The XR400 Thread

[Rman237]

Originally Posted by Ed@Ford

do I assume the horn is running of 12 volt AC power, or do you have some sort of rectifier to make DC to run the horn? I have several other horns from other bikes...but all are DC...and do nothing on the power that goes and runs the XR headlight. And when you saw TW, I think you mean the fat tire Yamaha TW200.......

Oops, been on the road and haven't been checking in. The stator is rewound (BD) to provide AC to the headlight only, everything else is DC via the rectifier. The rewound stator has 4 leads, 2 go straight A/C to the headlight, 2 go to the rectifier for D/C ( blinkers, brakelight, horn, etc...). And yes, the 12V horn is from a Yamaha TW200, it was cheap at like $7. I pulled the horn off my TW to see if it would work and it did so I ordered one from.... someone? It works.

[Ed@Ford]

Originally Posted by Rman237

Oops, been on the road and haven't been checking in. The stator is rewound (BD) to provide AC to the headlight only, everything else is DC via the rectifier. The rewound stator has 4 leads, 2 go straight A/C to the headlight, 2 go to the rectifier for D/C ( blinkers, brakelight, horn, etc...). And yes, the 12V horn is from a Yamaha TW200, it was cheap at like $7. I pulled the horn off my TW to see if it would work and it did so I ordered one from.... someone? It works.

Great info about the 4 power leads from the rewound stator..but "BD"..??? watts? I had a 200W rewound stator on my XR250R, all with the stock leads....very wimpy wires for 200 watts..."BD's" rectifier? Maybe now I can have heated grips!

DUH!! BD = Baja Designs

[IronSpadeCycles]

Alright well last Friday night I finally got a chance to strip down my '01 XR400R for the first time since my submarine session about 6 months ago. While riding with a group of friends I accidentally found a 4ft deep mud bog in the middle of our usual riding spot after a weekend of 7-10" rain fall. I was thrown over the bars as the front wheel dove into the hole and after swimming to the side we fished out my swamped bike. With the help of a Polaris 900cc 4x4 I got the bike back to the parking lot and loaded her up while my friends continued to ride the rest of the afternoon. I was disgusted at my misfortune and knew there had to be a qt of muddy sludge inside my motor. I knew it would have to come completely apart before I could ride it again and since I was hoping for a 440 kit anyway, I figured I wasn't in too big a hurry.

So fast forward 6 months and I've got 3 weeks till I lead a group of other Texas riders on the East TX 450 and I thought I should probably jump in head first with the engine tear down and a new top end. I got the bike all apart Friday night and sure enough about 1/3 cup of muddy messy water was sitting on top of the piston and had dried but not before it had etched the cylinder liner and almost seized the piston in the bore. I know I was dumb for leaving it so long but it is what it is.

So then late Saturday night I ordered the Wiseco 11:1 440cc kit with a Hot Cams stage 3 cam From Procycle.com. I have a machine shop that I do regular business with that will press out the old liner, bore the jug and press in the new sleeve for $100 with a turn around of 1 day. If the kit ships tomorrow, I'll have it by Thursday and the jug at the Machine shop on Friday. I realize I might have to clearance the cases for the new larger liner to fit without problems. I'm also going to do a bit of port cleaning and re lap the valves while I'm in there.

How many of you guys have installed the 440cc kit? Are there any tricks I should know about? Also I happen to have a Mikuni TM38/85 that wasn't used on my XR600, does anyone think the 38mm carb will be too big for a 440 kit with a stage 3 cam? I have many years experience setting up Mikuni carbs so I'm not too concerned with getting it dialed but more concerned if I'm putting something on that is way too big.

Thanks in advance for your help. Talk soon, Travis.

[DrLewall]

My XR came with the 440 in it..it's served me well. But I can tell you, when I have to rebuild the 400, I will go 426 and not the 440..all the research I have done leans towards more reliability for the 426. The 440 tends to be hard on the head studs and cases..but as I have said, my 440 has worked pretty well for me so far. The only 'mod' I can suggest is the crf cam chain..it's beefier (4 row link as to the stock XR 3 row links) and cheaper than the stock chain

As for your carb, I see no issues..especially sing you kinda know how to tune em and all.

[hughrk]

Isnt the stage 3 cam for the 440 PLUS stroker crank?

+1 on my 400 came with a 440 kit installed but it will be rebuilt as 426 when it gets rebuilt.

I have a std barrel waiting to get bored for the 87mm piston and the 89mm barrel will likely go on the shelf as I think the head stud threads are pulled ever so slightly! GT Thunder head studs would be my choice it I was ever going to reuse this barrel or build a 440.

The std carb works fine jetted correctly with 440 kit, std cam, k&n, ground header welds and a free flow silencer (crf 450) for me that is.

[Rman237]

Originally Posted by Ed@Ford

Great info about the 4 power leads from the rewound stator..but "BD"..??? watts? I had a 200W rewound stator on my XR250R, all with the stock leads....very wimpy wires for 200 watts..."BD's" rectifier? Maybe now I can have heated grips!

