Thanks for all your help, IT RUNS!

I got my 1982 XJ550 running finally. Cranks up instantly on electric start and idles around 1500. Thanks for all your help guys.

Bike - 400$
new air filter - 30$
battery - 34$
Inline fuel filter - 3$
cleaned out/greased alternator - free
aftermarket fuse box - 10$
rebuilt carbs - 85$
new clutch cable - 40$
helmet - 80$
trickle charger - 30$

Riding my first bike down the road, priceless.

 

your idle is pretty high.... should be at 1200 rpm.

Awesome you got it running though. Now comes tweaking. You can turn down the idle by reaching your hand behind the carbs and turning the big idle screw down while running. Manuals say that the tach on the bike isn't accurate enough, but if you get it so that its just sitting a little abovef the 1k rpm mark you're pretty close...

Now that its running strong, the fun begins. The more I tweak my bike closer to perfect the more i love it. today riding home from school, I opened it up more then i ever have before and arrived home with a massive grin on my face. Still have a little more to go, but i'm fine tuning now....

This is my first bike, and i'm enjoying it immensely. looks like you are too.

 

I like my 550 too...especially since I have rebuilt just about everything on it. Now that the brakes work, I really like it. For a 550, it has a lot of spunk when it is running well.