Xr600 & xr650l aussie owners

The speedo was reading 15k before it stopped working. I couldn't convince the kids to tow me behind the car to clutch start it. One night I did get it running. Lots of airostart. Kicked it about 4300 times. Road it up the road at night with no lights, no brakes, no rego, no air in the front tyre, but it wouldn't idle and wouldn't run under half throttle. Anyway, I will be going cast iron liner, either fit one or buy a replacement barrel. I found an 86' xl600rmg crank and xr650L starter stuff. Once the engine runs i will get it registered and do the crf450 front end thing.

Hey Bluebox was that the one on the north side a couple of months ago . Think it said it had been drowned in the add. I called about it and it had just been sold. Dodged a bullet by the sound of it. Don't mean to rub salt in to the wound but I got mine registered this morning and took it for a getting to know you ride,was curious about fuel range with the stock fuel tank. And if it would be reliable . Didn't miss a beat all day,started first kick every time and I thought it was never going to run out of fuel. 60/40 dirt/tar ride. 170klm I put it on reserve, it ran out at 236 klm and I coasted in to a servo . How's that for luck? Put 11.5 Litres in , so that works out at 20k per L. I'm wondering if its a bit lean. It has a slip on pipe that looks like a staintune but has no brand on it. It was a darkish grey at the exhaust. Unleaded fuel usually runs black at the pipe doesn't it ?Not thick and sooty though. Pull the plug tomorrow for a look.

Hi Ian, that is great economy. I my xr250 gets about 13-14 km/L hiway and off road. The postie uses less than half that. The Gumtree ad for my 600 had no rear tyre on the bike in the photo. I don't remember the guy telling me that it had been drowned. All I did was check it had spark.

WTF, quoted Sundowner and it quoted a bmw rider from the US.

Excellent work Sundowner :

Ian, if you're not wringing its neck, but just cruising around, 20k/litre is about standard, mine did that economy with the std. carby almost regardless as long as I wasn't thrashing it. Deep sand and mud you can halve that with wheelspin. The Mikuni from Ballards I get 20 - 22k/litre riding the same.

..wow so mine must be running a bit rich based on that! I'm flat out getting 200km's on a standard tank full, that's 50/50 hard pack gravel and tar. Might have to check out my main jet size. Thanks for the heads up!

Hey OD, the main jet only comes into play really in the last 1/4 throttle, when you have it wide open. The std. tank is 10 litres, which is 200 k's at 20 kpl.

All I ever did with my old original carby was to drop the needle a notch, I picked up 2-3 kpl out of that change and got a bit crisper throttle response. It was too rich from standard in the midrange when I got it.

The needle affects the 1/4 to 3/4 throttle range, which is where mine spends most of its time just puttering about.

I'll drop the needle and see what happens, if it makes an improvement over what I currently have I'll be really impressed as I'm pretty damn happy with performance, If no one had said anything about consumption I would have been blissfully unaware . Mixture seems to be fine all the way through the rev range and on steady throttle, plus it starts real nice so I don't want to do too many changes to it, I'm too old to be doing 400 kicks to make it runThe bike has a staintune fitted so possibly theres been changes made to match that as well.

The bike I'm getting ready to build based on my 87 frame, well now that's a different story, we'll be going Mikuni I think on that one

I don't ride high in the revs, just ride the torque mainly. That ride was country roads and dirt roads mainly.So explains the good economy I guess.I remember when I was younger a mate and I both on 600's would get a bit over 100k's and we would both hit reserve usually very close to each other. That was more hill climbs and racing around forestry tracks though. I always thought they were 10 L tanks but I definitely put 11.5 in. Must be 10 +reserve.

Thanks mate. It was only from the help of yourself and the other excellent inmates here and over in the "Calling all Xr600" thread that I managed to prepare the bike to a good enough standard that it took anything the Safari course dished out (in never-ending portions). I'd never owned an XR until just prior to the event, so the help of everyone here is so greatly appreciated. Thankyou all.

I was going to sell it on Ebay, as I just don't have room to keep it, but now I'm going to hang on to it as it really is such a capable and fun bike to ride. The way I had her power-sliding around every corner all day long on the first day of Safari will remain in my memories forever.

Depending on how old it is, you might be better off replacing the needle and seat, as they do wear oval over time. I replaced the needle and seat on my XR6, made a huge difference to it, starts easily now when either hot or cold.

Hmmm thats a good point I'll check it out. By the way where does everyone get there part numbers from? Can I buy a parts book for example?

Oh and hey Sundowner did you use that cylinder head? If you still have it and don't need it I'm happy to buy it back.

