east bay noob looking for any help i can get

hi i just got a 80 650 maxim and this bike is not running at the moment it is a bobber project, but not having any motorcycle experience sucks, and i dont have that much money to have a shop to fix it up so any help from fellow bay area member who are willing to help, i'd really appreciate it, i might not have a lot of money to pay you back but if you ever need any help im there. thanks to all.

 

if anyone that can help me to get this bike back to running im willing to give you all the money i have in my bank which is not very much at the moment, im a student with no job so i only got like 130 bucks, but when i make some more i will pay you back.

 

$130 should be more than enough to buy you a manual, a socket set, some screwdrivers, an impact driver, a multimeter, a can of KROIL and a few cans of carb cleaner.

 

the problem is electrical and i am pretty much clue less so having someone who worked on these bikes help me will make this a whole lot easier, i've cleam the carbs so far.

 

can you turn the engine over with the starter?

 

yeah when i hooked up the car battery to the starter i can turn it over and it seems to have good compression

 

i dont have a motorcycle battery. the one i have it on is dead

 

Save up $40 and get one from WallyWorld. I don't pass your way often but I am up in the Davis area once in a while (got a great friend out in Halfmoon Bay). Hope we get the chance to meet!

 

thx robert i hope i get to meet u too not many XJs up here

 

ditto on the wally world battery. i've had pretty good luck with this battery charger/tender.

ok - so, you can turn it over and seem to have compression. most auto parts stores will let you borrow a gauge to check what the compression actually is. there's a write up on this site for how to do it properly and what the numbers mean, etc. (search: compression check)

next question: do you have spark?

 

see the problem is that i dont have spark i have fuel i have compression and only thing missing is spark

 

ok. the cheap and easy way to diagnose spark is to start at the plugs and work your way towards the battery.

have you tried new plugs? i think you can get a set of 4 for under $10.

after that, you'll want to get a multimeter and check the resistance on the coils. a manual will detail this procedure as well as tell you what the resistance values should be.

 

yeah i will do that hopfully is just 4 bad spark plugs lol. still need to get battery tho

 

just bought a multimeter gonna go check resistance tomorrow on the coils

 

cool. post what you find out.

 

here is the thread http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=26981.html