Intro and Rpms climbing right off start problem.

Hi, I picked up a 82 seca 650 last weekend for a $100 that had no spark and was pretty dirty. I live in Duluth Minnesota and just turned 18 so I figure I'll get my motorcycle permit in the spring once the snow clears and have a fun bike to play around on and save some gas in comparison to my thirsty little subaru.
Anyways, back to the bike, upon getting it home I painted the side panels and cleaned it up a bit and took a look at the ignition and found the cdi to be bad, I got 3 with the bike so I just swapped it out and I had spark in all cylinders. After changing the oil and filter I tried starting it and after fighting it a little it started but it kept reving out as soon as it would start so I'd kill it. I cleaned out the carbs and made sure the diaframs were in good shape, they weren't that dirty and there was no change in the way it ran.
Next I suspected the throttle cable or choke cable being too tight and letting it fully close so I removed them from the carbs and adjusted the idle out. That caused it not to start without me giving it some choke for a second and after that it ran at about 1000rpm but it starting climbing faster and faster until I killed it again. Any help will be appreciated, if it matters it has a kerker 4-1 and pods but i currently have the filters off and if this has been asked before I apologize but I could not find any threads with this exact issue in my search. Thanks again and I look forward to being part of these boards!

 

The carbs are out of sync and can't be sync'ed (and you can't even think about tuning the bike) running the carbs wide open.

All it takes is one carb running above idle to pull the others up with it and since none of them are behaving the revs will climb and/or the idle will stay high and refuse to come down.

You'll need to pull the carbs and properly clean and service them and wet-set the floats; get your valves in spec and bench sync the carbs and then you might be able to get it at least running. With pods and the Kerker, if it hasn't been re-jetted, it will definitely need to be. Be careful running the motor with everything in the condition it's currently in. You could have a stuck float or two and be pumping gas into the sump without realizing it. Plus it's probably not even going to run with the carbs wide open.

Once the bike runs, we'll discuss thirty year old brakes and not dying. It has tubeless tires; if over 6 ~8 years old, they gotta go regardless of remaining tread. More of that not dying thing.

Keep something in mind: it doesn't matter how much you spent on the bike if you want it to run properly and be safe enough to ride and reliable enough to enjoy you're looking at a budget of about $600 ~ $800 if you do all the work. It's inescapable if you hope to have any degree of success.

One more tip: it will be ten times EASIER if you return the intake and/or exhaust to stock; especially the intake. Otherwise you're fighting two battles-- resurrecting a $100 motorcycle AND jetting for pods and a pipe.

 

Thanks for the reply! That's what I'll do then, like I said I live in Duluth so when I say winter project I've got about 6 months before I can ride so I'm in no rush and want to do things the right way. I wish I had the stock parts for the intake but I do not, looks like I'll have an eBay purchase in my near future.

On the note of tires, as I'm a big fan of not dying, I plan on grabbing new ones before spring. I found some duro tires that look nice and have good reveiws.

Also, speaking of valve clearences, I had a dvx 400 ATV and these engine's stock valves were poorly case hardened and overtime from dust and whatnot the hardening around the where the valve seated wore off and the soft metal was exposed thus causing all sorts of lovelyness to be unleased. Is there any problems like this that I should be aware of with these bikes to look out for?

Again thanks for the help Fitz!

 

There is a For Sale/ Trade Forum here where you may be able to find a stock airbox/ intake boots.
Never heard of issues with the valve shims like you described - sounds like you are wise to the fact that grinding shims is a huge no-no.
Dave (Hogfiddles - member on this site) runs a shim pool if you check what you have and know what you need you can trade for free!

I also am a giant Chacal fan (XJ4Ever - click the icon in the upper right hand corner) he has almost every part you could desire, including shims. Although I sheepishly admit that this spring I was anxious to get her going and found a local shop that specializes in old Japanese bikes that had the shims I needed for a very reasonable price - picked them up in the morning and was riding in the afternoon.

That being said - Chacal has GREAT customer service and surprisingly swift delivery times - IMHO avoid E-bay, Stealerships and big box on-line parts warehouses - use XJ4Ever. You will thank me in the end . . . . .