How about this one...bogging and bucking

Parked the bike outside last night, might have rained a little bit.

take the bike out with choke on and immediately i get the symptom. Bike lurches forward real quick, then off real quick. Like i snapped the throttle all the way back then hit the front brake immediately. Then the engine tried to die. Revving it and pulling the clutch saved it from stalling.

It did it a few more times then i decided to limp the bike back home. There was a loud bang (not like a backfire), on one of those stalled attempts. Thought the worst, but still rode it home fine...

Got home and saw the rear hub was leaking gear fluid from the top:


Bike was riding OK when i limped it back home. Warmed up with no choke, but i dont want to take it back on the freeway till I at least know what caused this.

My gut is that the bike is running too rich, or maybe the engine flooded a bit. But looking at the rear hub i'm thinking it might be something else thats causing that seepage.

BTW the bike is a n 82 xj650

 

not sure about the oil in the diff, but the bogging bucking is likely water in the gas. drain the fuel from the float bowls into a clean glass container and let it settle. you will likely find beads of water in the bottom.

CN

 

sounds great! Where exactly does the water get into the bowls from? Gas cap?

 

Do you have the stock airbox or possibly pod filters or other intake mod?

 

stock airbox

 

Then the issue is more likely wet electrics.

Is this a nice clean bike, or is it all grubby? No offense, I ask because dirt retains moisture, and a set of dirty coils can get all finicky in the rain or even on a damp and foggy night.

 

I'd say your two problems aren't related to each other, unless the rain got in your final drive too, overfilling it, so the extra "fluid" squirted out where it could!

 

Correctomundo.

The chain-driven Fitz wasn't even worried about the final drive. Completely unrelated and not affecting how the motor runs.

 

Well i do live in san francisco, we're prone to some foggy weather.

Bike is pretty clean, but i just neglected to put the cover on last night. Usually it stays in the garage, but i'm doing some head work on my car, so the bikes space is taken up with parts at the moment.

Drove it about 15 miles today, no issues since.

Wont forget the cover tonight, thats for sure.

Thanks gentlemen.

 

The 'cap' on top of the final drive covers a vent. No need to worry about that. You probably just overfilled it a bit and I would suspect that it was cold or at least cool outside. I've had that happen in the past.