XJ600-95, problems with cylinder 3

Hi,

I have a -95 XJ600 that I have had some problems with lately. It started last summer when I discovered that cylinder 3 was cold and not working. I took it to a mechanic that did some adjustments with the carburetor and also the screws for the vacuumtubes, which were loose (Yepp, I am a newbee). It worked fine, but after the winter the problems started again. Yesterday when I was going to go for a ride (don't have a license yet, working on it) cylinder 3 waws cold. I took out the plug for cylinder 3 and 4, and replaced them (new ones since a cpl of weeks). I noticed that the plug fo´r cylinder 3 was oily and more black than for cylinder 4. After i cleaned them and replaced them, the bike worked fine on all cylinders.

Any ideas? I realize that it can be a lot of causes to this problems, but I am hoping to get some good ideas from you wizards!

/Beginner

 

Sounds like #3 cylinder is running way rich and fouling the plug to me, you'll need to reset the mixture screw and see if that improves things for you ... do you have a manual? Perhaps one of the 600 guys here will know what a good initial setting will be to get you in the ball park. Also are air filters and exhaust stock standard? Just some initial thoughts.

 

Thanks iandmac for your reply! I forgot to say that I sometimes also have to prime the bike when it has been a couple of weeks since i started it, but I try to only prime it for about 10 seconds..I have had problems with cylinder 3 before, probably because I primed the bike for far to long (1-1,5 minute), but is there any reason why a particular cylinder would be more affected by the prime?

 

Someone is going to have to check (and maybe adjust) the valve clearance (if that hasn't been done recently), then clean and synch the carbs (if that hasn't been done recently), and maybe check compression, if the first two steps don't result in a smoothly runnning, reliable, bike.