Hello, Bit o' help

Hello, I purchased a xj700 in good shape last year. I cleaned it up a bit and it ran fine. I replaced the ate up stock air filter with a K&N and new oil filter. Ran a can of sea-foam through it and had no problems other than I lost the crossover pipe on a set of rough railroad tracks. Still ran but was nicely louder. I drove it to work one night and ran out of gas as I pulled into work. After work I came out and switched it over to reserve and cranked till the battery went dead. I pushed it over to the top of a steep railroad crossing and rolled down and it fired up. I drove it home and put it in the garage. I came out the next morning gassed it up and tried to start it and it did a huge backfire and would not start. I payed a guy 300 bucks in Feb to get it running and 8 months later just got pissed off and went and got my bike. Now I have a non running bike and all I know is I need a new battery and a starter rebuild kit. Any of you more experienced XJ'ers have an idea of where I should focus? I also wonder if anyone knows of a good place to buy a starter rebuild kit and Manuel.

I like the sound of the louder exhaust. Do I need the crossover pipe or can I just close off the openings where the pipe came off?
It is some type of aftermarket exhaust cause the pipes was just a bolt on type.

 

For parts hit Chacal (Len) up. Hands down the best place to get parts for any XJ bike. You can click the logo at the top XJ4ever to see the catalog etc.

First is first as many will tell you on this site, make sure the valves are in spec is where you start. If the valves aren't in in spec all your tinkinering will be in vain.

I think though you may have a bad petcock or the petcock screen is clogged in the tank. can you start the bike while on the Prime (Pri) position? It by-passes the vacuum portion of the system and just dumps gas in to the carbs.

You could have had water on the bottom of the tank and it got picked up by running low on fuel. Try some dry gas as well. Does your oil smell like gas? If so you may have a stuck float in a carb....

 

doc said: "First is first as many will tell you on this site, Valves are where yous start. If the valves are in in spec all your tinkiner will be in vain."

Good advice, but just to clear up a mistype: If the valves AREN'T in spec....


doc said: "You could have had water on the bottom of the tank and it got picked up by running low on fuel"

? Water, being heavier than gas, would be at the bottom of the tank anyway. How would running low affect it?


Doc gave some very good suggestions on the post tho. Look some stuff up by browsing/searching this forum and/or ask more q's if you need to!

 

LOL thinking faster than I can type. I edited my comment above. Thanks for catching it pbjman.

 

I am not sure but my experience is that, twice while on reserve my bike has died with bad fuel. My guess is, while maybe insane it is at that point there is more water than gas in the tank, so you are getting more water in to the carbs sitting at the bottom of the bowls and the bike dies... I now add dry gas every now and again when I fill up.

 

Hey doc, that might explain it. The reserve outlet (and also the prime) is lower on the petcock stem in the tank than the regular outlet, which would've caused you to suck some water to your carbs only when you went to reserve. Hopefully, you've dry-gassed all of the water out by now.

 

I know I have gotten all the water out cuz I got a new tank replaced the 650 tank with a 750! extra gallon of gas for me! Out of habit though I add the dry gas ever few fill-ups never know when you'll buy a tank of watered down gas. So I keep a bottle in my saddle bags.

 

What exactly is dry-gas? Is that the the heet additive that drys the water out? Or something different that I m not familiar with?

Also any thoughts on the missing crossover pipe? I cant find one anywhere. I could just weld a new one on or plug the holes.

 

yes dry-gass is the heet additive. It is basically iso-alcohol it bonds with water molecules and then it evaporates out or is burned by the engine. But the generic term for the product is dry-gas. Heet just happens to be the brand you see the most.

 

Check with Chacal if he doesn't have it or know where you can get one, you may need to looking on e-bay and ask here on the sale, swap board.

 

It is also called Gas Line Deicer in Canada. Takes the moisture out of the gas.

 

OK pulled the petcock out and it is all corroded and the filter inside is torn up. This is what I have listed to order so far.
HCP3113SET4 Aftermarket phillips-head alloy-steel carb BOWL DRAIN SCREW, set of 4: $ 17.00

All colored vacuum line sold in a 12" length and is priced at $ 4.95.
HCP4914 aftermarket 7/32" NEON GREEN VACUUM HOSE

HCP10336KIT46 Aftermarket complete DELUXE VERSION ON-OFF FUEL VALVE KIT $ 69.95

HCP2341SET2 OEM petcock-to-tank MOUNTING SCREWS, set of two. $ 2.50 pair

HCP4159 Aftermarket starter motor BRUSH AND PLATE SET , $ 44.00

I am worried about doing the carbs.
I guess I am gonna order carb kits off fleabay cause I dont see any kits in Chacals catalog. Anyone have any thing else I should get ordered? reaching the end of my budget though.

 

Chacal has parts available that are not listed in his catalog. Send him a Pm and ask.

Ghost

 

Yeah his catalog is about two years old and hasn't be updates much since the initial posting. I really wish someone would build him a nice website with a shopping cart. PM him tell him what bike u have and what you want/need to do most likely you'll get a message back with all the parts you need