Hey thanks for the responses. Going to be ordering another set of sprockets and a chain during the winter as well as one of those keyed switches.
On my XR I added one of these in the left side of the headlight plastic. I wired it in line with the kill button so when the key is off/ out the bike won't start. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Key-IGNITIO...Parts_Accessories&hash=item19d09dec76&vxp=mtr You can see the key (with a red zip tie attached) in this picture.
Yesterday got the swing arm bolt drilled out in far enough that the engine and swing arm is "free" from the frame. Cheap step drills from Harbor freight and some turned down shank 9/16 allowed me to drill out each end of the SA bolt. Today I stripped off everything that connects to the engine and the swing arm. A couple bounces and what was left of the tissue paper thick SA bolt just ripped and it's free. Gonna strap the frame my platform ATV jack and see how much the engine will move up and forward and tilt to the side to weasel the engine+swing arm out of the frame. If it does, I'll consider it an act of God. I think the sawzall will have to come to the rescue and "shorten" the swing arm. Fortunately I bought a used one. That's followed by the treat of getting the SA bolt out of the ass end of the crankcase. No pix though
Some will say 2 nightmares.....swingarm bolt, and the re-election last night. At least I have control over the XR400!
Well, I weaseled the engine out of the frame with the swing arm attached....I was amazed it was possible. Now after buzzing thru a bunch of sawzall blades sawing the swingarm into bits, I have an engine with the axle frozen in the tube thru the back end of the crankcase, with the two hardened steel bushings that slide thru the 4 roller bearings that ride in the swing arm. The cast part of the aluminum swingarm must be some massively high silicon alloy....it ruined 3 Milwaukee not so cheap metal blades. The cold reality so far is that even though the swingarmbolt is frozen in the engine... the frikkin bike (1996) would probably have been rideable for another 17 years, as the bearings were greased, no rust. Shoulda left the pig alone!! Gotta fix it now, or sell it piecemeal. At least I have a good used swingarm, and have only a few bits that need replacing.
Those with some major rise to their bars, what did you do about too short clutch cable length? Mainly what length do I need? Maybe, who raised how?
knock on wood! I have had my 96 since 98..and I have NEVER replaced any of the cables..I have serviced them, but never replaced them, and here lately, I been thinking abt my clucth cable..
I went a little over +3 on the bars, with stock cables. Rotate the throttle tube down, and re-route the clutch cable so it goes behind the triple clamp, not in front. That's barely visible in the picture under the tank vent hose and to the left of the left riser. Later, I swapped out the whole clutch + decomp perch and cables with ones from a KTM LC4. I had to do a bit of bracket fabbing but the pull is much smoother and it gets rid of the separate decomp perch on the bars.
looks good, ill give it a go when i get home if i can. iirc the throttles were ok, but the clutch and decomp were getting close to max. cant remember if i routed behind the triple though
@Ed In stock form that tank bag isn't so hot. Got it here: http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p/43/-/338/1150/-/-/46188/Tusk-Tank-Bag-Black The tank side is cordura nylon, which I figured would scuff up the tank. Since I'm a tad OCD about keeping my bike as clean as possible I sewed a microfiber cloth to the underside. Still has the problem of no straps going under the tank so that's the current project. It's okay if there's fairly heavy stuff in the bags but if they're too light they flip up onto my legs while I ride. Its incredibly annoying. Here's another shot:
Yup...exactly the issue I encountered....I ended up sewing a couple of "D" rings on the lower inner front corners of the bag, and lash it with some small diameter bungie stretch cord from the boat store not wonderful...just functional...and being OCD is OK too
I was able to weasel the engine with the swing arm attached out the right hand side of the frame. Had to cut up the swing arm though...and the alloy in the cast part of the swing arm must have loads of silicon....ate 3 sawzall blades and slashed it up like Doc did Followed most of Dr. Lewall's guidelines after that....to get the last bit of bolt out of the rear of the crankcase required HEAT...especially on the steel bushing in the rear of the crankcase on the sprocket side....serious rust...once it moved a tad, I soaked it with aerokroil, then polished the part of the bolt that gets exposed when pounding it back and forth....back and forth, juice it up...pound some more...and it was out and done in 15 minutes or so Talk about relieved. Thanks Doc L for documenting his repair process.
