XJ 650 FRUSTRATION!!!

OK... so in a nutshell:
In January 08, I picked up an 82 xj650 maxim that had been sitting for about 20 years in a garage covered with only 579 miles on it (pics are on here if you wanna see it.). So my father in law and I took the carbs apart and soaked everything in denatured alcohol and cleaned EVERY little part and big part so good that it looked brand new. We've done this about 2-3 times. THEN we made a bone head move and put the floats in upside down (which my friend Joe found out when he brought it to a small engine repair class). Then the bike ran for a weekend and it ran sweet, a little hot and it idle'd a little high but I adjusted the idle knob and it was fine. THEN it wouldn't start up the next morning. So I asked Joe to look at it again as I could not figure out what the heck is wrong now. The only thing he could find was that the inline filter was backwards (yes I know, another bonehead move!). SO yesterday I go to take it out for a test drive and it was fine down the road and back but when I pulled in the driveway, put it in neutral the idle dropped putted a little and stalled out. I tried starting it back up and it just cranks and cranks. NOTHING MORE!

SO.... Here I am, frustrated as ever, and all I want to is save gas and take my wife out for a nice motorcycle ride.

Can anyone help me out here? I would greatly appreciate it! Msignor83@yahoo.com

 

579 miles? That bike is practically brand new!

At first blush, it sounds like you're out of gas. Are you? Did you try a couple squirts of starting fluid into the air box to see if it would fire up for a few seconds? You've got to determine which of the three you're missing: Air, Fuel, or Spark. It may be two of them or even all three. (Let's hope not.) Once you figure out which your lacking, you can begin searching for the reason.

 

Incidently, alcohol is not a good thing on rubber parts (ie shaft seals and such) that are 20+ years old. WD-40 would be a wiser choice.
If you are not suffering with cracked parts, glad to hear it.
If not, best suggestion is to source all new rubber bits for your carbs from Chacal and replace everything.
I hope your problem is as simple as lack of fuel. While as embarassing as it may be, it is a heck of a lot cheaper than broken parts.

 

Does it start if left parked for a few hours? Your gas cap might not be venting. Seems to be an issue on Yamahas of this age. The next time it stops, open the gas cap and listen for air entering the tank. XJ's are notorious for not starting if the voltage is low as well, enough grunt for the starter, but not enough left for the ignition.

 

I would start out by making sure you're getting fuel. Take the hose off the carb and switch it to Prime. Perhaps you have rust in your tank blinding off the in tank fuel filter.

 

Where's the pics?

 

If I had a bike that old and that clean .... I'd have the Carbs ALL over my bench making sure that they are 100% Fine-tunable after a cleaninng and an Overhaul.

I looked at the Pic of your bike ... Unless the shadows are playing with the lighting ... you got a Lean Condition happening makong your Pipes a little too blue for double-layered headers.

I would imagine that bike needs to have the Pilot Mixture Screw Anti-tamper Plugs drilled and removed ... maybe not ... but you should check!

Pretty bike ..
Your a lucky guy.
Now, lets get it running good and tune it up on nthe hairy edge of high performance.

 

Finally found the pic. Very nice. Did they all come with the chrome strip under the front of the tank? Looks just like mine but mine has 10 times the mileage. If you're still cleaning the carbs, I'd get a gallon can of carb/parts cleaner, completely disassemble the carbs, soak them for a day, poke, brush, and blow out everything with compressed air. When you think you're done, repeat 4 or 5 more times. This might save the pain of reassemble and reinstallation a dozen times only to find out somethings STILL wrong.

 

The above statement could quite possibly be the finest bit of advice ever given on this, or any other, website.

 

Take 'em off the Bike and take a ride over to Massachusetts with them.
You can put them on my bench and the two of us can overhaul the whole four-pack and do what we can to make them worthy of supplying fuel to that almost brandy new bike!

Talk about LOW Miles !!!

You are going to need to have the Carbs done or the Miles are going to stay Low!

Find yoau way over to Billerica< Massachusetts with them and bring a whole set of Carb Kits.
The years could not have been kind to the bottom ends of those Carbs!

 

Sounds EXACTLY like my story. Listen how it runs in the vid after buying it not running a few hours before the vid was taken. It was all downhill from there. It was snowing the day I bought it and I finally got it to run, idle, not sputter when you hit the gas at idle but I can't get it to cold start....yet![video=250,200]http://[/video]

 

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k230/ ... mcd384.flv

 

jim123:

That video sounds pretty good. How does it run without the choke?
The throttle response seemed very good from the brief sound of it on the YouTube Video.

rm

 

I thought I was running it with the choke off with the lever inline with the turn signal switch. Now that I got it fixed, except for the cold start prolem, I run it the same way. I can smell the raw gas from the exhaust when I move the choke control towards the left hand grip. As for the cold starting problem, the position the choke lever is in in the vid is the only way I get a stumble like it almost starts, the headlight comes on and then the starter just cranks. If I try it with the lever the other way, just cranking and the headlight doesn't ever come on. Glad I reposted that vid and you noticed the choke lever. I'll laugh if THAT was the problem all along although the bike seems to run best the way it is in the vid. I will check if there's any info in the repair manual as to where that lever should be set. Maybe I took the carbs off AGAIN for nothing and took the bowls of to soak them in carb/parts cleaner AGAINfor nothing, too.

 

The lever works a cable that pulls an activating rod that moves to make the linkage open and close the Enrichment Valves.

The Choke Valves provide raw fuel right into the Cylinder for a Rick Cold Start.

Ideally, it should work like a faucet.
You orchestrate the opening and closing by moving the lever a little or a lot.

All the way to the right is supposed to be off.

 

YamahoggerJr
I'd help you out but it would be a long way for me to come just to give your wife a motorcycle ride.

I do hope you take care of your problem so you can do it yourself, these guys are the best help when all else fails.

The buff

 

Lets get this thread back on track.

Hows that "Ain't even got broke-in yet" 650 coming along?

What does it need and what is it getting?

Lets keep a few of these threads on the straight and narrow.

Everything cool with that "Sat around for a little while" bike?

 

Hey Everyone...
First, I am SO sorry I didnt get back to you all earlier. But guess what? SHE'S UP AND RUNNIN and saving me gas. And yes I have taken my wife out on that LONG awaited Motorcycle Ride (and what a beautiful ride through Rhinebeck & Rhinecliff, NY). But it ended up being the mixture wasn't set right (again my fault). But I sure learned A WHOLE lot in this whole process. I also learned why it was idling so high, because my clutch was always engaged, so a little adjustment on the clutch lever took care of that. Thanks to all of you who gave in your wisdom and experience with xj's. I was overwhelmed by all the responses and felt like an idiot for not checking back. I almost forgot I signed up for this forum. I will post some pics before the end of the season.

And whoever it was that mentioned that my bike was running rich (because the pipes were blue) was right. Now I just need to find the right cleaner to get them shining again.

And these bikes I found, have to be ran on choke for a little while, they do not run good cold AT ALL. I try to start my bike 5 mins before I have to leave, but if I cannot, I ride it while in choke for like 5-10 mins. Thats been my experience with the bike so far.

Anyways... any other questions I can help with ? I mean feel like a carb expert now, lol. ANDTHANX AGAIN TOO ALL!

-MS