Nearly there...

Thanks for all the carb help over the past weeks. I've learned heaps from the seriously practical advice here.

I now have three carbs that are tuneable and one that is lean and needs a good run of fuel and maybe a further clean (I'm fairly sure of the fluid level).
The last plug is running grey rather than white so it's not far off.

However, having spent about ten days taking the little critters on and off and cleaning and tweaking fluid levels etc... a GPz 1100 with 12,000 mile just came up at £850. Given that I have a busy life this was a no-brainer so I'm leaving XJ land until I get nostalgic in ten years time and pick up a project bike to play with
See the For Sale thread if you are in the UK and interested.

 

Enjoy the GPz. Those are great, powerful bikes.

 

Woo! Hoo!

Last pop at the carbs turned up a blocked pilot jet
Now all four are tunable and the engine is running soooooo much cooler and smoother. Onto the final tweaks of a screw driver width turns, but heading for lovelly rich brown. I think this has taken me about 12 full days over the past couple of months, maybe more. Almost worth the feeling of 'got it sorted' though.

So I now have two functional bikes ! ( Still selling the XJ though so if in the UK and you want a well running adjustable sweet XJ600 check out the For Sale forum )