my bike can not start

Hi,
I have a 1983 yamaha maxim xj 550. I bought this bike from my old boss after she had it in her garage parked since 2006. After few tries at trying to turn the bike on i figured that I need a good carb clean, so I spent time in cleaning my carbs. I pulled the carbs of the bike and disassembled it completely and dunked them in carb cleaners. I put the carbs back on and tried to start the bike and have gas leaking our of the carbs when I try to start the bike. I am unable to start my bike now. I guess the bike has not been running since 2006. can anyone tell me what do I need to do to start my bike again.
thanks

 

Did you set the float levels?

 

It sounds like the floats may be stuck if fuel is pouring out like you say.

Visit the CHURCH OF CLEAN!!!
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14692.html
^^^This is perhaps the most important article on the website. Read it in its entirety

Cleaning the carburetors isnt even the start of cleaning the carburetors. First you need to check the valve lash. Then you need to make sure those carbs are SURGICALLY clean. Perform the drop test on the slides while the carbs are dismantled. You need to check the condition of the pilot screw orings, float needle seats and the throttle shaft seals as well.

Once the carbs of perfect(This will take you 5 or 6 attempts) you need to set the float levels on all four carbs. NExt you can start the bike with the YICS tool in place and Vacuum syncronize all 4 carbs to match cylinder 3. You can easily build a manometer yourself(google it). Lastly you may need to adjust the pilot jets on all 4 carbs using a colortune sparkplug. You can buy one new or used or find a member who may be able to help you.

 

When you talked about cleaning your carbs and put them back together, you didn't say a word about the carbs butterfly shaft seals, did you replace them?

If not, that would be a good reason your carbs are leaking.

A bike needs more than clean carbs to start and run fine. You should check the compression on every cylinder and measure the valves clearance. I'd be surprised everything is perfect in there.

 

thank you so much, now i need to find out what does valve lash mean, drop test etc. I am new to bike fixing, owning and bike terminology etc. I did find a video on youtube that tells/talks about float levels, could you confirm that this is what I need to do? video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ogUMEpK ... video_user
thanks Adis

 

Float levels will need your attention later for sure, but I think you should focus on the compression test and the exhaust and intake valve clearance first.

Finely tuned carbs will be useless on a low compression engine with out-of-specs valves.

 

Sorry, it's the "clunk test" not the drop test.
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=1640.html
The vacuum piston should make a clunk noise if you drop it into the carb body. Its the big brass piece with the diaphragm


THIS thread has a link to every important thread about owning or maintaining an XJ bike.
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=27544.html

Dont forget to read the Church of Clean, its a thread about rebuiling and tuning your carbs properly-
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14692.html

 

Valve clearances first.

How to: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14827.html

Part Deux: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=29209.html

Mikuni basic breakdown: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=31061.html

It's peeing gas because one or more carb floats isn't working properly.

Float levels: http://www.xj4ever.com/setting%20fuel%20levels.pdf

If you submerged the carbs and they still had the throttle shafts and butterflies in them, you may very well have killed the throttle shaft seals. If you didn't "break the rack" before, you'll probably need to now.

GET A SERVICE MANUAL. Getting this bike up and running will take some actual work and a bit of a learning curve on your part. Nothing horribly complicated, but it will require some patient, serious effort.

 

Update:
so I pulled the floats our again and noticed that one of the floats was not retracting as good as the other 3, so i cleaned it etc. by the way I did not dunk the floats in carb cleaner ( my bad for not saying that earlier). While I had carbs our of the bike I poured fuel in carburator and they did not leak, my carbs were not pissing even when I put them on the bike.
After installing the carbs on the bike I could run the bike and tried turning it on, it turned and seemed that it wanted to start. I remembered watching one of the videos on youtube of a guy spraying carb cleaner in the carbs so I sprayed mine and I could get the bike running for about 8 -12 sec, while running I sprayed carb cleaner into the carbs and that made the bike run real hard, but I am still not able to have it run on its own on gas etc. what do I do? am I missing something, or is it time to take it to a shop and have this done by a shop guy? what do you think.
thanks Adis
p.s. hearing that thing run was so good today, i really want to fix this bike now.

 

I've seen a youtube of a guy spraying carb cleaner on the carb boots, (post carb) to see if the boots were leaking air.
If the engine revs higher that means the carb cleaner is enriching the mix, which proves the carb boots are leaking.
I'm assuming that's what you were watching.

AS for your bike, the carb cleaner test implies that the electrics are ok, so I'm thinking its still a carb issue, so once you've done the valve clearances and the compression test, clean the carbs again and check floats levels
while the jets are out, just check the numbers on them make sure they are spec... I found some ugly surprises (ugly for my wallet)

And you're using the choke yeh?

 

So you're going to completely ignore the above advice; which, if you'd follow it, would solve your problems and instead continue to screw around squirting carb cleaner at it?

The way you're going at this will not work.

Get a book, and do the maintenance outlined above. You haven't even properly wet-set your float levels yet from what I'm hearing; let alone gotten the valves in spec so that there's any HOPE of setting up the carbs.

Screwing around and poking at it the way you are will get you nowhere.

 

bigfitz

You beat on that comment, I was just writing exactly the same thing...

 

Adis, I was in your same boat when I picked up my 82 550 Seca. As badly as you would like to hear her run you are going about It all wrong. You may get it started screwing with it the way you are, but you will never be able to hop on and take it for a ride. It will be unreliable, sluggish and more likely cause more harm, requiring more work.

The best thing you can do for your self is listen to bigfitz. His advice has greatly helped me get my "new" xj up and running. Although as you will find this is only the beginning with these bikes.

