First on the list was some electrical problems, which originally started with a burned out alternator and shortly after the reg/rect unit gave in and only worked on first two and then a single phase, which made it weirdly difficult to troubleshoot as the voltage was going up, but it didn't really push out a lot of current.
As I wanted to fix this as quickly as possible, I picked up a very cheap r/r unit, which had a burnt plug. (I also ordered a new one from China, to have a good spare for the future.) After a quick test on the bike it proved to be working, so next was to replace the molten 6-pin connector. Unfortunately this isn't anything unusual, normally coming from a combination of dirty connectors, which are loose on their counterparts.
The thing that I somewhat worried the most about, was the fact that the r/r unit sits on the bottom of the battery tray, which not only is a lot of work to get to, I was absolutely sure nobody had touch those bolts in QUITE a few years.
To my great surprise they came out fairly easily and after a few rust-touch ups everything went together.
And then finally, the bike is charging as it should, pumping out a healthy 14V at idle into a rather empty battery. From here onwards the charging side of things hasn't given me any more headache since Spring (yet).
Next step was to clean off the protective grease and get her ready for the annual road-worthyness inspection. And a dirty girl she was.
(This level of shinyness is most likely unhealthy, at the very least it feels rather odd to me... Still nice to see that the protective grease did its job.)
Still the bike wasn't exactly performing to the fullest. Hanging idle, not starting up very well at times, sometimes backfiring like it was going out of style.
There were two reasons, another coil had rather quietly left the scene and decided to die and the other was the fact that after an unknown mileage the bob-weights of the ignition advancer had worn itself out so far that the ignition advance was wandering around at least 3-4 degrees at idle.
If that ain't a weak spark, I don't know what is.
The solution to the second problem came on the very last models of the XS Triple and was only available in the states in 1983 or 84. A fully electronic ignition with no moving parts that can wear out.
Unfornately the slot on the rotor was seriously mangled, so it had to be welded up and then filed back to the stock size.
Just for comparision that's the first version of the electronic ignition with the mechanical advancer.
Nothing improves reliability like a fresh coat of paint. (And a front mudguard that doesn't rub on the front tyre...)
When swapping tyres for the roadworthyness-inspection, I discovered a slightly odd looking rear shock...
So a "new" set of Konis was procured, but they needed some modifications to prevent this from happening. (Who knew that the correct Konis had a bushing in the right lower shock mount as there's a smaller diameter bolt going through...)
Aside from a new set of needles and subsequent multiple attempts at re-jetting this is pretty much what happened to the old girl. A new set of SE-clocks and upper triples, a new exhaust and some more patching up on the sidecar is still due, but other than that it seems like we're in good shape by now. (Also I may try to officially get the sidecar brake removed from the paper-work as it just an incredibly heavy anchor that is insanely overpowered considering that I mostly ride around alone.)
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