Honda XL500 a Waste of My Time and Money?

Look at the last post.

Hi Guys.. jist wrote out a Long an winded post, only when a went tae try an post a pic.. i clicked the photos orange link above.. an all dissapeared.... phew......!!!!!!!!!!!

,, cheers

I recently acquired what I was told was a 1981 XR500. Upon investigation it is a 82 XL500. The previous owner painted it OD green and kinda made it up to suit his taste, but I am in the process of turning it into a fun trail bike. Just installed a set of 1984 CR250 forks, and am hoping to find a bolt on shock to match and even out the ride height. The 250 forks are 1-3/4" taller than stock. I am also in need of an airbox, side covers and possibly a nice tank. Thoroughly enjoyed going through all of this thread. I was going to post a pic, but don't see where I can attatch one.

uneasy rider.. how ye doin... in my post above yours,, i too was looking how to post a pic, but I couldnt do it,, but what I found out was you need to copy the url from a picture site, then paste it in yer wording... the picture i was trying to post was a 1981 xl 500s....me

Hey sorry to bump the thread like this. Been trying to make threads to find our more. Anyone know where I can get a cheap idiot light cluster. All the OEM parts are F8ing discontinued I just need something to pass brake and light inspection. Im almost done putting this mess back together I got this thing on trade, but all the lights and blinkers and ignition were missing. But still had the wiring harness but with all the plugs cut off. So I got a baja designs kit, just missing a few more thinggs. Any suggestions? Can t wait to ride this bike!

Before you start shopping, be sure of the voltage of your system.

I don't know about later years, but the first year (1979) was 6 volt.

be sure on your year for the voltage but you can pick one on on Ebay fairly cheep, all they had was a amber one for the turn sigs a green for neutral and a blue for high beam. you might could find something at a autoparts store. or some of the dash lights out of a quad dash, i know my yamaha raptor has a blue one, hondas in the 90s and 2000s have green and red. all the need is a plate with holds the right size to stick through, you can change the bulbs out to 6 or 12 volts and you can get those at any autoparts store.

but look at any honda XL dash, you should be able to adapt them to it.

Thanks guys, the bike is a 1982 honda xl500r from what I am seeing it is a one year only bike.


I actually bought a 1974 honda cb450 dash for 14 bucks off ebay. I figure if the bulbs are for a 6 volt system I can always just change them out.

All the other stuff is pricy, well at least for me. The brake and light guy said you can make one with LED's if you have to. All it needs to have to pass is a turn signal indicator, and blue high been indicator light, pretty saweeet!

Oh by the way in my journey I found out how to search craigslist all at once rather than going from state to state city by city.

www.adhuntr.com lets you search all craigslist for something specific.

Really helpfull, if anyone is from ventura county hit me up! almost on the road!

Is your bike a RFVC dry sump engine? If so your correct about it being a one year only model. It actually has more in common with the later xr600 than the earlier Xl500. and that may be a direction to look for indicator lights and other bits.

I forgot to add that all the wet sump xl/xr 500 bikes are all 6v, however the same motor in the Ascot was 12v

I have wondered whether you could convert to 12V just by changing the regulator, battery, and bulbs.

With the ignition being separate, and lacking a starter, and modern electronics, it seems like it should work.

the 82 dash is shared with almost all the XLs after it, so if you want something that will look right, look at any Xl250 350 or 600 through the 80's that are almost exactly the same,

Thanks for that link, it is now bookmarked. Hey, I just bought a new thumper and my 82 XL500r is probably going to go up for sale soon. I'm in AZ, anybody interested?

Here is my world of fun!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1982-Honda-...Parts_Accessories&hash=item589efcdd8a&vxp=mtr

anyone have this that can scan the schematic for me? I have some questions.

Alright before making a new thread I figured I would ask here...

Last spring I purchased a 79' Xl500 for $375 in Enumclaw WA. The bike was a little beat up but all there mechanically. The ad listed it as "running good" but when I came to buy it they couldn't keep it running without any throttle. No big deal I thought, so I went ahead and bought it. Upon bringing it home and tinkering with it I discovered that it had a sticky throttle valve but other than that the carb seemed to be brand new inside, absolutely spotless. I am pretty far from and expert, and this being my first bike I decided to just replace the whole carburetor unit. I purchased a Mikuni VM36 carb to replace the stock Keihin unit and with a bit of modification to the intake boot she fired right up. The bike ran seemingly well at the time, maybe a little rich, but it worked which was fine with me.
TL/DR: Got a pretty good deal I think.

Now the problem:
Fast forward to the end of summer. I began to notice the bike didn't run as well, becoming hard to start which eventually progressed to once it warmed up it would die out completely, making it unrideable. After a while it wouldn't even start at all. I poked around a bit and discovered my ignition coil was cracked so I replaced it with a unit from amazon. Once I replaced it I verified I was getting spark then put it all back together. At this point the bike did run again but still died once it warmed up. OK, so now I figure the carb must be out of adjustment (has spark, compression and proper timing). The carb supposedly shipped with a number 35 pilot jet installed so I figure with the changing seasons maybe that has had an effect on the tuning. So I order a #30 pilot jet thinking im running too rich. Once I installed it the bike fired right up without any choke but was revving super high. Even with the mixture screw all the way in and the idle adjustment all the way out it was still way higher than it should have been, leading me to think it was way too lean. Okay so I'll just get a #32.5 jet then? Well I installed that and got the same result as the #30 Pilot jet but not as extreme, an unadjustable extreme idle. Frustrated as a last ditch effort I threw the factory #35 jet back in and just like before, no start. I Really like this bike but I'm at my wits end with my limited knowledge.
TL/DR: #32.5 Pilot jet too lean? #35 too rich?

Sorry for the novel but I'm out of ideas with this bike!
Any help is much appreciated!

Is the #35 plugged? Can you see through it?
Try shooting carb clean and compressed air through it.

I don't know how the fuel is where you're at but here, the ethanol crap goes bad in short order.
A lot of times the jet will look clean but it's actually blocked by residue from the fuel.

Something to look at anyhow.

http://www.hondaxl.it/download/Manuali/90_100_HondaXL400R_XL500R.pdf

Sounds as it could be some "false air " -> try to spray some brake cleaner or similar to teh intake-system of carburator/intake-snorkel/airfilter, if the revs are changing, you have look for a leak an dseal it.

Check your stator.