New Owner - neat surprise...lots to do...

Hello all, this is my first post here. By the way, i'm very impressed with this site! I know i'll be using your guys' advice a LOT for fixing up my new XJ! And hopefully you can all share in the exhilaration of my newest obsession.

About the bike: Searched on craigslist for an old bike, something affordable, needed some fixing up. First bike i looked at was, according to the owner, "a 1982 yamaha 650." It was pretty much love at first sight. Shes black, sexy, good paint, no dents, no scrapes, "not running but probably just carb work", missing a left muffler and front turn signals, brakes and suspension look great, new battery, clear title, and a few other nice features....I was able to talk him down to $375 including a sweet cover for her. Took home my *first bike ever* in a buddy's truck, sat on her all evening imagining what shes gonna sound like. From the looks of her, must be an XJ 650.

Few days later, removed carbs, dismantled, soaked and cleaned thoroughly, put back together. One day later...throw the carbs back on, press the button and BANG! Shes running, fierce, beautiful, pretty smooth...
Small hiccup, shes smoking a little bit...somewhere low and front, could be from the engine de-greaser i used the day before...should probably shut her off just in case there's no oil or something...smoke cant be good.

Next day, drain oil...*SIX* quarts come out....very watery...hmmm.
Put six new quarts of oil in (stupidly), try to fire her up....just cranks, nothing but a few backfires and sputters....oh and some oil spewed out into the airbox...that 'aint right!

Next Day: i realize theres a freaking sightglass on the crankcase...woops! drain a few quarts of new oil until its actually at the right levels... Try to start her, but by now my battery is dead, oh well, should probably clean excess oil of the spark plugs first anyway and see what color they are.

So thats where i stand currently, havent yet pulled the spark plugs, but i have bought new ones to replace them with once i get a chance...hopefully she'll run fine now that the oil is not way overfilled.

Also, get this: i got a service manual in the mail today. So i go out to check the engine/frame serial number on my new XJ, and *surprise!* I am the proud new owner of an XJ 750 Maxim...not the 650 i thought i bought! Sweet!

So anyways, thats my story up 'til now, and i'm so excited to get her running! I'm completely a newbie at this, so i could use all the advice i can get! I've a brilliant mechanic friend helping me out, but hes on permanent travel and cant be reached much, so i'm pretty much on my own.

I'm stoked i found this site, and i look forward to hearing from you all. My bike isnt even running yet and i'm already captivated by her! I wonder what her name shall be?

- Erik

 

Congrats on the new bike. You say this is your first man there will never be another first. Even though it was 43 years ago I remember it well. I don't know if you have learned to ride yet but I would suggest taking a course if you have not. It would be a shame to break your new bike too quick. Good luck with the repairs.

 

It will take some time to find out what her name will be.
Charge the battery and change the plugs. I dont under stand how the oil spewed into the air box? make shure the fuel in the tank has not gone bad and change the fuel filter if there is one. If you got spark-air and fuel it shoud run.

 

welcome to the board, I just bought my first bike about 6 months ago, same way you did, craigslist, didnt know anything was just lookin for a cheap bike, I found one that I could afford and picked it up for $300 running. 1982 XJ650 and I'm lovin it. She has a few issues right now and sometimes wont start. But its a perfect first bike to learn on, learn to ride, and learn to repair it. I couldnt have done it without these guys on here. Congrats.

 

Welcome to the site uncebanyo and congrats to the "new" bike!

I would suggest you look at the fuel delivery system! The petcock on these bikes has three positions... Res On Pri and is vacuum operated from cyl # 3. Fuel will always flow in the Pri postion even if the engine is NOT running. Res and On should only flow fuel when the engine is running. Pull the fuel line off the petcock to check this out. If you put a long hose on the smaller vacuum line and apply a vacuum to the petcock you could verify the operation of the valve.

Another problem with this bike is the carb float valves, seems like they like to stick open at times.

So, if the bike was stored with the valve in the Pri position and the float valve(s) were stuck open then the fuel would overflow the carb(s) and leak to where ever it can leak to. Usually ends up going past an intake valve, and past the piston rings to flood the crankcase. You end up with watery, fuel smelling oil.

If you run the bike in this overfull state, the crankcase pressure will blow the excess fuel/oil out the crankcase breather into the air filter box. This in turn soaks the air filter and causes a too rich state for the engine to run correctly and it eventually will stall.

Drain the oil, refill with cheap stuff to the correct fill level, run the engine for a bit to circulate around, drain the oil and change the filter (this gets rid of the fuel leftovers). Clean out the airbox, check the air filter - may need to replace it also.

You may also want to tear into the carbs to clean everything, check the float levels, and give it a general once over. A bike that sits for a length of time not running will gum up the carb workings.

