Bike Dying and backfiring,Help!!

[walter1970]

Hello Guys, My dad bought me this 1978 Yamaha XS-1100E that has sat up for over 5yrs and it was crappy looking too! After we got her cleaned up and decent looking my dad and my uncle took the carbs off and gave them a real good cleaning,bought a tank because the other one was rusted big time, changed all the fluids etc.. "OH by the way my dad is Walter1970, I am his son walter III and I am 14yrs old" Any way we got it running but it had a bad coil so we got another coil and its running on all cylinders but it loses power and then backfires and takes forever to start up again, Does any one have any ideas whats wrong? I really like this bike alot even though I can only ride around on one acre of land,lol,, My dad had four xs11's and he always told me they were great motorcycles but I cant even get this one to tay running more than five minutes! I think my dad is about to pull out what is left of his hair trying to figure it out,PLEASE HELP!!,Thanks Walter Powell III

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Walter,

With the bike sitting for so many years, and being 25+ years old, the Pick Up Coil "WIRES" are notorious for going bad, cracked, breaking, causing intermittent firing. Your bad ignition coil may have been a misdiagnosed PU coil problem, if you were only seeing fire from 1 coil?? Hope you saved the old coil?!

Anyway, go to the TECH TIPS from the MAIN FORUM PAGE, scrolling down, repairs, Electrical, and you'll find the PICKUP coil wire fix tip! Check it out, and then check yours, you'll probably find bad wires. Once fixed, you'll be running for hours!
T.C.

[prometheus578]

"What T.C. said...."

Also... what do the plugs look like, Walter?

[81xsproject]

What about the old gas tank breather valve? Runs for five minutes, then cuts out, then takes some time to start...? Try running it with the gas cap open, if it doesn't die you got it.

[GNEPIG]

"Prom... you are correct", "Prom.. you are wise, indeed. "HobbyMan... don't listen to T.C., Prometheus is the man."

[HobbyMan]

HMMM... Looks like we have something in common. I am 17, you ae 14. My dad and I have 5 xs between us. Interesting. Looks like I am not the youngest aspiring XS mechanic/owner yet. We want to see some pics when you get a chance. I would say that you should check your pickup coil wires. Also, make sure that you have good fuel flow. It may not be a fuel problem, but it isn't that hard to check. Open the carb bowl drains and turn the petcocks to prime. If your lines are kinked, you will have enough fuel to start the engine, but it will starve itself and then shut off. Then It would take a second to refill the bowls. Just a thought.

[walter1970]

Here is a pic of her

I am determined to get her running dang it!!! I thank all of you for all of your input,My dad is a truck driver and has limited time to spend on the bike so I appreciate you all.

[HobbyMan]

Hey, thats not bad. Since you are going to have to learn how to work on it anyway, you might as well start doin it now. My dad is also gone on long trips. I learned to work on my 80G when he would be gone for half the month. Do you have a manual? I have spent counltess hours late at night/ all night in the garage staring at the manual trying to troubleshoot problems. That in conclusion with this site has allowed me to keep 4 bikes going and now I am rebuilding a 5th. If you ever want to post some more photos, there is a thread for that if you haven't seen it yet. I don't condone anything illegal, but I must say that some of the best times I have had with my bike were those late nights driving town before I got my mc license. It put about 2k miles before I even got insurance or my license. Needless to say, I had ridden my 1100 soo much that when I took the msf course, I blew through it without a problem.

[walter1970]

Hobbyman seems we have alot in common,,lol,, My dad bought me a honda 50 when I was 4yrs old and been riding bikes since,My dad will let me ride a few miles with him but I cant wait to get my license, My uncle owns a 02 yamaha roadstar warrior 1700cc that is a torque monster amd my dad owns a 06 suzuki hayabusa which I get to ride down the street every weekend, I LOVE that bike!!!!! I will post a pic of it with my dad on it


and here is pic of the xs other side, It has a maroon tank on it now

[prometheus578]

GNEPIG... I gotta start sendin' money to you, too, now?
I thought my days of paying people to be my friend stopped in H.S.. (Ok, college)

Walter... that color looks familiar. Duplicolor "midnight blue"?
(Dark Toredor Red is a fairly decent match for "Macho Maroon" if anyone has small touch-ups to do.)
Not an exact match, but "close enough for the girls we date."

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Walter,

You were so close with your photos. Next time, click on the IMG button and paste your URL code there, and it will then SHOW directly in the message, instead of folks having to click on the URL to go see it!

Don't expect to be able to keep up with your dad on that "Busa"! But you should be able to give your uncle a run for his money!

Yes, a manual is a good thing. If you know how to use a multimeter, you can do a lot of the electrical troubleshooting yourself. Let us know what you find wrong, and how you fixed it!
T.C.

[walter1970]

Petcock leaking

Well I went into the garage to have a strong odor of gasoline leaking from the right petcock,Thankfully I had the tank off the bike,I was wondering even if you had a bad petcock could it still flood your engine? I would think the carb floats would cut off the flow,But I am not sure, I looked at my pick up coil and someone had used electrical tape on the four wires,I guess I will be careful and use some shrink tube on the wires. I still havent found out yet why the bike runs for about five minutes and starts cutting out but I am going to start checking the bike out this weekend. I will let you know what I find. WalterIII

[John]

Check the gas cap vent for the cutting out problem.
A leaking petcock can flood the carbs only if the float needle and seat aren't sealing properly. It's hard to tell from the pics, but if the carbs are from an 80-81, then the O ring around the float seat can leak, and there is no way to stop it, other than replacing the O rings. I recommend rebuilding the petcocks asap.

[webbcraft2150]

If you didn't do the dreaded "triple clean" you still might have carb problems. There are parts in them that have little itty bitty holes that hafta be clean or she aint gonna run right. Once you get it dialed in, she will scream.

At your age, you are climbing on a road rocket, able to get in trouble faster than you can say "oh sh_ _!!!! Respect the machine till you get some time under your belt. Remember, its always easier to speed up than it is to slow down or stop. Wear your skid lid. Its not a matter of if you will lay it down, its when.

[HobbyMan]

Its not even funny untill you are being chased by the PD for not having plates. Don't ask me how I know. Luckily, I was able to get away fast enough and hide. I DO NOT suggest that you do that. It was very very dumb and dangerous.