Cylinder not firing?

Then you would only have 8 valves to check and shims to change, one each for intake and one each for exhaust, per cylinder.

 

well, thats a relief.....so on another note, does anyone know where I could find the right stator for my bike? I'm going to check and make sure I'm not doing anything wrong on the install tomorrow when I have daylight....but I'm thinking its prolly not going to fit....If theres a specific way to install it I'd love to hear about it =)

 

XJ4Ever is your source. Top right of the page here is a link to his catalog. He ONLY sells XJ related parts and you will get the part you are looking for, it will be quality, the price is fair, and often what he sells comes with detailed instructions. You are always taking a risk with ebay.

 

Yeah, I'm usually pretty good at digging up the right part off e-bay, haven't bought a wrong part yet, and considering I already half-rebuilt a bike from 1989 before a crappy mechanic shop screwed it up (if your in florida DO NOT TAKE ANY BIKE TO FULL THROTTLE CUSTOMS!!!) I thought I would be able to get away with it.

The good news is the maintenance guy (i.e. harley guy) is cool with me again, we're buddies and such now, and he's going to look at my stator problem with me tomorrow. I somehow doubt I put it in wrong, seeing as how it just kind slides on and off, but hey you never know.

And even more good news, aside from finding this forum, theres a member that doesn't live to far from me and is willing to help! God bless the internet!

 

So it seems that I'm going to be needing an air-filter box now....the chrome back to one of my air pod filters came off today....guess all the gas flooding it was bad for the glue or something.....can't wait to get my friggin school check, fixing this bike would be easier with PARTS =p

 

so now we find out you have pods. There's a problem! Get rid of them.

Dave

 

YEP! I never thought to ask if you had pods, oh boy. yeah waaaayyyyyy to much air goin in, may not even be jetted for them, and IF they I'd say there is a 95% chance they jetted wrong. Dont even waste your time tryin to tune cause it aint gonna happen anyway, period.
#1 most-- MOST important, lets get the valves in spec, those items will be there this week we discussed.
get the carbs off and see what jets you have, under the diaphram too. post the numerical values you record for each number. then Ill send you a couple of drill bits to use as "jet gauges" to verify that the numerical value you record is indeed accurate (just send them back with the colortune)
Meanwhile we gotta find you an airbox and boots.
Beware of running the bike with a possibly tight valve, keep that in the front of your mind

 

oh yeah... any other mods? What exhuast do you have on there?

 

Actually,

From page 1 of the post, after OP updated the signature to read individually asperated carbs

I definitely agree with Dave that it would be better to put a stock airbox back on. Should be able to find an inexpensive one on ebay or some such place. But you still need to check your jets to see if they are stockers. If they aren't, you'll have to re-jet for the stock airbox.

 

Individually aspirated Carbs?

::: Individually Normally Aspirated Cylinders from Individually Air Filtered Carburetors :::

 

you know....I do have as a mod listing individually aspirated carbs....thought that was how to say it lol. Well, I found a air box in ebay with the chrome still on it for about 35 bucks, but I have no cash. When my school check gets here I'm going to continue working on the bike, but for now, all I can do is check specs and try to tune her....Thanks for the tip for the airbox, I was planning on getting one anyways, but the pods falling apart kinda pushed me in that direction. And theres no way the carbs are jetted properly for the pods, cause even tho my fuel level is PERFECT (I spent 5 hours tuning that) I'm getting waaay too much air. So I guess all I can do now is wait for my assistance stuff to get here so I can diagnose some issues, then make a list and be ready to spend some of that hard-earned financial aid =)

Thanks again for all the help guys, especially the ones that have pm'ed me!

 

You didn't answer this.

Since it took us four pages of playing "20 questions" to realize that you have an 8-valve AIRCOOLED bike with POD FILTERS, what other tuning-affecting mods might we be dealing with? A non-stock exhaust is a biggie...

And the advice to stop running the motor until you know where you're at valve-clearance wise is sound.

 

sorry I'm usually posting on the fly, I work a lot.....as far as i can tell the exhast is stock, except they cut the dampener out and cut the end into a slash tip

 

I should have asked off the jump. Not only that I let the individually aspirated thing go right on by without connecting the dots.
when they cut that exhaust they changed the back pressure as well, so we need to deal with that too.
let me check on something

 

hmm...sounds like I need some furthur tweaking then! One of our fellow forum members is coming over today, with tools, so I guess we'll see were we stand, with a more experienced and knowledgeable eye =)

 

So TIMEtoRIDE (Pete for those of you that know him) came by today ans helped me run through some basic diagnostics. I'll post the valve clearance test results later on, have some tech work to do first, but the results are promising.

My 4th cylinder is not firing on idle, but when revved on high rpms, seems to run fine, so Pete told me to clean the carbs thoroughly and is going to send me some information, with pictures, on what to clean specifically and where to find it.

