82 xj550 starting over

Hi, I purchased this 82 XJ550R over 7 years ago when it had 3000 miles on it, and have loads of fun on it over the years and I must admit that I have not taken the best care of it, except for oil changes and a few carb removals and cleanings. I live in Lake Tahoe and have not exactly been kind to it over some of the winters. Last year it started running weird and needing a bit of choke to keep it up and running. symptoms such as stalling at red lights, bogging down at higher revs, so i stopped riding it as winter was approaching. Well winter sort of hasn't come to Tahoe even tho it should of. so i fired it back up and it ran like crap for a few minutes. I then noticed oil level was over the viewer so I drained it and found it mixed with loads of gas. Reading the forums here I started to diagnose the problem, leaking petcock for starters (see pic) then i pulled the carb (see pic). I also found behind the air filter that some chipmunk had been storing his pine nut shells in there. I cleaned that out, cleaned the carb checked the floats and slapped it back together, flushed the crankcase with some oil and filled it back up. placed an in-line shutoff valve on the gas line and fired it back up. I must say it sounds a bit rickity up top by the valves and i have never played with those. It ran for a few minutes with some choke but dies fairly quickly as i shut the choke off. My question is at this point should i just de-commission the thing and dedicate a month to ripping the valve covers off and going through the right process to get it back into shape or is there more to be concerned about with the crankcase given the crap I found in the carb. (see pic) I'm fairly good with tweaking on carbs and have fixed the clutch on the bike before but the valves scare me a bit. I guess i just wanted to start a thread to document my progress with this problem but honestly i'm probably just searching for a vote of confidence to attack it and not just send it into the local motorcycle shop. One thing i know is that I dont want to part with my beloved ride.

 

The carb pic tells you what you already know (but don't want to hear......completely clean the carbs as in "the church of clean". You CAN do it. Don't psych yourself out otherwise. Yes, you CAN do it. If you think the bowl looks dirty, just think of where the rest of it is.......all through the carbs. Clean 'em.

How many miles on the bike?

Shim check....you CAN do that, too. It's NOT that big of a deal. Read the threads, look at the pics, ask us lots of questions, then jump in. If the miles are not high, make the carbs your priority.

dave fox

 

By the way.....that much rust in the carb also is telling you that the inside of your tank needs some attention. I'd also very quickly put an in-line fuel filter in the line between the petcock and the carbs. That will catch stuff before it gets to the carbs. BUT.....GET THAT TANK CLEANED OUT THOROUGHLY or you're gonna be right back here in short order.

DaveF

 

I've got an in-line filter on it and what looks like rust in the carb was actually just jelly like gas (i think). Its got about 6000 miles on it now.

 

Yes damn rodents in the airbox! We have been over this and now there is proof, little bastards!

That stuff in your carb is gummy varnished gasoline caused by MTBE or ETBE (gas additives) and ethanol mixed with debris from those nuts. Mostly its the bad gas that had time to sit. It has clogged up your carb and is definitely clogging your pilot circuit/jets. Very fixable take those carbs to the church of clean.

Don't be scared by your valves. They are almost as easy as an oil change, but they take a little longer.

Your mileage says FIX IT. If this is your beloved bike then take this opportunity to become reacquainted with it. Besides I think winter will show up sooner or later. NO don't take it to the 'shop'-There is nothing you can't handle.

 

alright..thanks people. I'm going in. I'll keep you posted.

 

If you can "tweak on the carbs, and do the clutch on the bike" you are more than capable of doing the maintenance requried to bring your beloved bike back to prime condition.

You will find all the info you need to handle those dirty carbs, leaking petcock, and many other subjects in the FAQ section. The brake delamination writeup link can be found in my signature.

Some other things that you should also look at over the winter.
Brakes: Your bike is old enough now that the brakes seriously need to be looked at for delamination of the rear shoes, outdated front brake lines, and outdated Master Cylinder - Caliper seals

Fuel Tank: The simple easy method of cleaning up that fuel tank is to soak it with white cider vinegar while you have it sitting on the shelf during the maintenance downtime. The acidic nature of the vinegar will clean up any rust, or varnish build up in the tank while it sits.

