Stumped

[motormike]

Good Day fellow XS guys. Yup..been awhile.. but I'm preplex'd.. stump'd.. so I need to get some help from the XS Guru's.
subject:.. 75' XS.. runs well.. then 20 minutes or so... quits.. nothing... no lights.. no starter.. nothing... nothing electrical... wait.. 15-20 minutes... fires up and off it goes.. this has happened several times.
So... pleas put on yer think'n caps.
FYI:.. the old 650 guys still show up for Wild Cat in Westby, Wis (this weekend). The event itself and the group has been excommunicated by the 650 Yamaha Society. I'll attend .. again.. think it's my 25th year. Great roads.. good people.
I still help out at "marks650yamahas",, recently did a pair of Xs2 restorations (different clients). I still think the 72' is the best look'n in the series.
thanks guys.....

[preston]

sounds like a bad ground wire ? (my ground was bad at handle bar, and I ran new wire from frame to bar ) Maybe a defective Battery ...
short somewhere when hot, , and it sounds like circuit breaker relay, but our bikes do not have that. Preston

[motormike]

Owner said it runs well.. 20 minutes.. dies.. nothing..no lights.. nothing. We ck'd, clean'd the main battery ground.. it look'd fine.. rode it for 45 minutes.. first half no lights.. second half with lights... No problems. Ran great.
Gave it back to the owner... 65 miles into his ride.. dead.. nothing... Aaaaargh... I feel lousy ...like I let the guy down. Perhaps the stator get hot and shorts out.. ?.. test'n t cold wouldn't show this issue..?... I have a bar mounted voltage gauge I can hang on the h/bars... we'll take it out and about.. and watch what the needle tells us...

[preston]

I have a old stator from a 72 engine, but it looks tired. (if you want it for shipping cost from MD let me know)
and for what it is worth, any rotor will work... I just put a 1980 rotor, and used my 1975 stator, and gained a full extra volt... meaning I had to adjust regulator from 15.4 volts, down to 14. volts.
The newer stators will NOT work on older bikes. (i tried )
Could it be a bad condenser or coil ?
Please let us know what the issue is, just for the records.
Preston

[motormike]

AAAAArgh... got the bike.. took it to the shop...(50 miles from my door)... and I couldn't find the key.. had them in my pocket the night before... traced my route from pick'n up the bike the night before... No key..off to the Yamaha dealer..I got the key number... they don't have a blank... Aaargh.. call'd several key shops... "..sure, if you bring in the bike.."...... Grrrrrrrrrr... call'd one more shop... they can do it with the key number... great.. get there.. got two keys..$30.oo... back to the shop... ta Da.. so..$$ tank of gas.. $30.oo.... I'm not go'n to ask the shop for reimbursement.. my bad.
Just pick'd up the bike again... put the keys in the console of the little red truck... owner said.. runs great.. then it starts to cut in and out.no back fire.. and then quits.. nothing.. no lights.. nothing...also he states kick'n it over.. " it's like nothing is there..no compression."... wait 20 minutes.. bike fired straight away...
so.. tomorrow I'll mount my volt meter.. on the handle bars... and we'll ride it until it dies..keep'n a eye on the volt needle... the battery is new.. we'll ck the battery after it dies for voltage.. and have a spare battery in the little red trcuk....also.. I'll make a ground wire from the h/bar to the frame and have it on hand.. install it after the bike dies and see what happens.. I'm still lean'n towards a bad stato-rotor.. ?

[rikroc]

I had a similar problem years ago where the bike would shut down when hot, but I can't remember if I still had lights or not... Turned out to be a bad coil.

[motormike]

Pick'd up the bike....took it to the shop... we pull the h/light out... I find 3 wires that had iffy connectors..2 with slightly bare wire..no signs of over headed wires.. so I heat shrink everything.... the main fuse holder.. the ends that grabs the glass fuse seemed weak.. so we attend'd to that... ck'd all connections.. nothing jump'd out at us.. I did make a ground wire from the right bar switch to the headlight ground...even after a test with the ohm meter said nothing was amiss.
I mounted a analog volt meter to the h/bars and wired it to the battery... My partner fired the bike up and off we go... back roads... meter indicated everything proper... cycles up and down at the correct rpm's.. voltage at speed around 13-14..stopstart... had lunch..never miss'd a beat.. 65 mies.. No problem.
So I return the bike... explained to the owner... what we did and what..didn't happen... he fires it up and takes off.. a happy camper. I leave.. get home..only 8 blocks.. my cell phone rings.. it's the ..happy camper...
three blocks from home.. clutch cable snap'd... AAAAAAAAaaaargh..... the bike is evil.. demon machine.. I hope it didn't voo doo doo my pick up.
I had him order a new cable and bar levers.. install'd them... happy camper again... also told him to take it out for a long ride....we only did 65 miles....