Ok, I may be sad. Something is wrong with my new baby......

So we took her for a spin and I seemed to have a "lag" in first gear....almost as if she wasnt getting gas. We drove her around the block and when we got back to the house she stalled. Greggylicous checked it out and says that the carbs not being right may have fouled the spark plugs, he also thinks there may be a charging issue........ He raised the idle to keep it running and it seemed ok but when you gave it gas after he raised it the RPMs took a long time to come back down. Please tell me this isnt something horrible

 

Float levels?

 

He scratched his head and said that the float needle valve may be sticking......but was running fine so..... Wife translation= he doesnt know. It seemed to me that the bike was having a hard time getting fuel, but when I gave her gas she seemed fine.

 

could be the enrichment passages need cleaned, they are used at the lower RPMs.

 

give the carbs a good cleaning/rebuild depending on what you find in there, wet set the floats, check your valve clearances, running synch and carbtune/plug chops. Bet it fixes it.

 

Time for the first step of every XJ owner, getting intimate with the carbs.

My best educated guess:

PO parked it for the winter, didn't put sta-bil in the tank, and probably didn't drain the float bowls.

Stale fuel+gummed up enrichment circuits (the passages are very small and easily gummed up)= Time for a carb cleaning, which also includes a float level check and sync job.

FYI, the XJ charging system doesn't start working until around 1800RPM, if it sits idling the battery will run down. And the XJ needs every ounce of battery power it can muster.

The good news is that since it does look well taken care of, and it did start without much problem, that it will be a fairly simple job to clean the carbs.

Oh, and do a valve clearance check while you're at it. The valves need to be in-spec to get a proper running sync on the carbs.

This is something we get used to doing fairly soon after buying an XJ, but well worth the effort.

 

Thank you so much tskaz!! I have relayed the information to the big guy. (it would probably be easier for him to be on forum but he is old fashioned and not a big computer guy)

I will keep you posted on what the outcome is. Safe riding this weekend to all!!!!!!!!

 

Oddly enough, I won't be riding this weekend, I'll be replacing throttle shaft seals, bench sync, running sync, and colortune on my carbs LOL

 

Hi

Yes your carbs need cleaning. I would say that your pilot jets need a poke with a guitar string. The bike should run good after that.

 

Just looked at your bike pic.
I must say it is a real beauty!

 

Search for the church of clean in the forum. Good guide for carb cleaning. Sounds like that's what she needs. Followed with valve clearance, carb sync and colortune. Get the manual so it goes smoothly. Any questions just ask we all have been where you are and are willing to help like we were helped. Good luck.

 

When you clean the Carbs, ... Knock-out the "Emulsion Tubes"
Clean them:
> Inside
> Outside
> Each of the 16 -to- 20 Air Orifices.



::: Inspect Alternator Brushes :::

 

Yuck mine never looked that bad thank god

 

Those aren't even that bad...