New question for the XJ gurus

Re. My 83 xj750 garage find. After carb rebuild and tank cleaning etc got her up and running pretty smoothly.
A day later First restart with full choke jumped to life and after warm idled smooth.
A day later full choke , harder to start and needed some throttle to help it along.
A day later same as above but now notice what looks like fuel/oil mix dripping from left side “timing” cover.(below #1 cylinder)
Carbs float levels are at spec and no signs of leaking. Left fuel vale on primer over night and no leakage.
Air box is dry.
Thoughts?
Appreciate the help.

 

I would remove the cover first to see if you have an oil leak, there is a seal behind the pick up rotor. Is it that cover or the oil galley plug below it?

 

Gonna dig into it tomorrow and I’ll report back. All had been fine, even took it for a short ride and no issues. I’d think if it was float related it would leak thru on prime but it isn’t. The needles (all new) are doing their job.

 

Did you put new fuel line on? If not, did you flush or clean out the old hose with some compressed air? Did you put a in-line fuel filter on the gas line?

Sounds like you have an accumulation issue going on....maybe.

 

do you use a inline fuel filter? I know you said tank clean.
If so is it a big one that could cause vapor lock. the routing , air bubbles.
you it was running smooth. your bike wants fuel. sounds like pilot circut not clean enough.
oil thing sounds like a separate issue - easy fix.

 

Did not replace the fuel line as it looked fine and intact. And no inline filter but could definitely do both and see what happens.

 

Did not replace the fuel line as it looked fine and intact. And no inline filter but could definitely do both and see what happens.

I will put an inline in and change fuel line. All jets and carb internals have been changed.
Appreciate all the help

 

I’d pull the oil cap off and sniff. If you smell gas you have at least one stuck float.
DO NOT try to start the bike until after you check for gas in the crankcase.

 

By stuck do you mean stuck open or stuck closed? When I set the levels all was fine. I left fuel on primer position overnight and had nothing leaking out anywhere. Have not tried starting it again since fuel leak.
Just worried about pulling carbs again to find nothing out of the ordinary. All carbs have new needles, seats etc. maybe I should reinstall old needles and see what happens? Really don’t want to be pulling the carbs over and over chasing this.

 

When you first set the floats you set them to a height. Then you do a wet set of the floats to set the fuel level in the carburetor bowls. If the level is set too high the fuel just flow into the motor. Center stand the bike and check your oil level see if it's higher than when you fill the bike up with oil. You could have a leak from the crankshaft seal with a pickup coils are located under the crankcase cover oil in there might make it hard to start.

 

Don’t think. Don’t speculate. Sniff.
One step at a time, or you’ll stress yourself out.

 

Been busy and yet to get back into it. I’ll report back. Thanks again

 

So been tied up all week but went out and she started up as normal. Let her run for about 20 minutes and no fuel leaking as before. I speculate perhaps it was a bit of crud went thru the system and temporarily messed up a float needle ?? Oil level was fine and not sure if I smell fuel in it or just think I do but changed the oil anyway and installed an inline filter.
Now jumping down the steering head bearing rabbit hole. Bikes apart, steering head out and new bearings in freezer. Just have to remove race from lower yoke and put all back together…Wish me luck.

 

the top bearing gets chilled.
bottom bearing needs to be heated to fit over the post. or you can freeze the post
may be a thread on this

 

All done. Went smooth. Lots of bits to remove and reinstall. Many pics and many notes, but glad I did.
All back together and what an improvement!
$72 for bearings and my labor. Can’t imagine what this would have cost!!

 

Actually it’s the bearing races that need freezing. I don’t think I’d want to heat up that caged bearing for the bottom stem. I just cleaned it , greased it and used the old race upside down to evenly seat it. Worked fine.

 

I had to freeze the stem to get my new lower bearing on. Heating the bearing enough to allow the bore to grow won't cause any problems with the bearing, but it does make it a bit tricky to handle.