Do your self a huge favor man, follow their steps and save your self some headache. If you are too lazy to do that work bring it to a shop. Even that will be hard to find a competent person who will work on this old of a bike.

Good luck to you.

 

This. My bike didn't run when I bought it, so I cleaned the carbs. It ran, but hella rough, and only for 10 secs at a time. Finally took the advice of the wizards on here and got my valves in spec and it started and ran on it's own. Set the float levels and it ran better.

I'm not here to brow beat you, but being ignorant to the bigger issues will get you nowhere.

 

I would need at least two hands to count the number of times I had to redo my carbs before I got them right.
This is not an old chevy, it is a high performance engine that is tuned to 'race prep' specs. You gotta go the whole nine yards to make it run great, or else you will keep having issues. And no mechanic that you would be able to find does the kind of quality you need to properly rebuild XJ carbs.

If you take some time and do the carbs properly, it will be well worth your effort.

 

Special_edy

Why talking about cleaning carbs at this point? This is clearly not the priority!

 

Adis, first, welcome to the forum!

I was not a bike newbie when I joined, but I was definitely a bike repair beginner.

The first advice I took was check the valves, as it sounded intense to have a good reason to open the engine. I got to play with carbs on old corollas in my college days, but the valve shimming was much more fun.

My carbs were okay, and I messed with them a year later, but the difference I got after replacing some shims was night and day!

See my signature for forum posts to help you also
vvv

 

Don't let these guys scare you into attempting work you lack the skills to complete properly.

I am by no means a mechanic, and definitely not a motorcycle mechanic. However I have kept my '81 GoldWing with over 176k miles on it running like a sewing machine. I was also able to resurrect an '85 XJ700N that had been sitting for three years. I'm no professional, however I keep my bikes running just fine, without compression tests, without valve shims or a lot of other in depth work.

A few things to think about though.

Did you have the boots to the air box back on? Or were you trying to start it without them? Without them it will pull to much air and not have enough vacuum to draw the fuel. I learned this the hard way.

Also make sure you have clean spark plugs and good spark. It takes far less of a spark to ignite carb cleaner than it does to ignite gas.

Make sure the petcock (fuel valve) is working properly. Check the fuel lines too to make sure they are clear. Also gas goes bad, so if it is not new fresh gas it's not going to run.

Start with the simple stuff before you go tearing off the head to get at valve shims. This forum is just chock full of elitists who love spending lots of money and time taking their bikes apart and putting them back together again.

Folks like us though, we would rather ride than wrench.

The carb system on the 85XJ700N is one of the most complicated, most finicky and just down right pain in the ass systems out there. Until you remember that it's still just a carb system. Also, contrary to what the majority of folks on this forum will tell you you DO NOT need the special tool for syncing these carbs. In fact you don't even need to do anything beyond bench syncing them.

My...er my old lady's Maxim runs smooth and strong. Purrs like a contented kitten at idle, pulls strong through all five gears and cruises at highway speeds smooth as silk. All I ever did to the carbs was clean them without splitting them up, and bench synch them.

The YICS system does the rest for you. That's what it was designed to do. Those who keep mucking with theirs are the same ones you hear saying " I'm almost there but I just need to tune it a little better".

Now I know I will probably be crucified for this post but I really don't care. Four years and soon to be starting a fifth with this thing running like new is all the convincing I need that some of these guys just love to hear themselves talk.

I had a hard time with the thing at first because I came here looking for advice. And did my best to follow it. The harder I tried to follow instructions the harder it was to get the damn thing to run. I finally gave up and just went with what I knew, and what I could see in my hands.

I get the distinct impression that you have never worked on a bike before, so even if you got yerself a manual tearing into the heads for valve adjustments straight out the door is prolly a BAD idea. That is how perfectly good bikes end up as parts donors.

Do what you know, what you are comfortable with. Beyond that find someone local who knows a little more than you do and is willing to help you.

There is some truth in what you've been told though, spraying it with carb cleaner is not going to get you anywhere but more problems.

A word of advice for the more experienced folks. Try to remember how intimidating some of this stuff was when you first started. Try to understand that the fact that YOU can tear into the engine on your bike is not justification to insist that every beginner needs to do the same thing right away.

Many people have insisted that GoldWings will not run with single carb intake systems on them. Try telling my GoldWing that has been running for over nine years with a single carb system on it that it won't run with a single carb. There are people who say Bumble Bees can't fly. There are people on this forum who will tell you an XJ bike with a YICS system won't run right without a carb sync.

And then there are bees, motorcycles and people that PROVE differently.


In any case good luck with your bike, be patient, don't get in over your head and one day it will run.

 

A whole lot of bashing the people who really help people out...

Sure you don't NEED to do anything these guys say to get your bike running and rideable. They are simply getting you the best settings for optimal performance. Which is very noticeable when you do it your way then listen to the advice given here.

I'm like you I would much rather ride than wrench. You can tell by my paint job, lack of rubber on foot pegs, and other non essential visual stuff.

The longevity of your bike like a car, is specific to the way it was made. So to say your lack of maintaining your bike has worked for you doesn't mean it will for all bikes. I have had a truck with 5k miles blow a motor. Simply made imperfect.

It is your opinion but with 60 posts here, I'm sure you have gained plenty of information from these guys you just bashed pretty good.

By all means bring it to a mechanic, I just said good luck finding one that is good with these bikes. I have a guy who specializes and only fixes 90's and older bikes. Just for backup for stuff I can't or don't have time to do.

Just my 2 cents. Good day mate.

 

A compression test doesn't require any "skill", unless you consider removing the gas tank, removing the spark plugs and unplugging the TCI requires skills.

Actually, you just need to know what to do before doing it, and forums like this one helps a lot in this manner.