'82 Maxim ran yesterday, not today

HI, new to the forums here, I've been searching around old posts recently.
Seems like a lot of knowledgeable folks here and maybe I can get some help. I thought I had it licked, but here's my story:

A friend has an 82 maxim 750 that was pretty much unridden the last couple of years.
Last season he says he got it started but only went to the end of the block, it wouldn't idle and was stalling.
I've got some free time and it sounded like it needed a good carb cleaning, he offered to pay me, so I said I'd take a crack at it.
Pulled the carbs and they were filthy, gunky, varnished and whatever you could imagine.
So I removed and cleaned the jets (2 of the pilots I couldn't get clean, so I replaced them), float valve and the mixture screw(reinstlled 3 turns out) and pieces.
One extra bad thing I found was a busted off float stanchion, I glued it with gas resistant epoxy...

Anyway, put the carbs back on the bike, new battery and fresh gas,
it fires up pretty quick with just partial choke, barely wanted to idle, but got it good and warm and it would idle.
Things weren't quite right though, it seemed lean, blip the throttle and the rpms would hang around 2k+ then slowly come back down.
Burned my knuckles a bit and turned the mixture screws out another half a turn or so, but with only slight improvement.
By this time the bike was getting pretty hot and I was hungry and didn't have anything handy to check for vacuum leaks so I decided to pack it in.

Returned today and the dang thing won't start. It fired a little bit with partial or no choke or if I put the petcock on prime and let it sit for a few minutes...

Anyhow...are there any particular XJ foibles or traits that my help with trouble shooting?
Many thanks in advance, and just putting it all down lioke this is helping me see it a little more clearly...

-Mike

 

I just saw this thread: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=150.html
starter brushes? hmmm,
the spark did look a little weak.

 

Welcome Mike, sounds like you are pretty handy with the machine. Your off to a good start. I'm not a carb guru but as luck would have it, we have a few geniuses here (MiCarl, are you listening in on this part?). Checking the alternator brushes would be a very wise thing to do as well. As Rick likes to point out, short brushes cause a great many gremlins and are easily squashed.
Hang on, I think someone is trying to post...

 

Hey thanks, I'll look around the board for related posts and check it out as well.
I appreciate shortcuts to finding gremlins.

 

The things we can't check-out doing the email fixes is:
Air, fuel or spark.
We hop on Fuel because the Carbs are easy targets and they do require being more than close to make the bike run good.
Electrical will cripple the show and blame everything else; so we are having everyone replace the Fuse Panels.

If the Spark Plugs ARE firing ... the carbs need work.
If there's NO Spark ... we'll have to shake-down why.

Eyeball the Alternator Brushes.
The MAIN Fuse.
Charge the Battery and Short-across the Solenoid to see if the Starter will spin.
If the Starter goes ...
UnPlug the Safety Relay ... under the tank, hanging under the frame, between the Tank Securing Bolt and the Turn Signal Flasher.

Turn the Key ON and give the Solenoid another Short-across.

If the Bike Starts ... you have to shake-down the Safety Circuit Gremlin.
Side-stand switch.
Kill switch.
Clutch lever switch.

 

I hate to bear bad news, but the xj I bought the PO epoxied the float stanchion. It was all flaked off, stuck in main jet and plugged enrichening jet. Like my old man always said, if your gonna fix it , fix it right.

I have extra carb body if you want it .

 

OK. So far the starter has always been operational, and the new battery is fully charged.
I started it again yesterday, not using the choke, in fact, operating the choke lever while it was running had a negative effect, like it was going to die.
So I warmed it up good with a little throttle, about 5 or 10 minutes,after that point using the choke would increase the engine speed.

Rode it around a little bit but the RPMs are still hanging, let off the throttle and it takes a few seconds for the engine speed to come down. I poked around with a propane bottle to see if there were any obvious vacuum leaks (around the caps and intake boots) and didn't find anything.
The cable and linkage are moving freely, are the slides sticking?

As far as electrical- There are at least 3 fuses that have been routed away from the fuse panel, they seem to be fairly well done and are tucked uner the seat on top of the airbox.
Alternator brushes are in good shape and seem newer. Cleaned off the rotor face and saw nothing alarming.

Yeah, I know the epoxy repair is sketchy, I might take you up on the carb body if the guy who owns the bike wants me to continue.
How do those things get busted anyway? Is this a common occurence with the Hitachis?

Thanks.

 

Crud.
Something is draining the battery...
there is a wire hooked up directly onto the positive terminal, that connects to a white/red wire in the headlight housing that leads to the instrument cluster, if I disconnect it the BATT idiot light comes on...
Once I got a full charge on it, it will start up with no choke and little throttle,
once fully warm the idle starts climbing and staying quite high, like 3 grand.
Might need a do over on the carb cleaning...
just read RickComatic's carb cleaning tutorial and it seems I might not have been as thorough as I thought.

 

The red/white wire is not supposed to be hotwired to the batttery. Check in my gallery for a bypass setup that shouldn't cause the problems your seeing.

 

Mike:

Will you fill-in the "Signature" section with the Bike info ... it helps to have that info at a glance.
_________________________________________
Year - Model - Miles - Stock/Mod's - YICS Y/N

I also PM'd you.

 

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