Newly Licensed -First Bike

Suvoth, you need to really listen to k-moe on this issue. It does not cost that much to check the oil and even drain it. If you drain it into a clean container and if the oil is still good and clean you can reuse the oil. I think you will find as stated, that you have gas in your oil.

The gas will thin your oil and cause the bearings and anything that are metal to metal to fail sooner! Almost all of these older bikes that have been sitting for a while or years need to have the carbs run though. It is just common with motorcycles with carbs. If by chance you were using ethanol enriched gas, this could be even worse as the ethanol starts to brake down if now moved around in about 6 months.

k-moe has links at the bottom of his posts, please take the time to read them and to take a look at the top of each page. There you will find the "XJ4EVER" icon, follow that and you will find so much reading and great information.

Once you decide to pull the carbs just be patient and follow "The church of Clean" from the reading material. Bottom line it is your bike, you do with it what you will, we are here just to make things easier for you and I hope save you some money and aggravation.

 

Woah uh oh. Guess I shouldn't have driven it those 5 blocks. I'm gonna re read what you said. But buddy who sold is to me says he cleaned the carbs. So what I need to do now is drain the oil and if necessary, change it?

 

Ok, re-read everything. So I need to buy float needles? Are there 4, one for each carb? And I need to change the oil

 

I don't see a link for the information?

 

Step 1 is to open the oil filler cap and sniff. If it smells like gas then drain the oil, but don't refill it yet.
Step 2 is to read. You need to understand why the failure occured, and what to do about it before you put new parts on.
Diagnosis has to happen before you spend money.

THE SECRET LIFE OF CARBURETORS
IN THE CHURCH OF CLEAN
Inside your Carbs
Setting the fuel levels
You might not need this last one, but if after remedying the fuel overflow issue you find that you have other carb-related running problems it may become necessary to break the rack, at which time it is HIGHLY reccomended that new seals be fitted.
Replacing your Hitachi throttle shaft seals

 

Some mobile devices won't show the links in our signatures.

Read This First
Choosing Oil for a Wet Clutch Motorcycle

Those are in addition to the links I provided above.

 

Note: your used oil, if it is contaminated with gas, is perfect for lawnmower use as a fuel. You might thin it with a bit more gas though unless you have a 2-stroke lawnmower.

 

do not remove wire when bike is running it is a bad thing to do .
go to this thread and read about your charging system and how to test it with a meter
The Ultimate Relay, Switch, Sensor, and Diodes Guide

prime is to fill carbs but it should not cause your fuel to leak out of the carbs

 

Thanks so much! My friend, well, another friend is going to help me this weekend. I got a "trickle charger" can I still use that before I do all of this?

 

Another friend. I like the sound of that.

You can still use the trickle charger on the battery. Just don't bother starting the bike until you know that fuel isn't (and can't) get into the crankcase.
That has to be taken care of first.
You can do several of the electrical checks on the charging system without the engine runnimg. You just can't check the charging output voltage.

 

yes you can . if your battery is a lead acid battery check the fluid level and top it off with distilled water. the lead acid batterys boil off the water in the battery when charging.

 

Ok so I think what you are suggesting after reading some of the carbs stuff is that I should take apart the carbs and check them first before buying anything and also obviously drain the oil first

 

Normally it would make you play At least one octave higher, depending on how much the octave is boosted. A one octave boost will increase your octave by doubling it. So A440 becomes A880, etc.......

If you are going to extrapolate that into mph, then 55mph becomes 110mph, etc.......

Now,maybe you just want to sit on the motorcycle in the driveway without the key on-- you could go Brrrmmmbrrmmmmmbrmmmm at about an A220 to pretend you're idling......you could make low rude noises with your lips, too. Kick in the octave booster, and you could even kick in the turbo boost, and make screaming noises above 880.....even higher, if you have that kind of talent.... with your voice while making elephant sounds with your lips. Boost the decibels, and you could really be FLYING past every cop on the highway while sitting safely in your driveway.

To get a 4D experience, put a giant fan in front of you on full blast, and leave the helmet sitting on the driveway surface next to you.

It's almost like the octave booster that we'd get when we clothes-pinned our Mickey Mantle baseball cards to the fender brace on our bicycles so they'd buzz against the spokes!

 

Yes.
It might be that the floats are just stuck, but more often than not there's more to the story. In either case carb work is much easier with them off of the bike. You can't even get but one of the float bowls off with them on the bike.

 

Lol that was a good read hogfiddles the reason for the octave booster was because it had 4 year old gas in it topped a little with new..or so I was told

 

Octane boosters are for gas, not octave boosters.

 

Woops! Haha slip of the spellchecker

 

I think what you mean is octane booster hahahaha. I would just like to second what everyone else is telling you. It may seem daunting now but with careful ready, attention to detail, the proper tools, and this forum, you can have your machine running top notch. The ear to ear grin you get from a properly tuned XJ is well worth the effort. Take your time, ask questions and you'll get there.

Edit: @k-moe beat me to it! Haha

 

Going to see a friend who owns a bike mechanic shop. No, not one of the many friends who gave me the initial information. Lol he doesn't want me playing around with the carbs by myself.

 

Good call. Route him to here for model specific info. Hitachi carbs are a bit different, and since your bike has the YICS system the carbs are set up a bit differently from most.