Hey, do you guys wanna help me work on my bike?

caliper is attached to the bike by a thick metal bracket, which is attached to the rear axle and that rod thing. that center bolt probably holds it on to the bracket.

It does work, and why do you say that? just because of the general aged look? I do know that I need to go out and get brake fluid, drain and replace it before riding it any serious distance.

And yeah I work'ed in a fabrication shop. I am not experianced by any means but I know my way around grinders and drills...Ill take it all apart and we can see If its corroded to shit.

Ill get started, and post pics as I go.

I hear ya, but I think is on to something, might be able to slide off the caliper

So I have bolt 1 removed, and the caliper seems to loosened to a slight wiggle, but won't come off.

I think it should just slide off unless I am missing somthing

Do you guys think I have to remove the bolt attached to the brake line?

Bingo, there was a small screw hidden on the other side.

If user who said it could all be corroded is still around, is there any telltale signs other than rust I should look for while I have it off?

So I can't say these pads even look bad...i wonder if my issue is fluid.

When I break back it gives a loud squeal and doesn't seem to really engage, sort of just assumed it was the calipers hitting the disk.

Looks like there's a thing on top of the box that you can pop up. I would guess that you could change it without removing the wheel

There should be a wear indicator you could've checked without having them off.

But if it hasn't been ridden for a while then the brake fluid has probably absorbed water, so change it and then see how it is.

One thing at a time after all.

True.

So I dug out of my garage this break fluid, will it work for my old bike or do I need to buy specific fluid.

I know I can find out with a Google search but I thought I'd keep you guys updated because I guess the next step will be draining the fluid

It says formulated for all disk and drum systems so I should be good to go

So here's the back system. Should I separate the line the gravity drain until empty then fill?

Check your brake fluid container, it usually says whether it wants DOT 3 or DOT 4.
Use fresh brake fluid when changing it, since it absorbs water over time.

i think it would be cool if you put a shiny clear coat the tank and rear fender and painted the handlebars and rear grab bar black

Dot 3 I believe. And ok, it says that on the cap aswell.

Read up on how to do a proper brake fluid change.
I don't remember I think I've read that you should not drain it, since getting the air out will be a pain.

Bleeding brakes isn't bad on a bike.

Yeah I ran inside to the PC and it says you dont want to drain it all to prevent air bubbles from gettting in. other than that it looks like you drain and fill.

Another note apperantly DOT 3, 4 and 5.1 brake fluids are hygroscopic (water absorbing), which means they absorb moisture from the atmosphere. Meaning I guess there will always be a little water in it. I was debating "washing" out the line with fresh fluid to get all the tainted fluid out but I think I can do without.

OKIE dokie, Ill have pictures in a second, I am on to re-mounting the break caliper assembaly. Upon finding it wount just slide on I did some reading and found out I need to pry the piston back into place. This is going to be tricky because this break assembaly ( I am guessing its aftermarket) is different than most I can find online.

Just some notes about the bike.

Its a 79' yamaha XS 650cc. It was originally a "cafe racer" but the previous owner re-did the frame and slammed it into a bobber. He decked it out to look like a "mad max" bike and even showed me tropheys it apperantly won at a local rat rod show or somthing.

He gave it to me for a fair price, and knowing it was my first street bike gave me the rundown on her. Sturdy bike but needs love.

It came with the original cafe parts, and a few extras. It was originally fitted with a suicide shift, but I quickly took it off so I could learn how to ride a bike this size without killing myself.

To go along with the barebones look it has no speedometer or tach installed, and no turn signals. I have all these parts but left em off for now.

Along with other things I have thought about changing the look a bit. I have another rear fender that isnt rusted out, and ill take your idea into consideration if I ever change cosmetics.

I was thinking of going black on chrome, but want to bulletproof the engine first.

She's a good bike and treated me right when I needed her, so I want to return the favor and turn her into a really nice and reliable machine.

I like it cause I can work on her with tools in my garage, and eventually take out most of the electrical and just have the kickstart so it's basically a engine on wheels.

Ok back to work

So does anybody have any idea how to depress this piston? I tried prying with a screwdriver and it won't budge.

Should I try to drain the fluid first to release pressure?

Use a c clamp

This.

Works well. Wanted to take a picture for reference before I see if it pops back out when I take it off.

Al right! The stat in!

Pads successfully changed. Thanks!

Now I'll begin to change the oil.

Ok so to be honest the brake fluid in the bike is darker than the brake fluid in the bottle, which is for knows how old so I may leave it and focus on getting it running

I would take a picture of inside the resovoir but I checked it while the caliper was off, left it unscrewed, then when I put the clamp on it put pressure in the system and it almost overflowed.

So I don't really wanna take it off again to avoid getting it everywhere.

Ok so now for the part I'm kind of dreading.

When I put the battery in and turned the key I got no power.

So I decided I'd try the kickstart first, but it didn't turn over.

Assuming the battery was dead I tried to trickle charge it, so after a few hours I now took it off and tried again, but it didn't wanna turn over.

I tried the electric start once to see if there was any juice, and it clicked but didn't turn over. So my last resort method is to turn my charger on boost mode and just give er on the electric start. Usually itll crank over and start but all i get now is the fast clicking.

Does this mean my battery is fucked?

Pic of the battery.

I was having issues with it when I put it to say. And I'm sad to say once in a jam I boosted it off a car.