Petcock: That petcock is deffinately due for a new set of seals, and rebuild. If you can do the carbs. It will be no problem to take care of this while you are at it. You will most likely find the jelly issue here also.

Valves: You are going to have to make sure that the valves are in spec before you can get the carbs tuned properly anyways. It is not that difficult of a task. I personally feel that getting the carbs cleaned, and tuned is more difficult than checking, and adjusting the valves. Do not let yourself get psyched out think it is to hard. It is not!

Fuse block: If you have not already started having electrical problems. you will before long. A vast majority of electrical problems can be traced back to the fuse block. The metal clips that hold the fuses are known to break with age. An easy repair is to relace the fuse block with a newer blade style fuse block.

You can find all the parts that you will need through the XJ4Ever banner link at the top of the page.

You will be stuck in that garage soon enough. Take your time, and you will have a top notch bike again by spring.

Ghost

 

ok so im in process of taking the carbs tomthe "church of clean" as posted by RickCoMatic at http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2 ... art=0.html
but when i got the pilot jet removal it speaks of screwing them in and counting the turns in. guess what mine were all the way in to begin with. and then he mentions watching put for the o ring and spring which my mikunis have neither of. the clymer manual has no mention of the o ring or spring either. should it have them?

 

Oh yes. They all do.

MIKUNI (from a 550) exploded with PICS!!! http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=31061.html The spring, washer and o-ring are all laid out right below the pilot mixture screw with a nice red circle around them all.

It's not just the Clymer, NONE of the manuals cover the pilot mixture screws, because they simply tell you not to touch them. "Properly adjusted at the factory, don't mess." That was fine but no longer applies, 30 years hence. Mess with them you shall.

The o-rings and washers will likely have to be DUG out. Be careful not to bugger the threads in the process.

 

Today went well, after mistaking the pilot air jet for the pilot screw in the aforementioned tutorial, I was able to realign myself (lunch and a pale ale) and find the spring and tiny "o" ring. Gunk was everywhere as i proceeded to take it to the "Church". I cleaned places I had previously overlooked in my half-assed attempts at cleaning the carbs before, and was blown away with some of the crap I came across. I found remnants of chipmunk snacks under the diaphragm and jelly clogging the lower ports on my needle jets (all of them). No wonder it ran like crap. 7 hours later, 2 cans of carb cleaner, a few sprays to the eye, and a fuzzy feeling of accomplishment (pale ale), i'm poised to start putting it back together. All pieces look good and shiny in their labeled ziplocks and muffin tin, waiting for me to meet them again after a few days of interference due to the "work" thing. Thanks again for all your help.

 

ok.. carbs are back on and inline shutoff valve on gas line is on. tanks been vinegared and cleaned as much as the vinegar suggestion does. test run seems to perform better than it ever has, nice and responsive, nice power flow, but it seems to bog a little when i run it with the gas petcock in regular position. running in prime it does great. could it be getting bottlenecked by my shutoff valve which is a 1/4 inch hole size, or is it somekind of vaccum issue. i feel like i need to solve this before moving onto valves. ideas?

 

obvious solution to my problem was to peruse the wealth of information already available within these great forums. REPLACE petcock and move on.

 

Did you:

Wet-set the floats?
Bench sync the carbs?
Make sure your fuel line is not kinked?

These will need to be done before moving on to your valve clearances. Then and only then you can do a running sync and fine tune on the carbs. No sense in doing a running sync before the valves are adjusted, you'll just end up re-syncing the carbs afterward.

As for the petcock:
If it's leaking as bad as the pic looks like it is, then yes, the diaphragm is not working correctly, which means fuel will not flow like it should.

I would suggest rebuilding the petcock you have. Not difficult, and you still have original function that way.

If you replace the petcock with a non-vacuum operated one, you will have to plug the vac port on the carb boot also.

 

Float levels on the 550s are critical; they have to be wet-set and to do it right, on the bench, completely level in all directions and as close to exactly right as humanly possible. The Mikunis only have a 2mm tolerance to begin with, so screw that +/- 1mm stuff and get them exact.

Getting them all the same (and a good vac sync) makes a world of difference in throttle response, trust me.

And as above, the valves MUST be in spec before the vac sync, or it's just a waste of time.