Hello all. New XJ650 owner

Hello all. New '82 XJ650 owner here.

Recently purchased this from an older gentleman who rode it to work everyday but one day it would not start and left him stranded. It has been sitting for 3 years. Fair condition with the exception of the tank which was painting a very custom nice metallic blue by an auto body shop and looks great. The rest needs some work, great winter project.

What I have done so far is extensively clean carbs and reinstall. She fired right up and ran great for about 45 minutes. But then little by little she would start to bog down and require more choke to keep going. I made the right call and decided to cut my cross town trip short and head home. She basically died in my yard and would not restart. Pretty sure my problem is I did not clean the gas tank out thoroughly enough. No big deal, I need to tear back into it any for the full restore anyway, really just wanted to she if she would fire up and now I know she will.

Began fiddling with bikes only recently. I have owned many Hondas (cb450, cl350, cb350, cx500, 81 goldwing, magna, nighthawk, cb900), one Suzuki, 2017 Kawasaki z900 is my main bike.

I am located in Goshen IN. I enjoy body restoration/detailing the most but still learning my way through the rest. Good to meet you all.

=

 

Brian, Welcome to the club. I love your matching battery box you got there. I know sometimes you do what you got to do to make it work right? Do you have a good clean inline fuel filter ? there might be a few specks of rust that got through and plugged a jet.

 

Yeah had to use what I had on hand there.

I should have put a filter on there knowing how long that tank sat and the fact that I saw a lot of small chunks come out when I drained it. I just kinda swooshed it out with fresh gas and refilled. Live and learn. LOL.

 

You will get it, just take your time, don't rush any part of the process. From what i know is that it is damn near imposable to get it perfectly clean, maybe some one here knows how to do it.

 

Phosphoric acid, if you can get it. You'll need to make a plate to cover the petcock opening. And maybe weld up some rust pinholes that appear in the bottom.
Welcome!

 

Check the fuel tank cap vent.