Pods and hard starting.

[Hired_Goon]

I doubt there is a problem there Ken. I have cleaned these carbs about five times since I got the bike. I have read nearly every carb thread written here on XS11.com and cleaned every little orifice in those suckers. Also gets a bit of injector cleaner (similar to seafoam) in with every third tankfull to keep her clean.

I even removed the carbs once to solely reclean the bowl spooge holes after I read it on here.They are tiny little holes but I found if I poked a single small LED bulb (mini Maglite with lense removed) down the gallery then I could see a tiny bit of light in the hole in the bottom of the bowl.

These always get checked now whenver the carb bowls come off.


Trust me, I think you would be hard pressed to find a set of carbs cleaner than mine. (on the inside anyway)

Will keep up with the discipline of not twisting the throttle for a few more days and see if it keeps working. Geez, retraining after forty ain't easy.

Cheers
HG

[prometheus578]

"Glad you got it"

The problem with coming in late on a post is that all the usual answers are already given, then one must go for the obscure.
When starting, the brain box supplys 12 volts to the coils, then when it runs, the juice goes through the ballast resistor first lowering the running voltage. I was going for the odd possability that the magic box was only putting out intermittently on start up. (if that's even possable)
Another bad habit often seen is people flicking the throttle several times before starting the bike... like pumpin' the gas pedal on a car. (Our bikes don't have accelerator pumps or carb prime systems.)

[Ken Talbot]

Originally posted by Hired_Goon

I even removed the carbs once to solely reclean the bowl spooge holes after I read it on here.They are tiny little holes but I found if I poked a single small LED bulb (mini Maglite with lense removed) down the gallery then I could see a tiny bit of light in the hole in the bottom of the bowl.

Now there's an interesting way of checking. I tried it out last night on a nice, clean spare bowl and you're right, it really does work. Here's what I saw looking down in towards the orifice:



Here's what it looks like if you shine the bulb down from the top, then look into the orifice from inside the bowl:



It is actually quite a large passge when it is clean!

[TomB]

I know its not the sort of thing you want to do every morning, but if my bikes not been ridden for a week or two I use full choke, full throttle, ignition off and several kicks on the lever. Then start as normal.

It always pulls a decent amount of fuel through.

Its an old habit from riding old Brit bikes (Triumphs)

[oseaghdha]

Its an old habit from riding old Brit bikes (Triumphs)

I thought you just mashed down on the the tickle button till gas ran out the bottom of the motor, prayed to the Lucas gods and kicked. Or hoped you were parked on a hill.

[Hired_Goon]

Originally posted by Ken Talbot


It is actually quite a large passge when it is clean!

Yep, Now it's time to get some fibre optic cable to check the rest of the passages in the cab bodies.

[Ken Talbot]

Geez, HG, you gotta quit coming up with these ideas. Where the heck am I gonna get my hands of a piece of fibre to try this with. It sounds just too neat to let it pass by without trying...

[Hired_Goon]

Originally posted by Ken Talbot
Geez, HG, you gotta quit coming up with these ideas. Where the heck am I gonna get my hands of a piece of fibre to try this with. It sounds just too neat to let it pass by without trying...

Might have to wait til xmas. Take the pliers down the shop and "snip" a branch of the fibre optic xmas tree on display.

[TomB]

I thought you just mashed down on the the tickle button till gas ran out the bottom of the motor, prayed to the Lucas gods and kicked.

Petrol would only run into the cylinders when tickled with downdraft carbs like the Nortons had, full throttle, choke and no ignition and a kick on the lever made sure petrol went into the motor rather than out the back of the bellmouth stack with straight manifolds. (In my experience)

Lucas Prince of Darkness, know what you mean there, the last Triumph I built has Honda alternator and coils.

[goldcoastguy001]

Hey guys need not forget that the xs'ives don't have a choke, it's an enricher circuit. A choke involves a butterfly on the airbox or air filter side of the main jet that closes and causes extra fuel to be sucked into the cylinder(s), the enricher on the xs'ives only add a richer mix whilst the engine is warming up and doesn't involve any sort of butterfly thats why you cannot touch the throttle when starting with the enricher engaged.......

[HobbyMan]

unless its flooded from leaking float pins and petcocks

[HobbyMan]

BTw: Still seems like the rpm is a little low for full "choke." With a cold engine and full choke, my bikes will start around 2500 rpm and work up to well over 3500 after a minute or soo.

[pggg]

I start mine a bit different when cold, full choke and fires up instant, idles at about 1500 revs for about 10 seconds, then off with the choke and it idles nicely at 500 revs, when warm sits at 1000 revs, but with my sticky throttle(giant bolt screwed into the bar end under the twistgrip)) I sit the revs at 1000 with no choke while warming up

[petejw]

low idle

jst a thought regarding setting ur idle below specs,
back in the older days working on old 6 cyl engines,
ppl were setting the idle around 450-500rpm which they
would do easily instead of around 900, problem was they
were damaging engine parts. By not pumping enuff oil
thru the oil pump oil pressure was to low.
I wouldnt see it being a problem while the bike was warming up, but mayb whilst sitting in traffic and such.
Not sure if this would be relevant to our engines or not, but just thought id put it out there.

[petejw]

oh by the way HG
it was good that you figured it out,
get out there ridin before winter. :-)