Brand New To Me

A very nice feoolw at work gave me his 1980 XJ650. New to me, but replaces the XS650 that I had thirteen years ago...

So, it started a little rough after havig sat for two years (the gas was stabalized but old) It was having a hard time revving and I needed to move it out of his driveway, so once started, we tightened up the idle adjustment to get it to idle at 2k.

Now, it is in the parking lot, and won't start. It started yesterday and it started this morning. But not now. It smells of gas. And it does not want to turn over even when attached to an external battery.

Any advice would be apprciated.

-HoserT

 

Blown "Main" fuse? Located under the seat. No nothing or a weak starting sound?

 

The XJs have a safety interlock system that prevent them from starting if the sidestand is down with the bike in gear (among other parameters.) It also will kill the motor if you pull in the clutch with the stand down. A mulfunctioning sidestand switch often causes this issue, as does a faulty neutral switch, flaky relay, or problems with the fuses and the fuse box in general. You may have a broken or cracked fuse holder (I did) or a sidestand switch issue (mine is currently bypassed.)

 

Very good, I will check those. After telling the folks here I posted my problem, they suggested I go over this morning's ordeal in more detail.

The bike only ran with the choke full open. Everytime we closed the choke, the bike would start to stall. Additinally, it was running rich.

Lastly, and I think it might rule out the two solutions above, we tried to fire it up a half hour ago and "BOOM" it backfired to beat the band, but still failed to start.

-HoserT

 

the throttle and choke cable arent switched around are they? the choke ant really a choke its a fule inrechment valve., have you tried starting fluid? really sweet seat i wish i had one like that with the sissy bar

 

Lucky to get a free running bike wish someone would give me one. ahah

 

wait, do all xj's have a sidestand switch, cuz mine runs with it down and not in neutral, ive taken off with it down and go to lean and i hear ggrrrnnt, and im like wtf, oh dumb@$$

 

schooter -- just a request, but could you try using more words? I had to read that last post four times -- haha!

 

So, it started a little rough after havig sat for two years (the gas was stabalized but old) It was having a hard time revving and I needed to move it out of his driveway, so once started, we tightened up the idle adjustment to get it to idle at 2k.

Now, it is in the parking lot, and won't start. It started yesterday and it started this morning. But not now. It smells of gas.


Have you considered "un-tightening" the idle adjustment?
Drain the old gas, put on a temporary inline fuel filter, put in new gas, install new plugs. A good place to start for not much money.

Oh by the way I'm tight with a dollar, so this is my 1 cents worth of advice.

 

Agreed. Two year old gas isn't going to cut it. Try carb spray in the air box to get it started after you get new gas in the tank. In the new tank try putting some seafoam in to clean up the carbs a bit to see if that smooths it out or not once you do get it running (will take some time, do a search on the forums for proper use of seafoam). Otherwise, you're going to need to pull the carbs for cleaning.

 

Possibility 1 and most likely. Check to see that your cylinders are not full of gas. I was working on a bike and the petcock was stuck in prime. The cylinders filled with fuel, and darned if the thing didn't want to compress 700cc's of liquid gas. Pull your plugs and make sure no valueables are nearby. If those jugs are filled with gas, you're going to have a mess when you turn the engine over. Also, you'll want to air the cylinders out a bit after you get that gas out....and change your oil.

Possibility 2. I'm working on an XJ 750 seca, and was having starter 'click' but no turnover issues. Turns out, that the starter solenoid wire was bad, so I was getting a partial connection, but not enough current to trip the relay to turn over the starter. Maybe wiggle the soleniod wires when trying to turn the bike over. You can also check to make sure your ground strap has a clean connection.