New 86 xt600 owner
 

Just picked up a 1986 xt600 for $450. Missing lights and gauges but good runner.

First I plan to go over the electric system. Then add all light back on. But at same time I plane to modify it to use the 95-02 plastics,tank and seat. As I plan to install a larger aftermarket 5+ gallon tank. While doing that I will send the carbs to be rebuilt.

My plan is a reliable. Go anywhere bug out bike capable of 80+. And at least 250 miles.

Any helpful ideas welcome!

So far...bike leaked oil really bad.....stator cover was cracked and welded in past. Pulled it and found it was fine but had no gasket. Added gasket cleaned up and replaced. Found out oil leak was from crack in block from impact that damaged side cover. Cleaned and repaired crack. No more leaks. Replaced right side cover gasket aswell.

Handle bars bent. Ordered new ones.

Parts ordered so far. All are OEM where possible...
Ignition switch.
Oil
Oil filter
Clutch and brake levers.
Gasket set.


Basically get it running right and back you factory then do upgrades

A picture would tell a lot on how the bike has been treated, c'mon, dont be shy, we surely seen worse :)



From the 5 gallon tank thing and going 80mph sounds that you are going to put that thing through it's paces a bit. Nice, but with a bike that sounds like it had a rough history (how many miles without seeing the gauges?) i would do a full engine dismantle and check even before seeing how well it runs. For instance, gearboxes are not the strongest point in these bikes and you dont really want to get caught out in middle of nowhere.



Leave $$$ too for a steering/swingarm bearings, full front suspension rebuild and an after market shock, stock rear is not really rebuildable.


just my 2 cents of course...

What country you located in ? Can help with recommendations or possible parts sources . The newer plastics and tank is quite different and will need a lot of work to mount on the older frame .

Cant get pics to upload. But more info..

Just pulled clutch cover, same as stator, no gasket. Decompression cable broke. Waiting on new gaskets then will fix. Also just ordered new cable.

I am located in spring city tn.

Also anybody have pics of the stock swing arm? Was told it was replaced with aftermarket

I did pick up a speedo and headlight assembly with wiring and everything off of a 93 xt250. Lines up fine but will it work on the 600? Other then shape of the headlight itself the only difference I saw was that the speedo says 80 where as the xt600 speedo whent to 100.

Anybody know if it will work?

Here are the pics I do have

And the pics from the Facebook ad

your bike has the stock swingarm, so already 1st lie by seller :)


nice bike, even if a bit rough, surely needs quite a bit of TLC.



if you just want to make it a "runner" & ride around till it breaks, then sure, just some gaskets, cables, oil and a filter will do.


If you plan to rely on it for serious trips, take it apart completely, note all the stuff you need to order and get it all in one go.



Sure you can add an Acerbis big tank made for that model.
But for for the rest, I agree with JJ, stick to stock body parts unless you want to start welding new ears and tabs in the frame

If you can find me a Acerbis tank plz do because I cant. I'm happy with a used tank. I haven't been able to find one so I planned to replace everything

As far as the swingarm.....guy only had it for like a month. Got it in trade for fixing a tractor. But owell.

i think that finding one in US would be quite mission imposible. 600s sold like ten times more in europe. would try italian, german, french ebay.



post "wanted" in adventure forums, HUBB has a section too






side panels would be easier to find and seat can be upholstered




google translate is your friend

Lol. I just sent an email to a Ebay ad in France for a harness

A European harness will be different than US harness . They'll have a few wires for different things , it'll be for E-start of which yours isn't , won't be usable unless you swap in a 3tb motor and all electrics for the starter , 3tb CDI/TCI(I did this on one of mine, lots of work) . For a little bigger tank Clark does still make a 4.0 gal for the '80's XT600's, I recently bought a black one . A little more than stock at least . With the oil tank in frame on the newer models ,fitting one of those tanks will take quite a bit of fabbing . You'll never find an Acerbis tank here in the US , more likely to see a bigfoot .

The XT250 speedometer will work , the 600 can go faster than the 80mph though thus why theirs have a higher numbering .

I found a harness a few states over for sale. It's from a 85. So I bought it as it was only $45 shipped.

Just got new grips and bars. Controls and chain. Levers. And new throttle tube and various other parts will arrive today.

I welded the homemade frame for skid plate. Welded the frame where rear. Brake lever mount bolts to. So now waiting on new ignition. Left side switches, and main harness.

have no idea if it fits, sounds like it should, maybe some members can tell


https://www.ebay.it/itm/Serbatoio-Ac...53.m1438.l2649

Offer made!

ask for a shipping quote.... might be crazy

I did. He replied that he would find out. If I can come in under 150 I'm happy

Tank bought and on it's way. Total with shipping was $105usd

So I need fast help. New harness and ignition is in al set to test fire.....then found a fuel leak...bottom of carb bowl. What do I do with this part?

Seen in pic. The spot I'm pointing at.....




Never mind figured it out......but the needle dosent stick...and it still leaks

Also I looked at Yamaha for the fuel bowl gasket and it showed a flat gasket. Not a rubber oring style.

Is it ok to use a standard flat style gasket?

Also should this piston move?

yes, piston should move :)

take no offense, but if you are asking that then i think you are going to face a serious challenge in this rebuild....


as for the leak, it looks like you need an o-ring, part number 22 in the list


https://www.ronayers.com/oemparts/a/...e27/carburetor

Ty. I'm ordering a rebuild kit now. Soaked carb in diesel and was able to remove piston. Cleaned it up with scotch brite pad. Now it works as it should. So just need new gaskets and should be ok.

Wow........just wow....more I fix more I find wrong.

Chain rubbing frame and swing arm, reason...chain guide missing. Ordered new one.