Cheers

Bill

it might not hurt to look at the slide needle and the piece it runs in. honda calls it a needle and nozzle. poor idle and fuel economy is often cured by replacing these.

thumpertalk has an oem parts section. just put in make, year and model and it spits out the parts pictures. prices are ok too. i'm about to put in an order if you want to save on freight.

all this leads to my question. i'm rebuilding a '90 xr6 which i bought as a frame and some boxes of parts. i've got the frame together and now i'm looking at rebuilding the engine.

i've got it split, and it needs 2nd gear and a countershaft. i'm going to use the later one as apparently combined with the wider xr650r sprocket they last a lot better. it's getting all the bearings and seals etc.

it still has a nikasil barrel which looks good, so it'll get a piston, rings and a rod. (little end flogged. sigh) also a camchain and the tensioner.

is there any mods (mainly aimed at reliability and longevity.) worth doing while the donk is apart? it'll get a new stator (ricky stator?) and pulse generator. i have vague recollections about doing something to the oil pump?

I saw a you tube video of a guy who drilled out oil gallery's in the cam and head and fitted a high volume oil feed line up to the head. It feeds more oil to the far end of the cam . There is s place in Brisbane who recon my nikasil bore is repairable for $250. But I got into eBay and am waiting for a barrel with a cast iron liner to come from the states. It will cost $170aud with postage. I don't know what size it is but I will measure it when it comes. I hope its 93mm. Alternatively I will buy a piston. I still haven't been able to undo the cylinder bolts with the tools at my disposal. I have just been wasting time cleaning put the ports :)

Heya Wig mate whats the go with the XR 650 countershaft? is that a straight swap? The earlier Xr like ours have a courser spline which means they wear out quick. For my other bike build I was thinking of fitting a late xr600 one but if the 650 one is better I'll go that way. Nice bit of porting work Blue...but that combustion chamber looks a bit hard done by

i'm planning to use the later xr600 countershaft. apparently the xr650r sprocket has the same splines but is 3mm or so wider. meant to last forever.

the xr650l countershaft doesn't have the end piece needed for the kickstart idler. be careful!

I think the 1991-2000 xr600 countershaft has the fine spline so that you can use the extra wide xr650 sprocket.

I have to split mine to fit Ihe XL crankshaft. I will put bearings and seals in if my budget extends that far.

I might buy some enamal coated copper wire and do my own stater upgrade.

I bought a regulator from China for $11, stater solenoid for about $8.

I also got xr650l starter, starter clutch, ring gear, starter gears, and side cover.

And a new kill switch with a magic button on it.

When i get the cylinder bolts out I will split the cases. What special tools will i need. Is the a special nut on the clutch basket? I will buy a fly wheel puller.

bruce, i bought a bolt. if you were to give me your address, i'll send it down to you. is the xl600rmg crank longer on the stator end? i thought someone in this thread had gone electric start with just some bolt on 650L bits. no splitting required. hrc628? might be his username?

also, we still need to discuss your honda 90 cam. i'm still keen.

as another aside, not all stators seem to be created equal. my one doesn't really have any extra poles to wind more wire onto. i've seen pictures of the later model stators which had a heap of empty poles. dunno. maybe just use a 650L one?

The only reason for the e-start conversion is because I was not aware that the bore was cactus. Tried to start it for so long that I could walk the next day. So chances are I will fall off and not be capable to start it. You know what I ride like. This bike will probably put me in a box.

I did some research and read up what others have done to fit the e-start. I had already bought half the stuff before I found out that the crank is what makes it all work. The crank taper is further out on the xl600rmg crank. They are getting very hard to find. There was one in Germany but I had translation issues. I bought one from a guy in France but he refunded my money as he noticed it needed a new rod. I got this one from england. The guy wouldn't ship to Australia. So I ha to use a little old lady in Manchester as my agent. It was 49£ then it cost an extra 44£ to get to me. There needs to be space for the ring gear and starter clutch.

I will need to drill and tap out holes in the left hand engine case. I might also need to drill holes in my flywheel to mount the starter clutch.

The box with the starter stuff is heavy! So i will need to reduce the weight of some items. The crank is 7.1kgs on its own.

I will be happy to send that hot 90 cam that bent my postie bike valves. Maybe your bike already had a good stator fitted. I want 2 x 100watt windings to charger my start batter and to run spot lights and accessories. I hope I have spare empty poles. Apparently you can't use xr650L / NX650 stator because CDI excite voltage is different.

my stator looks craptacular output wise. one big bit for the cdi source, and 2 little bits either side. my left case has 3 holes tapped 8x1.25. i think to attach the tool for separating the cases. yours might be the same.

let me know if you want the flywheel puller anyway bruce. i'll send it down.

and also, honda parts direct is the cheapest i've found.