I probably answer this myself but did I fry my battery?

How old is the battery ? Is it possible that the electric start motor got soaked with water during a storm or something and is all corroded? Ahve you taken the bike apart to take a good look at the starter motor?

Posting from germany and to tired to watch for spelling mistakes

Ill excuse your spelling mistakes if you can excuse mine, and thanks for the input by the way.

I'm not 100% sure. I can't remember If i bought it last year or if its the one I got with the bike. And to be honest I think I was kind of hard on it.

But yes it is very possible it got soaked in a storm, and no I havnt taken it apart to check. I am a little scared to because I dont know what im getting myself into.

But the starter motor aside, shouldnt it work by kickstart even if the electric start is wrecked?

I've been wrenching on my 79' XS650 for about 4 years. #1 resource is www.xs650.com tech section. Literally EVERYTHING you ever need to know is buried in there. Also, buy a manual.

If the starter that I'm talking about, is rusted, then it doesnt have enough power to turn the motor over.

I have 2 ideas :

First : is there a big hill around you? You could push it up there, put it in 3rd/2nd gear and roll it down hill, jumpstarting it that way.

Or

Taking it apart piece by piece, and take photos of every little detail so you have an idea how to put it back together. Overall you can fix it if you just trust yourself and your common sense.

Probably right, I didn't remember so that's why I said to read up on it instead of saying something that might be wrong.
It should be enough to just change it, the old water will be absorbed by the old fluid.

In a case like that with something old and sketchy, I'd drain it dry, fill it with new fluid, pump that through to flush out the crap, then bleed it for real. Way easier than a car and only takes 20 minutes.

Oh yeah, I'd love to see some pictures if you got em and any advice from a seasoned owner is appreciated. AND YES the guy I bought it from open ed my eyes to all the websites dedicated to the bike, both parts and disscussions.

I have tried jumping it last year to no avail. 2nd I'm going to the battery depot now, gonna try the easiest fix first.

And yeah I think I'll go this route maybe...

Sounds like a bad ground somewhere. Check your grounds for corrosion and your connectors for loose wires and corrosion.

Your battery sounds to me like it probably needs replacing.
It has filler caps, so it's not a maintenance free battery and it needs to be maintained with battey acid. Possibly needs to be topped up.
If you're only going by electric starter, then it might be that the starter is broken(Or something related like a relay) but your battery is fine. Is there anything electric you can test? Like lights in the dash, the horn, etc.

This is all guessing because the battery is old and probably hasn't been used a lot?
To really have some more objective insight, you should measure the voltage coming from it.
Also I've had a battery charger tell me about a bad battery once, that helped me once but I don't suppose your charger does that.

Kickstart should work, but if it doesn't it's not very telling as to exactly what the problem is.
If you want to diagnose starting problems remember that an engine needs three things to start, compression, fuel and spark.

I've not worked on anything other than 2-stroke 50cc, but I think it should all apply.

>breaks
>breaks
>breaks
>breaks
>breaks
>breaks
IT'S BRAKES YOU FUCKING RETARD RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Ok so back from the battery depot with a brand new battery, the old one was 3 years old and totally dead, so I'm guessing it was that.

Apparently If you cannot fry your battery by boosting it with a car btw. Just don't leave the cables on.

I'll let you guys know how it goes in a second

I might be wrong, but I think you need to charge it first. Possibly even fill it with battery acid.

Started fist try boys!

Wish I could post a video so you could hear her

...

Congratulations, must feel great.
Does it run fine, does it respond to throttle?

So I took her for a rip down the alley, and she runs like a dream still. Only sad thing is I have no rear brake at all. I think when I took it apart I somhow either got air in the line or lost fluid. Either way that will be tommorow.

I want to thank you all for the help on this journey and hopefully the ones to come! It was a huge help even just being able to talk to people and kind of work out problems!

If you guys wanna ask questions, give input or just talk bikes I'll be around for a bit yet.

Yeah it does feel good! And it responds to throttle like it was already running and warmed up...

Kind of surprised I got it on first kick tho, I guess she was getting lonely

What is your plan now? I suppose there's still things to do before taking out on any serious rides?

Ah maybe, other than the brake it could use a oil change, and I need to mount the plate in pic related to cover the electrical, and i want to add butterfly nuts to these holes in the muffler (apperantly it gets power from backpressure and some butterfly nuts are enough to make it do wheelies) other than that it's ready to go.

A couple major things I want to do though are put in the permanent magnetic alternator, it will be only kickstart then and apparently reliable as he'll, and it will let me take off the bulky electric start and some of the ugly wiring harness along with the battery.

After that maybe a new transmission that will give me some more speed (havmt looked into what I need but it has trouble on highways)

And I wanna trade all the original brake levers and lines for something sleeker. Allot of the parts are from the 70s and ment for a cafe racer so the really don't go with the look I want.

Whoops forgot pic.

But so to go on sadly I can't drive anything until September due to my own stupidity. So my dad wants me to sell the old girl to get it out of the garage...even though I could use the money I don't really want to let her go, I think it'll make a great machine if I slim down the waste.

Aside from the fact it's pretty cool and one of a kind, it's also a antique. Where I live regular street bikes can be 3 grand to insure for the season, but I only pay 60 so that's a huge perk.

If I do manage to keep it, I want the engine area to look as clean as this guys, like no filler.