New here and new to XJs(motorcycles in general)

Hello everyone! I decided to buy a motorcycle the other day and after a couple weeks of craigslisting it I decided on a 1982 XJ550 Maxim. Never really driven a motorcycle before. I've messed around on a friends dirtbike but nothing to involved. I figured the 550 would be a good bike to learn on. The bike only has 4700 miles on it and looks fairly well. A couple dings in the tank but nothing bad. I am having trouble getting it started though. The guy I bought it from started it about ten times while I was at his house. Sounded great and we loaded it in first gear just fine. I think I need a new battery though. That or just needs to be charged. That's not the reason it's not starting though.

I'll post some pictures soon.

Thanks for a great forum. Looking forward to use this as a main XJ source.

Jazzaero

 

I purchased my 82 xj 650 and the first things I did were new plugs, air filter, oil change, and definetly new battery. I find that the bike needs a strong battery to turn it over.
If all this doesn't work and its not electrical you are looking at a carb synch with cleaning. You might be able to mist some starter fluid near the intake and the bike with fire and start burning some good fuel from the tank.

 

Welcome Jazz, sounds like a good low milage bike, try jump starting from your car (without the motor running) if the PO had it running it will run again, if the battery is low it will spin the motor but the spark will be weak, add that to the other little things that need a coat of looking at = no start = fouled plugs = pain in the tush.......

 

Welcome!

Before you even worry about running the bike, you need to CHECK THE REAR BRAKE for delamination. This is VERY important, and potentially dangerous; you can't go by feel it has to come apart and be inspected: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=15874.html

The above advice is right on; if the battery is even slightly low, the bike can turn over quite vigorously and yet not even try to fire the plugs.

Put the petcock on PRI until it starts, FRESH gas, NEW (as in brand new) plugs, FULLY CHARGED battery, full "choke" and fire it up. Ease the choke back as it warms up.

If you've "wet-fouled" the plugs trying to start it, you never will. Get new plugs, honest.

THEN READ EVERYTHING IN HERE: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=27544.html and get busy. I'd do a valve check/adjust straight off, chances are it's never been touched and if not, you're 1700 miles overdue on the intial (and most critical) service.

 

Awesome! Thanks everyone. Bought myself a battery charger/maintainer today. Charging the battery to make sure it will start. I think I will take the advice and get some new plugs, oil change, air filter, probably a new battery when I can afford it.

Thanks bigfitz52 for the brake info. I think I will check that soon. I wont be riding right off since there is snow everywhere but it's now on my first priority.

 

Get those valves checked! Let's don't ruin a low mileage motor by pretending the need will go away.

 

Will do Bigfitz. I bought myself a set of SAE/Metric sockets, torque wrench, Metric Allen wrenches, spark plug Gapper and soon a few more tools. Luckily I won $125 on the super bowl so it was all free! Since we have a lot of snow in Colorado at the moment(and more to come), I won't be riding anytime soon. I will however be doing some inspection and maintenance for the next couple weeks. I haven't read up on the valve check/adjustment just yet, but I will focus on that now. Is it very difficult to do? I am new to auto mechanics slightly but consider myself quite sharp when it comes to those things. I definitely don't want to take this bike to a shop if I don't have to. Rather use this as a learning experience, but I also don't want to muck anything up. I figure if I take my time I shall be good to go.