Success!! Thanks guys... (long)

XJers:

My carb situation had deteriorated to the point that I was having to leave the choke partially on to keep the bike idling, and it would stumble sometimes on take off. I decided one of the idle circuits must be clogged.

After a couple of postings, advice from some of the XJsperts on this site, and browsing the archives, I decided to bite the bullet and clean my carbs over the weekend.

The float bowls were full of rusty crud (PO -- pre-inline filter), and I think one of the diaphragms wasn't fully seated. I disassembled everything (not as complicated as I thought!), and blasted out all of the passages with carb cleaner and canned air.

I reassembled the carbs and tried to remount them Sunday night, but had some clamp issues (separate posting). I finally solved that problem last night, turned on the gas, and watched a puddle of gas form under the bike.

Reaching through the airbox, I could feel the gas overflowing out of the RH carb. Took them off again, checked the float operation OFF the bike, everything OK.

I put them back on, hooked everything up, and fired her up. Idle semi-decent, incredible bog right off idle, top end OK. Momentary despair. :cry:

Then I sat down and thought back to the various posts I had read -- Off-idle problem = idle (low-speed) circuit. Worsens when throttle applied=lean condition. Pulled plugs -- yep, dry. Solution: richen air mixture screws.

Backed them out to about 4 turns and fired her up again -- BINGO!!

My commute this morning was awesome. My little Seca purred like a kitten at idle and cruising, snarled when I twisted the wick, and made me grin from ear-to-ear the whole time!

Thanks Rich, Robert, Mike, Sno, Rick, BlueMax and all the rest of you guys who take the time to answer newbie posts on this site, sharing your time, knowledge, and experience.

Y'all give us the information and confidence to keep these great old bikes running, and keep us smiling!

Many, many thanks-
Herb

 

Glad to hear you could fix the problem on your own, rather than going to the dealer.
We are all glad to help anytime.
Keep on smilin and keep the rubber side down.
Still probably a good idea to sync. the carbs, and colortune the mixture.
Keep an eye out for the next carb clinic in your area. and you can find help there.
At least you'll be able to ride it there. )

 

Rich:

Yes, I'll be building a simple manometer to synch the carbs in the next week or so, and I'm saving my pennies for a Colortune.

I just spent $30 for the adapter to plug in my carb drains to check the float level, and $30 for a new air filter and carb drain screw w/ o-ring. (Ouch!) My budget is pretty tight with a home-schooling wife and 4 kids, so the Colortune has to wait another few paychecks.

I think the nearest carb clinics are in the Dallas/FW area, which is a pretty "fur piece" from where I live, but maybe I'll have my saddle callouses by the time they have another one.

I'll be taking my bike on its first "trip" on Friday -- about 150 miles to north LA where my parents live, so I guess that will start my training!

Thanks again,
Herb

 

Take the carbs off and eyeball synch the carbs. Entirely eliminates the tool and sorta leaves you with synched carbs, no matter what your valve clearances are like.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Herb, glad things worked out... now get out there and enjoy that bike!!

Oh yeah, I raised 4 kids and my wife home schooled too!
By the way they ALL turned out OK! We were some of the first doing that and sure had a lot of naysayers and critisim!

Mike

 

Glad we could help there Herb, this is what we love to do. And it is so rewarding to hear back from you. Makes it all worthwhile.