Engine/carb issue with xj650 maxim '82, please help

That's not a venturi, it's a progression hole. And don't set it "over" it, set it at the edge, right at the edge. Sorry if I wasn,t clear on that.

 

And if We're being pedantic here, you check and set each carb fully closed, making sure it does, individuually before doing any adjusting (by now you should have worked out that you have to adjust the idle nob on No3 and the sync screws on the others to allow this) snap them open and closed a few times to check they all close first, then start the bench sett process.
Remove my appology, I did say "edge" of the hole.

 

sorry it was my mistake, I knew that was the correct way to do it but misspoke in my communication of it. that trick is far easier than the paperclip/card method

 

Little things are all it takes to upset these things, the amount of air and fuel needed for idle is tiny, so details matter.

 

so if I am able to get the enrichment half off and the idle is dropping with it that would mean that the bike isn't getting enough oxygen and thus I would need to turn open the idle knob?

 

Either that or the mixtures are all way weak. Reduce the enrichener slowly, turn up the idle knob until the enrichener is all off. Then try screwing mixtures out to see what happens. iwould try to get it idling somewhere near right before synching.

 

Okay I’m setting the butterflies to just cover the front edge of that progression hole on all carbs so that the hole is NOT visible. Then I back the idle knob (and thus all 4 carbs) out about 1.5 turns, or until about half of the most forward progression hole is visible.
Is the procedure above correct? Depending on response time and how quickly I get this done I may start with only a sliver of the progression hole visible, to err on the side of less fuel/air flow and lower rpms

 

You don’t have to play the card game OR use paper clips
1. Set carb 3 with the butterfly juuust on the back edge of the hole at the top of the butterfly.use the idle screw to do that
2. Now, use the sync screws to adjust the other three to the same spot.
(3. I snap the linkage a dozen times at this point)
4.back the idle screw out until carb 3 hole is covered HALFWAY
5. Double check that the other three are also half way. Now fine adjust until all are half covered after snapping again several times.

you are now bench-synced. It took you longer to read this than it takes you to do it. It usually takes about 1 minute to do.

per hogfiddles!

 

Well what I was suggesting was that once all exactly parallel you back off the idle screw until all are closed, then open a turn and a half. Either way, the important thing is to get them as close as, with the idle screw somewhere near close to where it needs to be - exactly where that is is not vitally important, you can screw in in or out as it warms up. I think @hoggfidles said it takes no longer to do than read his procedure, maybe not for him, but it does me.

 

Wow! It works! Or it worked for like a half hour until the electrics cut out (hopefully an entirely separate and non-related issue). I did the procedure the right way (thanks to Minimutly, NikoRx, and hogfiddles) and it started on its own (no starter fluid) and idled at 1.5k. Amazing. Now ive got to go charge the battery and figure out what went wrong there. But progress nonetheless

 

Feeling jealous you got yours to idle there! Hopefully I’m not too far behind you with mine!!!

 

Without trying to beat you up too much, the answer above was nearly 2 months ago. I know it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff sometimes, but I think there is a lesson here somewhere.
Well done, now think carefully what you're trying to achieve before doing it, do the running sync and try and set the mixtures. If you get lost with the mixture settings go back to the standard settings (2 and 3/4 turns from soft bottom if I recall).

 

Now im just worried about the electrical system. Really hope its not related and an easy fix but the coincidence is odd (broke within a half hour of getting my idle normal) and with this bike I never know. @NikoRx didnt you say you were having some electrical issues?

 

Why yes I am! I have been having the bike start about half the time, tested the starter motor and that’s ok and the solenoid is only a few years old so my guess is it’s the wiring or the starter button I replaced. Going to clean the connections and test the solenoid next

 

This is my last answer to your thread. Stop bloody guessing and start being methodical! Get workshop manual and a meter, and if you can't use either then do a search, kmoe did a good how to on here.

 

I guess my post had the wrong tone, but yes that’s what I plan to do. I didn’t do the bench sync right and I certainly suffered for it. Lesson learned, I’ll post updates on the electrics

 

Got my bike to idle at 3500 and did the carb sync but I can’t get my idle lower and when I pull the throttle it ends up killing the idle. How’s yours?

 

Hey - that's bad news - did you check absolutely each carb closed fully, plate tight across the body? I won't ask if you bench synced them, but assuming they all close, and you can wind the idle screw all the way out, they will close on the bike. That means your engine will idle to a stop. No air = no idle. Remind me do you have yics? Is the yics tool out? If not take it out and make sure to replace the bungs.

 

Yep looks like the plates closed tightly only allowed the smallest sliver of light through when held up to a light source in a few spots, they slapped shut and look pretty tight. Bench synced yes. Yics tool yes but I wasn’t using it. Mixture screws at 3.5 and not sure how far in the idle screw is but I kept messing around with it and it just dropped. I was at least able to sync the carbs further with the enrichment off using a homemade device. Not quite sure how to approach this problem and searching the forum for answers, tried removing the air filter and it made no change.

 

You "messed around with it" and it "just dropped"... let me think about this now - what does messed around with it mean? You should be closing it - actually closing the throttles, backing out the idle screw, a little bit at a time. If the rpms drop, good, up to a point. Ultimately if you back off the idle screw slowly, the rpms should drop slowly. If it gets to somewhere near 1500 rpm you should try mixture screws in a quarter each. Actually if you're weakening it too much you will hear it on the 1st or at least the 2nd.
The last thing - if the engine just stopped you checked you weren't out of fuel right?

 

Running out of fuel did happen once . But by messing around I mean that while the enricher was on I would turn the idle screw and slowly switch the enricher off until I got to a point the enricher was fully off and the bike would start with out the enricher if it was hot enough. I also turned the mixture screws to try and help and it appeared to work. So once it was idling without the enricher I started turning the idle screw counter clockwise to reduce the amount of airflow and there was one spot where the idle just crashes.
I’m going to reset it all tomorrow, 3 turns for the mixture screws and 1.5 turns of the idle mixture and go from there. Logically I felt like it should have crept down to 1200 but I will figure this out yet, going to grab my manual for some bed time reading

 

Hmm, Without reading back I'm guessing you only have one gauge? You really need 2. That way you can leave the "master" on no3, otherwise every time you adjust for vacuum the rpm drops and the vac on the master changes without you knowing it.

 

It’s the two bottles with tubings, I did 3+4 then 1+2 then 2+3. Got the levels in each bottle as close as I could