Happy riding!

 

I'll echo the welcome uncebanyo, sounds like your off to a good start. Get the fuel petcock turned to the on position and change your airfilter.

 

Check, check, check and...check. Thanks for the welcome! I think the petcock is is good working order, and i'm making sure not to leave her on prime...actually i'm only using the RES position right now.

So now shes running, but i have a few questions:

Ok, so I pulled the spark plugs today, they were black as night, pretty thickly built up. Put in new ones, and she fired right up and was running real strong at first (although very rich), with the choke about half open to get her to idle around 900rpm. She responded well to the throttle and didn't lag at all.
After running for a few minutes she stopped responding at all to the throttle, we thought she might be running out of gas so we shut her off and went to get more.
When i got back and filled her up (By the way, i fixed my fuel gauge today and it was sweet to see that working!) she wouldn't start without pulling the throttle a good amount, and once running again, wouldn't idle with it let go. I Checked the idle adjustment screw and tightened it as much as i could, but it wasnt enough for her to idle on her own. She was still running very rich on both sides of the engine (probably all 4 cylinders?), and not going over about 1200 rpm. At first i had the choke wide open. Adjusting it helped some, but not much.

Obviously theres a little adjustment to be done...but boy, when i first fired her up today, she was running like a bull! although that was temporary,That was enough progress for me for the day!

So tomorrow i'm gonna work on adjusting the mixture, and hopefully maybe that'll make her respond better? I was planning on just adjusting the pilot mixture screws. When i cleaned the carbs, i realized that they were somewhere around 6 full turns unscrewed, which seemed odd, so i adjusted them the to ~2.5 turns unscrewed that is recommended. I was thinking about maybe putting them back to -6 turns to see what happens? Keep in mind that here in Boulder i'm at 5300ft in elevation. Could this be why those screws were 6 turns out? One other thing i noticed is that the service manual says the factory jets are only good below ~5000ft, and that they should be changed for above that elevation...is this something I should consider?

Also of note is that my "air filter" is mostly homeade out of a dirty scotch-pad and the cage to an old legit filter...obviously this needs replacing, but my question is if maybe this could be causing the engine to run rich? Also the air box is missing some screws on the lid, and therefore is not truly sealed, another possible cause perhaps?

Anything else i should check/adjust to make my mixture leaner?
Thanks!

 

Welcome to the fold. I too am above the recomended elevation. The stock jets are working on my xj700 though. Your pilot jets probably should be at around 3 to 3 1/4 turns out. For this elevation. The pilot jet not only delivers fuel bue also air to cylinders at idle speed. But it sounds like the carburetors still need some attention. search ric-o-maticts Cleaning carbs the whole nine yards. It sounds like someone may have gotten the main air get and the main pilot air jet mixed up when they reassembled them. These are located in the top of the carbs under the cover. These can easily be switched around backwards because the Haynes manual shows them that way. Great information there. I am in Colorado Springs by the way. It seems that we have quite a few xj's here in colorado now. W are going to have to schedule some riding time As a group and a carb clinic. There are still some good riding days during the winter. Just have to ride before the sun goes down.
If you run into too much trouble feel free to look me up here. Just send me a PM. Anything I can do just let me know. I am allways up for working on these bikes when ever I can.

 

Get a new air filter and check the oil level in the sightglass every time you go out to start it up. If the level is increasing you are still getting fuel into the crankcase.

 

So far the oil level isn't increasing, so thats good to see, but i'll keep my eye on it for sure. I set the pilot screws at 3 turns out today, and WOW! Thats the only thing i changed so that must have made the difference i guess, but it runs SOOOOOOOOOOOO nice now. Still just barely rough on idle, but she starts like a dream with no choke, and runs even better!

I went for my first motorcycle ride ever today, the sun was setting over the mountains and beautiful blue and orange clouds were drifting overhead, light breeze, that after-rain smell drifting by my nose at 30mph (i took it slow, just through the neighborhood a few times...) i'm sure i'll have plenty of great rides, but damn, this one will surely be one of best.

Samsr, i'm certainly down for a carb clinic, as i think mine are nice and clean now, but i know they could use some tuning and syncing. Glad to here theres a strong XJ community in the front range...i mean what better place to ride around? (ok, theres probably lots of really great places to ride all over this world, but i like just fine right here!)
Thanks again everyone!
- Erik

(By the way, anyone know where to get a good deal on an air/oil filter? Side covers?)

 

I have both OEM and aftermarket air filters and oil filters (and associated o-rings, etc.) available for your bike, please see my ad over at:

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... rt=45.html

PM me about the side covers, let me know what color and which side you need, I may have some good used ones available!