1981 xj650 starts but only by spraying "quick start"

I'll give a quick run down on what's been done so far and a brief history on the bike first. I bought the bike a month ago from a guy who had it sitting in his garage (not running) for 4-5 yrs. He bought the bike from a guy who had the bike on the road running, however the bike was sold as a "not running" bike. The PO I got the bike from had no idea what is or might be wrong with the bike. So far, i've bought a new air filter, battery, plugs, changed the oil and filter, cleaned the carbs, and replaced the fuses.
The bike will turn over and if i give it a shot of "quick start" in the air box, the bike will catch (only with the choke on) and then stall out after a few seconds. If I give it gas with the throttle, it'll die out right away. The old spark plugs were black and sooty and after sitting for 4 or 5yrs, i'm sure you can imagine the gunk that was cleaned from the carbs.
At this point, it seems that i'm overlooking something and I have no idea what to do from here. Any help or suggestions would be an amazing help!

Thanks!

 

When you cleaned the carbs, did you pull the emulsion tubes ?
Did you make sure the slides operated freely?
With all rubber parts removed flow carb cleaner through all ports?

Do you have fuel coming from the tank and into the carbs?
If so, Have you checked the carb float levels ?

Might fill in your location and put model in your signature.

 

Clean the enrichment jets too.

Clean enrichment circuit
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8918.html

 

I cleaned the emulsion tubes during my first attempt at getting the carbs cleaned out, ran carb cleaner through almost everything I could see and although I do have gas running from the tank, i've also made sure my fuel filter is clean of anything.
The carbs were extremely dirty when I cleaned them the first time, so perhaps more gunk worked its way around. I will check the float levels and make sure the enrichment jets are clean, as well as double check the emulsion tubes. I'll re-post with an update on how everything turns out.

 

4 or 5 years?
Not good.
You need to:

Remove the Face of the Petcock and Clean the Petcock Passages.
Replace the Gas Line from the Petcock to the Carbs
Pull the Carbs and Float Valve Body's
Inspect and Clean the Beenie Screens.
Remove the Number-1 Carb and Fuel Supply Tee.
Clean the Fuel Supply Gallery Passage with a Gun Cleaning Brush.

Flush the Pilot FUEL Jet Passage up through the Top by using a Rubber Squeeze Syringe.
Flush the Pilot AIR Jet Passage
Flush the Main Air Jet Passage with the Emulsion Tube extracted.

 

Rick is there a link you can provide to see the syringes I often see referenced for carb passage cleaning?

 

Syringe:

 

I removed and cleaned everything suggested. Every float level was different and needed to be adjusted to the proper height. I put the carbs back in the bike, and with a small shot of quick start (the bike wouldn't start without it), the bike fired up and once the "quick start rev" died down, the bike stayed running at a nice even idle. I didn't try to re-start the bike after it had been running to see if it would start with out the quick start. Its after midnight here and didn't want to wake the n'bors. I did notice a rotating squeaking noise coming from the front-right side of the engine while it was running. (if that description makes any sense) Any ideas on that noise?

 

sound may be the clutch plates in sticky old oil and gunk, maybe try an oil flush and change again? heck it might go away with some more running

 

I gave the bike another oil change,figured it couldn't hurt. Found out (in the process of everything) the 4th header is staying cold when the rest are jet hot, so i'm off to troubleshoot another issue. The joys of trying to get an old bike back on the road!

 

check the carb-to-intake boots for leaks. you will get a funny squeal sound from a leaky one.

if you have cylinder loading up on gas and not firing, it may be a bad plug or wire. have you checked compression?

 

The intake boots are nice and snug and I replaced the rotten old gaskets with new ones. I have spark on all 4, as well as compression. I switched the plug wire from #1 plug and put it on #4 plug, to see if #1 pipe stayed cold, but it got hot and #4 still stayed cold. My float bowls all have fuel and the floats were leveled the other day. The plugs are new. I'm almost stumped..

 

Swap the Plug-In Connections from the Coils into the Wiring Harness.

If the problem moves to another Cylinder and 4 Fires ... then, the problem is up there at the Coils.

While you are trying "Everything"
Strip some copper wire and twist is tight.
Remove the Plug Cap and "Stuff" the twisted-up wire as far up into the Plug Wire as it will go.
Leave an eith of an inch at the end of the Plug Wire.
Replace the Cap.
Test.

 

I switched the connections from the coils into the wiring harness and got a nice backfire from the right side when the bike was running. I found a good deal on a good working set of coils on ebay, so i'm just waiting for their arrival.

 

After installing the "new-to-me" coils, the bike was still acting the same. A friend took a look at the bike for me and managed to discover a bit of dirt in the tank. After shaking some nuts and bolts around in the tank and cleaning it out, another good cleaning of the carbs, putting it all back together, he hit start and the bike fired right up.. and stayed running. Problem seems to be solved with this issue! Bike starts and runs good, now on to the rest of the repairs! Thanks for all the help and suggestions!