the first start and running. Love the car battery to bike jumper cables.
1987 xl600 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
A little paint on exhaust to see how it wold look.
DSCN0019 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
Back side of the headlight cover. Black is from added PCV pipe with a soldering iron to add strength.
DSCN0020 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
Right side had been broken all the way through. Held on by tape as you can see from the first pic.
DSCN0021 by Tim Brown, on Flickr

 

You lucky dog!

Nice job on the plastic welding, I paid to have it done over the years but never attempted it myself.
I found a pic on the net which illustrates the RFVC.
Lots of moving parts but threaded adjusters means you don't have to disassemble anything to bring the valves into tolerance.
RFVC, 2 carbs, I think Honda asked -how can we complicate the single cylinder to the extreme!
They should have added a 2nd spark plug LOL, but I suppose this was the argument for the RFVC.

 

Thanks for the pic. The plastic welding is done, now have to sand and possible paint. I think tomorrow, once this constant but much needed rain stops, I will try to start her and ride her. For protectors came in today, so I can do the forks now too.

 

Getting a aftermarket stator as the XL600 guys say that is a huge starting problem issue. I am only the 3ed owner of this bike. The second owner bought it in 1990 so I am sure the updated stator is not in the bike. Still waiting on the mail, as most of us are for parts. I do hope that the logistic of our county get back on track one of these days.

 

Did the forks today, well part of them anyway. For the first time in a long time the retaining clip came out of both forks with ease. But then came the left fork. The inside was all rusty chunks. I have never seen a fork that has rusted up from the inside. I will post some pics later on.

The forks look to have been changed out with gold valves on the bottoms. There is also a progressive spring I believe in them. The stock springs I think had all one coil separation. The ones in these forks have tight coil separation at one end.

In the book these is a small spring on the bottom of the internal fork leg. This spring keeps the shock from metal on metal slamming for the bottom valve. The left fork did not have one in it. I am wondering if it just rusted away. I mean the inside of the left fork and the components had metal bits all over them. It is the only thing I can guess that happened.

 

Yes the lower fork spring in the left fork was gone. It had I guess degraded over the yrs and was now part of the inside of the fork?
DSCN0028 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
DSCN0027 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
I removed the right fort again and went though it ( I didn't fill them with fluid yet). PO had main springs in the wrong way but the right fork was in good shape. Parts are on order, will see how well I can clean up the left fork. First for everything.

 

New stator came in the mail. I want to get the forks back on and filled with fluid before I play with the stator. I will want to ride the bike if is starts easy and I can see myself taking it for a spin with on little spring missing in the fork. So it is still strapped on the bike lift.

 

The forks are on and working. I turned the gas on, choked it and give it kick (just off of TDC) and it started right up. I road it around for 1/2 hr. What a fun little bike. It will stay in my stable for some time.

 

Just to close this thread....I sold the bike yesterday. Just too hard for me to keep trying to kick start the beast. Once it is running it was a great fun bike. The down side was trying to start the bike when cold.

Put it on FB market and it sold in one day. Didn't make much money but this is a hobby and I just like to pass the joy of riding on to others.