Carburetor Issue

I just got done cleaning the carbs on my 1982 Maxim which had sat for seven years and now it won't start. I crank it over with the choke on for an extended period and it will fire up for a second and die. I take the choke off and crank it over for an extended period and it will fire up for a second and then die. If I remove the spark plugs and shoot some fuel into all four cylinders it will run for about 3 seconds, but immediately fires up when I hit the start button. All of the carbs are getting fuel as indicated when I remove the bleeder screws on the carb bowls. I did notice that all of the floats were not at the same height when I turned the carbs upside down with the bowls off. I did not remove the carbs from the rail and assumed that I would not need to sync them because of that. I also left the carb to air box boots off in case I had to remove the carbs again. Any suggestions, please.

 

Let me tell you what I read here several times. When you think the carbs are clean clean them some more. My bike was in a barn for 13 years and last year I must have pulled them 6 times. Then I finally got them clean, when they say do a clunk test do it. Fianally after several cleaning tries I got them right. I would sync them. But I dont think that is your issuje yet. I think your carbs are dirty. I am not sure what it does by leaving the boots off. I went through 5 cans of carb cleaner. If you didnt mess with the float adjustments I woulnt mess with them. That brings on a all new issue measuring. Some on here have thier own ways of doing things. Good luck I would pull them again. Pull your jets clean them and the journals real good. In the bowl you will see a real small hole, You got to get it cleared. It took me forever to get it clean Soaked them forever and got a real small drill bit pushing it in and out, until finally I got all 4 bowls clean.

 

Welcome! This is the classic post that will prompt comments of "read the forums" or "search first". Search for carb cleaning and you'll find a lot of info (and unfortunately a lot of work, but it's not terribly hard work). Read Cleaning Your Carbs - The Whole 9 Yards and In the Church of Clean for starters.

How did you clean them? If you didn't break the rack, you didn't replace throttle shaft seals. These can leak air and give you a lean condition - same with badly cracked intake manifold boots. To replace throttle shaft seals... it's a pain, you have to remove the butterflies, and the screws holding them have been peened on the back side. If you soaked the rack in carb cleaner without removing the seals, the carb clean ate them.

Nighthawk is right, the starter jet in the float bowl needs to be cleaned if you haven't.

Missing carb to air box boots will affect performance (but I don't think it would cause problems starting).

Have you checked your rear brake shoes for delamination? This is a safety concern.

Edit your signature and put your type of XJ in your signature field. Is this a 550, 650, 750 etc. Enter your location too, sometimes people have "carb clinics" and there might be one in your area.

Check out the FAQs in the XJ FAQ Suggestions Forum section. Lots of good info here as well.

Welcome again!

 

You should always bench sync. period.
spray start fluid through the air cleaner-alot easier then pulling
the plugs every time.
Dbl check the cables, it's easy to reverse the throttle and choke
(enrichment ciruit).
Just for giggles set the pilots out 2 1/2 turns. thats a safe general
starting point. then adj further once the bike gets running.

 

And make sure your floats haven't been installed upside down.