Also, seems my throttle bar seals, or something, are possibly bad so those need to be replaced....I'm thinking of buying new carbs after pete's description of how complicated changing those would be....not sure at this point.

 

Now we're cookin.
Throttle shaft seals arem't as bad as you might think, and kinda sounds like you may have a slow or clogged pilot.
A proper cleaning will take you a loooong way.
You could tend to the cam chain tensioner while the carbs are off too, thats just me though, it would be one less thing to deal with later on and it'll keep you touching the bike while you wait on shims and an airbox.
My 2 cents is all

 

Understand this: You CAN'T buy new carbs. You can buy different carbs, which will be just as old as the ones you have now.

Will their throttle shaft seals be in better shape? Maybe; not for long; who knows? You can't "purchase" your way out of this.

If you truly do need thottle shaft seals, then it makes as much sense to rebuild the rack you have now as it does to buy another rack and end up rebuilding that one. You're going to have to rebuild one or the other; although it never hurts to have a spare set.

Face it: a bike this old means you've got some work to do, that's all there is to it. And unfortunately, you've got some mods to deal with, so the carbs have to be 100% before you enter that mode.

 

The bike's a bit rough cosmetically, but the engine seems 100% sound.

We started with the valve clearance check, and found 1 exhaust critically tight, at 0.003-.004 , and I explained how serious that is.

We didn't repeat the compression test, but the numbers would be higher with the throttle open and the battery boosted.

Upon starting, one carb was dripping fuel, the bike was warmed up and proceeded to sync. Turns out Brian did a pretty good sync with his oil-filled 4 tube devise, but I noticed that I couldn't get the levels to stay "level" with my Manometer, which helps to indicate the need for throttle shaft seals.

From the description of how the bike runs down the road, I believe the #4 cylinder comes alive under throttle, and that shows the idle/Pilot circuit is completely plugged in that carb. My infra-red thermometer showed 120* on #4.

The bike had a "hunting" idle, but it was idling on 3, without tuning the Pilots. We didn't get far into the tune-up, as the carbs needed to come off.

The exhaust is stock headers and collector box, with some rather open mufflers. The Pods are the cheap foam kind, and are falling apart (sorry!)
Brian wants to get an airbox, so there's no point in re-jetting.

Carb work is next, then a real tune-up !!

Another thing - I sprayed Ether into the foam of #4 expecting it to bark to life. It didn't.

 

A wise observation bigfitz, and duly noted...guess I'll buy the stuff to fix my carbs when I get some cash.

to skw: A clogged pilot is exactly what Pete was telling me, which of course is why I thought the cylinder wasn't firing, my whole reason for starting this particular topic. The spit test worked, but a laser thermometer gave me an actual number. When idling, the first three pipes were at around 150 or 160 i think, while the fourth was at 70 or 80.....pretty big difference. It would also explain why it bogs down so much.

The throttle shaft seals would explain why when I have the yiks tool in and my carb sync attached the bike goes up and down, up and down in rpms without touching the throttle.

Pete also noticed that my front fork seals are leaking, something I didn't know about at all. I had thought I just needed to bleed my front brakes, but he noticed the rotors had a film of fork oil on them. Excellent catch and good observation, didn't even think that was a problem. He mentioned boiling the brake pads in lemon juice to get the oil out until I can buy new ones. Guess it makes sense if you think about it, how many good quality cleaners have a citric acid base?

So long story short, fork seals need to be replaced, I need an air box, need to go down one shim on my first exhaust valve (they bun very easily and need to be replaced ASAP, I'm aware of that) throttle shaft seals need to be replaced, possibly need a new stator (still have to test that, I'll take the negative cable off my battery tomorrow while its running to see if I'm getting a charge since i don't have a multimeter) need to check my rear brake pads for de-lamination (thanks for the heads up on that too Pete) redo the float level on my carbs they're still a bit too high, clean my carbs THOROUGHLY, check my air/gas mixture screw with the colortune skw is going to let me borrow (thanks again man!) get a new choke cable, grease the throttle cable, install an in-line fuel filter, adjust my clutch, and then I can start on the cosmetics.

Sounds like that about covers it for a light-restoration. If anyone thinks theres a particular order, valve shims first of course, to go in, I'm all ears.

So here are the results of my valve clearance check with Pete today.

Intake
#1 Tight at .004 #1 passes at .003
#2 Tight at .004 #2 loosely passes at .003
#3 Passes at .004 #3 passes at .003
#4 Tight at .004 #4 tiht pass at .003


Exhaust
#1 Tight fail at .008 #1 fail at .006 #1 very tight pass at .004
#2 Tight pass at .008 #2 pass at .006 #1 loose pass at .003
#3 Tight pass at .008 #3 pass at .006
#4 pass at .008 #4 tight pass at .006