DUH!! BD = Baja Designs

I would assume the wires coming off of the stator are about 14 gauge which should be fine for 200W. Don't get amps confused with watts, 200 amps would fry every wire on the bike. Take your 200W stator output (rewound) and divide it by 12V and you get about 17amps which is more than enough to support a few farkles. I wouldn't mind a set of heated grips in addition to a heated jacket and pants, I HATE COLD WEATHER!!!!!! As of now I use those hand/foot warmers they sell at the sporting goods stores, I stuff the hand warmers into the palm side of my gloves. Better than nothin'.

[Dexter2811]

Ironspade, this is my step by step tutorial I made for a site when I did my 440 cc. There was no need to make any modification in the cases.

http://www.foronx4.com.ar/index.php?topic=1470.0

Is in spanish, tho, but it has lots of pics.

[Rman237]

Originally Posted by DrLewall

My XR came with the 440 in it..it's served me well. But I can tell you, when I have to rebuild the 400, I will go 426 and not the 440..all the research I have done leans towards more reliability for the 426. The 440 tends to be hard on the head studs and cases..but as I have said, my 440 has worked pretty well for me so far. The only 'mod' I can suggest is the crf cam chain..it's beefier (4 row link as to the stock XR 3 row links) and cheaper than the stock chain

As for your carb, I see no issues..especially sing you kinda know how to tune em and all.

I've had the 440 kit installed for about 8yrs now and have had zero reliability issues, it just keeps going and going and....... Someone mentioned the stage 3 cam mod above ^, I did the stage 2 Hotcam as I seem to remember the stage 3 required the stainless rocker arm mod (???) and I didn't want to get too off of mfg specs for the reliability aspects. Some of the mods went hand in hand like the Powerbomb header, Powercore spark arrestor with the Mikuni pumper and airbox mods, imo I wouldn't do one without the other as they work very well together but the best bang for the buck was definitely the Mikuni pumper! This lil' bitch'l move!!

[Ed@Ford]

IRON SPADE:

I've got close to 5 years on my 11:1 XR440....not a lick of trouble. I had the piston fit and sleeve work done by Jesse Kientz....but he is getting pretty old so he's probably not available as a resource. I did all the assembling.
ONE ISSUE: The stock XR400 has an O-ring that fits at the bottom of the cylinder with the base gasket. If you assemble the 440 with that O-ring it pinches the base of the sleeve and the engine will not turn over...leave it out...everything is perfect...I put an EXTREMELY thin coating of red RTV on the base gasket for assembly....no hint of an oil leak

run premium, no problems starting, no knocking....if you have to use some regular, just don't lug it.

Also, some guys have commented that it is hard to kick start, and early 96 and 97 XR's had a skinny kick start shafts that have twisted off....maybe I'm lucky, mine ('96) is fine

[Rman237]

Originally Posted by Ed@Ford

run premium

Yes, run premium, that 440 piston will backfire like a shovelhead Harley on regular!!!! Wear your boots!

[IronSpadeCycles]

Cool thanks guys. Harold's Machine Service does all my work, he builds all the race motors for Wild West Honda and has always treated me right on over a dozen client projects. I had thought about the 426 kit but unfortunately at the hour I pulled the trigger I was a little foggy and went bigger to the 440 kit instead. You know go big or go home! Ha ha ha.

Thanks again. Rman, I'll see you in a few weeks.

Later Travis

[Rman237]

Originally Posted by IronSpadeCycles

Rman, I'll see you in a few weeks.

[IronSpadeCycles]

Does anyone know the reason Honda puts this part in the cylinder head? Other than the "take this out, put this back in" explanation in the Clymer manual, there is zero info on what it does or why its there. Does it have anything to do with the decompression cam? If I upgrade to the Hot Cam, can I leave it out? I found the spring but I think the plunger fell out somewhere between my bike and the truck when I took the parts to my shop to clean them in the ultrasonic parts washer. Right now I'm very frustrated as Bike Bandit doesn't even show the parts on their microfiche. Wow did I just use that word? Shows how old I am and how long I've been working on bikes. LOL

Anyway, the piston kit had to be ordered from Wiseco and then to the shop I'm buying it through, lame, and it won't ship to me till tomorrow at the soonest so I guess I will be at Harold's on Monday or Tuesday with a handful of parts. I would really like to get the bike running and dialed before I ride it for 500 miles on the 12-14th of October.

Thanks again guys. Talk soon, Travis

[Dexter2811]

I guess you are talking about the spring and plunger that seats in the head, right? If so, that's part of the auto decomp, so you can take it out when using a Hotcams.

[SpeedoJosh]

Looking to outfit my handle bars and getting some hand guards as well. Was thinking Acerbis guards, and maybe some tag bars. Going to be running a scotts with a billet triple.

Any recommendations?