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Starting Issue

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by take14theroad, Apr 18, 2012.

  1. take14theroad

    take14theroad New Member

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    Hey Guys,

    So I have hit a little snag in getting the bike back together- carb tuning. The problem that I am having is with getting the bike started(sometimes). Since a lot of the threads that I read on here start of with people requesting more information, I'm just going to start from the beginning.

    I feel that I did a pretty thorough job with my carburetors. I broke the rack, soaked them, and got air to go through all the passages that I could figure out from diagrams. They also ran well before taking them apart, so I don't think there were any passages that were totally clogged.

    I also did the valves while I was redoing the carbs, so I do not think that is the issue.

    When I first tried to start the bike I realized I had no spark. After a little while I realized I had no spark, and traced the problem to a bad connection on one of the control boxes for the ignition (Ignitor I believe). Once I fixed it, the bike fired right up(it had some starting fluid in it) and ran at about 7000 RPM. Long story short, the throttle cable was not allowing the butterfly valves to close (Fitz proposed this for a similar problem and he was spot on). The bike has a nice normal idle after that.

    I plugged the YCIS passage and synced the carbs. The bike seemed to idle happily and would rev up well. It was a touch slow to come back down, but I figure that is reasonable because i Has not been colortuned and I have it a little richer than it should be (the air screws are 3 turns out, i just read another thread that said 2.5 turns is a better place to start).

    So, finally to the problem.... The bike is difficult to start. If I walk outside and tough the starter (no choke) it starts right up and runs for about a second. When I hit the starter again, it will turn over strong but not start. I can use the choke, but it still does not start, just turns over.

    One thing I have never done is check the gap on my plugs (which probably have about 800 miles on them). I am going to buy the tool and do that tomorrow.

    Any Ideas what could cause this? I had a similar problem in the fall- the bike would sometimes be very difficult to start when cold. I thought cleaning/adjusting the carbs and doing the valve shims would solve it, but it looks like it didn't.

    Sorry for such a long post, but I figured the more info I gave the easier it would be to get help.
     
  2. mook1al

    mook1al Member

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    Buy the tool and another new set of plugs. When you say you did a thorough job on the carbs, did you use a tiny wire or welders file to clean the enrichment circuit(choke)? Sounds to me that the enrichment circuit is still plugged, or the float height is low. Did you check the float height via clear tube method?

    If you haven't already, read the church of clean here, http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14692.html

    and the whole nine yards here, http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2908.html

    and pretty much any and all of the FAQ suggestions here, http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewforum/f=21.html

    Good luck.
     
  3. bigfitz52

    bigfitz52 Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    The starting drill (unless you live where it's really hot) should be:

    Put petcock on PRI for about 30 seconds; switch back to ON.

    Full choke. DO NOT TOUCH the throttle.

    Hit the button. It should fire, and if it immediately starts to "run up" that's good, start backing off the choke until it holds at around 2500.

    Once it's holding 2500, you can "blip" it at which time it will probably require "turning down" the choke a bit more to stay below 2500.

    Then let it warm up while you put on your helmet and gloves. Once it responds to throttle "normally" (even if the choke is still on a bit) you can ride away.

    As the motor warms up the rest of the way, turn the choke off.
     
  4. take14theroad

    take14theroad New Member

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    I cleaned the little passages with a wire tool from XJ4ever, but I did not clean the little tube for the enrichment circuit. The cutaways of the carbs really helped my understand how they worked. I think that that little tube being clogged would make perfect sense with having difficulty starting but running great once it gets going.

    I did set the float heights, they are all where they should be.

    My only question is why does it pop right away when you first click it? Is there a little extra gas sitting somewhere or something else that might be wrong.

    Fitz-

    I normally use that procedure to start the bike, but right now it doesn't do anything with the choke. I guess plugged circuits would make perfect sense for why the choke does nothing though.

    Ill clean them out as soon as I get a little free time.

    Should I put the idle mixture screws in to 2.5 turns out while i have the carbs off?

    Thanks!
     

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