Cost so far:
Chain guide $45
Chain $90
Plug $3.50
Gauges $50
Bars $70
Grips $10
Desert tank $105
Throttle tube $15
Left side controls $30
Levers and hardware $50
Wiring harness $45
Ignition $35
New fuel lines $20....bought extra
Oil change $40
Various other small parts and gaskets $100
Cost of bike $450
Trailer and fuel to get bike $50


Still to buy.
Battery $?
Re do seat $75
Tires $?
Tubes $?
Racelight headlight $?

Total so far $1208.50

And now carb trouble

Well good news. She lives. Now to get carbs rebuilt.

Painted motor and frame. Ordered air box. Blinkers I stalled on rear. Waiting o. Headlight. Desert tank arrives the 22nd. Brakes hooked back up.

Everything is wired up. Gotta order horn. Buy a flasher and I stall. Then waiting on headlight. But everything else is wired in and ready for the new battery tomorrow

Video or it didnt happen!


And you owe me a beer for that tank tip ;)

When I pull it out tomorrow to install battery and stuff I will take pics.

Sorry guys no pics. Went to ride it and no spark. Got pisses and put it away.

Few things I need help with...

Neutral switch bypass.
Side stand bypass....done

Test coil, cdi and rectifier.
Needs specs and help on how to do it. Also specs and how to for testing the stator.

Tank arrived.....it hits the head on left side..? I'm thinking I'll heat it with a heat gun and carefully bend it on inside.

Coil craped out.

Carb kit ordered. New coil. Carb mounts

Headlight mounted and wired. Ordered peacocks and new cap for acerbis tank. Carb kit arrives thursday.

Blinkers fixed...had to order led flasher
Ordered new peacocks and cap for tank just waiting on jet to ship them. Said next week I'll have them. Then I will mount the new tank.

Headlight mounted and aimed.

New brake switches arrived just gotta put them on.

Mo day I will get the steel to build the pannier racks. Also I will order the 20mm ammo cans I will be using for them.

Need to repair rear fender and mount taillight today.

Pics today hopefully.

Also have to trim seat so fits new tank.

Here you go guys. Just trimmed the seat and foam to fit new tank.

Getting ready to order new vinly and foam to reduce the seat myself

neat
seat top looks kind of rough
to reshape it use a normal metal grinding disc on an angle grinder
works a treat, just be careful to secure the foam to something solid
i usually upholster my seats with a piece of vinyl that i buy by the yard.
i cut a rough shape and attach it to the base with clothespins, leave under sun, it will preshape the vinyl nicely
then get a staple gun to attach the vinyl to the plastic base.
dont know your MY, if its a metal base it's trickier, youll have to use contact glue

86. Plastic base. I'll reshape for the gel pad. Then I am going g to use slip stop vinly. I'll be using stainless staples also

Need help guys. My bike has a 12/42 setup. Rear is easy to fix. But someone welded the front sprocket on. Ideas on how to fix it? I want 80mph top speed min. It will be used mostly on road

Here is a pic of the front sprocket

I am looking at grinding off the welds and weld a new proper socket on

whoever did that welding should have his hands cut off.


Why do you want to repeat the same disaster and not repair properly?


Even if you put a new output seal the welding heat is going to burn the seal lips on the shat for sure, it's an oil leak just waiting to happen.


take the engine apart, send the shaft to a pro to have a threaded part welded to it and this will let you change sprockets also in the future.


shaft is going to loose plenty of it's heat treatment/strenght so obviously best would be to get a used one.



what you want to repeat is such a bodge that i have no words for it.

Only reason for welding a new 15 on the front is so I dont have to crack the case. I'm 1500 into a $400 bike. I'd rather weld a new sprocket on....very carefully. And run it for 6montsh till I can buy an electric start motor to swap in.

But the tooth count explains why it will wheelie in 4 gears

- sounds rude but generally true. doing such thing primarily indicates how one dislikes a bike, i.e. doesn't deserves to ride it, i.e, no need of hands : )

Is there any possible 12-teethed sprocket which fits on xt600's?
point is that despite that heat damage during welding is somehow preventable, you will be lucky if after removal of the old sprocket you will have shaft end usable for attaching new sprocket - at least from the point of view of centering or perpendicularity..

"imho" is related to the upper part of this post but no further of this point - short term, and sometimes even "non-long term" solutions are reasonably expensive at the end...

carefully would mean in my book taking an hour break for every ten seconds of welding so heat gets dissipated.

my guess is that the thing got welded on because the splines on shaft got mangled, so it will need to be a pretty hefty weld to pass the drive torque, not just keep the thing in place.



Good luck

https://youtu.be/RtLU87Oar6I


https://youtu.be/OxG1sw-0Tac


First vid is orange wire to coil from cdi. That is the highest reading I could get.

Second is white wire off stator. Both wires showed same

As you can imagine...no spark..even with new coil.

Stator showed 25.7 on red wire. Pick up coils showed 120-115ohms. Right where they should be

It was very hard to start before...so I'm thinking new cdi

The old XT cdi actually went out quite often and was a known issue by Yamaha. They even put out test specs for the cdi, which is pretty much unheard of to have test specs for a cdi. Even then the test wasn't always conclusive. the coil on a bike rarely ever goes out. It will be your stator pickup/pulsar or the source coil, or it will be the CDI. I have a performance CDI I would sell if interested. never installed it. Ended up converting to e start and TCI right after I bought it years ago. Been sitting in my tool box ever since.

For your seat cover, there is a Chinese company on ebay that sells an exact replica for the XT600 seat cover. I purchase and installed a couple years ago and it's been awesome!

I may be interested in the cdi. Can you PM me info and price?