How I shot myself in the foot on Fathers Day....

[manshack_one]

Well, I went ahead and bought a new battery. Followed the directions, filled up the battery, charged it for 7 hrs. Put it on the bike, turned the key and the neutral light came on. No headlight though (maybe it doesn't come on until the bike actually starts). Switched the kill switch to run (which by the way my switch only seems to rock to the right and then back to the center never all the way to the left) and pressed the start button. Bike started turning over! It was a great step forward for me. Remember this is my first bike. The only other one I've been on was the little suzuki 250 from the safety class. I can already tell from that sound that I'm dealing with a ton more power. Anyways, the bike wouldn't actually start. Also, it took a few seconds between tries for the start button to do anything. I realized a few tries later that I hadn't turned the petcocks to on, duh! The petcock on the right swiveled around to on without much trouble at all. the petcock on the left however was tough to turn. After turning them though the fuel light came on so I tried starting it again but still no start. Pulled the choke out for a bit but that didn't seem to help either. So, for fear of draining the battery again I turned it off, put the petcocks back to off and decided to leave it for the night. The bike was last registered and inspected in 2005 so I know it was running then. I can see gas in the tank. Where do I start troubleshooting this problem? Should I put the petcocks on prime for a few turns? Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

[mro]

Click below

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...=&threadid=769


mro
btw, just for kicks would check spark first. Takes but a couple minuets to check all four.

[manshack_one]

What's a nice easy way to check for spark?

[Ken Talbot]

The tried and true way is to get someone to use their bare fingers hold one of your sparkplugs against the cooling fins while you press the start button. Tell them to watch closely to see if there is any spark.

Oops, you asked for a nice way to check.

[jimboreeno]

sparky

To check for spark, pull a plug and reattach it to the plugwire. Ground it against the engine and, while looking at the plug for spark, turn the engine over a couple of times.

You may want to go ahead and replace the plugs. they are cheap and new ones will give you a reliable place to start from as you troubleshoot.

Be sure to look at the link the mro posted as well!

[jimboreeno]

I believe that our kind moderator is trying to tell you how to avoid getting the cr@p shocked out of yourself.
Those little jewels can pack a pretty good wallop. I remember as a kid having a bad plug wire on my gocart and having to juiggle it while riding..YEOW

[Ken Talbot]

Ah, you're pretty sharp this morning, jimboreeno! IIRC, the last time I tried grabbing even a plug wire on anything that was running was way back with one of GM's early high-energy ignition units on a Buick. "Good wallop" doesn't even come close to the punch I felt out of that.

Try to lay the plug somewhere where it is out of direct sunlight, but where you can still see it without too many contortions.

[mro]

Try to lay the plug somewhere where it is out of direct sunlight, but where you can still see it without too many contortions.

And NOT next to spark plug hole


mro

[manshack_one]

Thanks for all the great help. I'm very skiddish around electricity (you only have to be bitten once) so I'll be very careful. What do you guys think about that kill switch only rocking to the middle and back right?

[DiverRay]

My kill switch won't really move at all!! But if it isn't in the center, the bike will STOP. As the kill switch is an "emergency" cut off, and the bikes have "tip over" kills on them, I would not worry too much about it.
Do check for spark, put in new plugs, and drain the fuel and put in two gallons of new gas, preferably mid-grade. If the bike has been sitting for two years, you ARE looking at a quick carb clean. Read the threads, and post if you need any help.

[manshack_one]

So when you say ground it against the engine, do I touch the bottom of the sparkplug to the engine? Just by holding the sparkplug out there I don't see anything.

[TopCatGr58]

Okay Rob,

First of all, you have the Special, right!? Does it have the Octopus, that mangled mess of hoses from the petcocks to a central routing "device" that then runs to the carbs?

The Prime function will let fuel flow WITHOUT the engine being turned over, it bypasses the Octy and goes directly to the carbs. You said the fuel light turned on! That light means that you are very low on fuel and would need to switch to reserve soon IF you were riding. Did you drain the OLD fuel out of the bike first along with the carbs? Gas looses 1 octane point every month it sits around, and once it drops below 80 it won't lite the engine!

Only charged the battery for 7 hours?? Last one I bought a couple of years ago stated to charge at least 12 -24 hours to reach it max peak charging capacity. Now that you've used it, it's most likely already locked in it's charge capacity limit.

Have you removed the main connections, battery, starter solenoid, grounds, and checked for corrosion, cleaned up the contacts!? The starter button is just a ground end point for the starter circuit solenoid. If the bike has been sitting outside, a stuck kill switch is a good indication of corrosion, then you probably have similar in the starter push button, the contacts inside the switch house. You can remove the switch assembly, and clean up the push contacts to make a better ground to the handlebars! Also, clean up the large wires/contacts for the starter motor!

Now, the spark plug metal part that screws into the engine, and the nut shaped outside is the GROUND for the plug, so as long as it's touching the engine/exposes metal, then IF there is spark it'll jump from the wire across the gap and thru the plug case to the engine case. The coils actually use a closed loop design, there's 2 plugs/wires for each coil, and the high energy pulse goes from one plug thru the engine and back up the other plug back into the coil!

How does the fuse block look....it's under the right side cover? Does it still have glass fuses? You need to pull them and test with a meter to be sure they have continuity, and also inspect the clips, make sure they are strong and snug, they tend to corrode and easily break off.....hence the need to replace with a new spade type fuse block....see tech tips.

You need to test each plug wire and see if you have any spark anywhere AFTER you verify the fuses are good and that you have power to the TCI/coils! Then depending on your findings, spark on some plugs or no spark on any will determine further troubleshooting procedures!
T.C.

[manshack_one]

I'll revisit the spark issue later. They appear to be fine to my untrained eye. However, when looking a little closer at the fuel situation I found this: (sorry for the cameraphone pic quality)



Another view:




This can't be the right way to do it. One line (4) is cut completely and there's another one with a screw in the end of it. I'm going to need a picture of how this is supposed to look before moving on to spark issues. So is that the octopus?

[manshack_one]

After looking at it I think mine is hooked up so that it basically runs on prime all the time since the hoses only ran down straight to the carbs and not through the octopus at all. So, what kind of tubing do I buy to replace the hoses that are missing?

Also, what size nut is on the bottom of the float bowl? I tried to drain it but can't seem to find the right size. Thanks.

[manshack_one]

This also makes me wonder about the original reason the mechanic gave up. He said he could get it started, get about 1/2 mile down the road then it would flood out and foul up the plugs. Now, I'm thinking that if they wired the fuel hoses so that it basically ran in Prime mode the whole time, wouldn't that make it flood? Doesn't the flow need to be regulated by the octopus? Otherwise, I guess you wouldn't need the octopus at all and those silly japanese just made this a lot more complicated when they could have just put the stupid hose straight into the carb and just made a petcock that says On/Off.

Ok, it's late, please excuse my sorry attempt at sarcasm.