charging my battery

[adam79]

Hey, my battery charger has 3 settings: 6v 6amp, 12v 2amp, or 12v, 6amp. Which should I use to charge the battery on my bike? I've using 12v 2amp for 3hrs, and its not enough to get the bike started, but I'm apprehensive to use the highest setting when I dont know what Im doing. Just in case your wondering, the bike started up fine with a good battery last week. Oh, another thing, I decided to explore and took the gas tank off. I remember a mechanic telling me that the main screw in each of the carbs were supposed to be 2 and 1/2 turns out, so I did it, to all of them. Was this stupid? I'm starting to think so. Oh yeah, this is a 1979 xs1100 special

[CatatonicBug]

The 12v 2amp setting is great for overnight charging or even as a trickle-charger if it has a safety shutoff on it. The 12v 6amp would be fine for the 3-4 hour session you are trying to accomplish. I would suggest the first option though, as it charges with a slower, more complete charge.

[oldyam80sg]

Why did you change the settings on the carbs?Were you having problems?

[tarzan]

I would recommend the lowest setting on your charger.Motorcycle batteries can be overcharged easily.Which obviously decreases life of it.
You now have to go back with the bike running and adjust the idle screws to get the most optimum setting.There are good tech tips here to properly adjust pilots and sync.The problem with statically setting them to one setting is that all carbs will be a tad different to each other.It is pretty much impossible to manufacture all the components exactly the same.So flow rates can be quite different from carb to carb depending on whether jets,needles,passages and other components are the same or a liitle different from the manufacturing process.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Adam,

A more pressing question is WHY did the battery go bad/down?

Once you get the battery charged back up, get a voltmeter, start the bike and then check the voltage at the battery both at idle and then at 2500 rpm. It will be barely 12V at idle, maybe even less, but should rise to 14.5 V at 2500. IF still barely 12, then charging system not functioning properly, lots of connectors to clean, grounds to clean, see Randy's recent thread about slow starters, etc.!! THERE are white connectors BEHIND The fuseblock/panel for the ALT, they too corode, can even get overheated and melted, check there also!

Yeah, stock carb setting is 1.5 turns out but then further tweeking is suggested for best smooth idle and such, see tech tips!
T.C.

[Axel]

1.5 amps

You should find a charger made for our batteries . They charge at 1.5 amps . This is critical to the life of the battery . Lower or higher doesnt work as well .
I left a 2 amp maintainer/minder charger on my battery last winter and it boiled it down quite a bit and this season the battery wasnt as strong . My mech friend says its toast .
He has a real bike charger but its $100. I will be taking the battery out this year until I find a suitable charger.

[boyat68]

Most battery chargers now days monitor battery voltage and reduce the current as the voltage rises on the total battery so that at peak voltage, only a fraction of an amp is applied (trickle charge), thus reducing water loss. Since most cheaper batteries (reduced plate thickness and surface area) cost from 30-50 bucks it does not seem reasonable to buy a special charger to extend the life of a battery a year or so. My thought is that a trickle charger will keep the battery from loosing charge and freezing and the battery will last about 3 years, buying a new one after that is more prudent.

[adam79]

Ok, battery problem solved, but now I got a big problem with the bike. The bike just backfires loudly out of the right hand (if you were sitting on the bike) exhaust pipe. Thats as far as it goes. Before I screwed with them, those screws were between 3 to 4 turns out, and I reset them ALL to 2 and 1/2. Now the bike just backfires. I'm no bike mechanic, and Im broke right now, so how do I re-adjust these screws?

[Axel]

Tech Tips

In the drop down menu above called XS11 INFO there is TechTips . Go to Maintenance then Carbs and you will find some acticles . Among them is this one :

http://www.xs11.com/xs11-info/tech-t...colortune.html

[TopCatGr58]

Help possibly near by?

Hey Adam,

Okay, first of all, EDIT your profile and include the city/state of where you are, you might get lucky and find another Xsive near you that would be willing to provide some HANDS ON assistance!

You don't have to be bike mechanic, but having a general sense of doing simple mechanical maintanence will go a long way towards getting your machine up and running. You stated in your previous oil/filter change thread that you had just acquired it, and that you had never owned a bike before!

Have you taken some time to read thru the tech tips?? You don't have any $$, so you can't go out to eat/movies, why not spend a few hours online learning the tricks you'll need to work on this wonderful machine!?

In the tech tips you'll find one about the Pickup coil repair, it's the second most common problem with these machines next to the carbs!

You haven't told us much about the bike, like did it sit for many years before you got it, or was it ridden often and the owner just got tired of it or a new bike??

You took the tank off earlier, and it's a special, did it still have the OCTOPUS, the fancy vacuum controlled fuel valve sitting on top of the bank of carbs with a bunch of fuel lines running to it, or do the fuel lines just run directly to the carbs?? Also, it's easy to mess up the wires going to the coils while pulling the tank on/off along with other wires.

First would be to UNPLUG every plug/connector, inspect and clean the metal contacts, put dielectric grease on them, and plug them all back together, this alone will solve a majority of the electrical gremlins these bikes tend to suffer!

Then you can do some diagnostics on the ignition system determining if you have spark on all four plugs, or only 2, etc.. What other mods have been done to the bike, like does it have the OEM airbox or Indy filters, OEM exhaust pipes or aftermarket 4-2 or 4-1's?? If intake/exhaust mods were done, perhaps the PO had the pilot/idle screws turned out trying to compensate vs. rejetting, and so 4 turns out "MIGHT" be right for the current setup??

You will most likely need to go into the carbs...actually highly recommended, and can be done on a shoestring budget, mostly need a couple of cans of spray carb cleaner, maybe some cereal boxes for gaskets, some fine emory cloth for cleaning/smoothing any groove in the float needles, stuff like that!?

Let us know a bit more about it and we can better direct your approach!

[adam79]

ok, I think that settles it, seeing as I dont have a mercury sync tool or vacuum gauges. I'll just have to take it to the shop next spring.

[TopCatGr58]

Don't give up so easily!

Hey Adam,

Chill ! You can get the carbs VERY close without a vacuum synch, and you can actually do it with just a single gauge, a bit more of a PITA, but can be done! We're here to help, we wanna see you succeed, and like I said, many folks like a challenge, and are willing to go to your place to help you, or if you can get the bike running enough to drive, take it to a fellow Xsive's place where they will most likely have the tools and the KNOW HOW to get it tuned up nicely!!!

The LAST THING you want to do is take it to a shop. MOST will NOT work on it anyways, because it's over 10 years old...surpise...dealerships don't make any $$ working on these old bikes, don't usually have the staff trained or experienced to work on them, etc.!

The bike is well worth the effort to learn how to work on it, you'll be wearing a S.E.G when you get it tuned properly and can blow most V-twins and modern cruisers off the road!
T.C.

[adam79]

I really want to get to that point, the online specs said that when it first came out, the 79 xs1100sf had 95 horsepower and was a bullet on the street. I live in Tacoma, WA. I'll try to figure out how to add that info to my profile.

ok, Ill take the tank off and look for what you were talking about. I bought the bike from this guy on Craigslist. It's major problem is that it bogs down when reved up. When you are riding it, and you accelerate, once you hit around 6000rpm the bike just dies down. Besides this, the bike doesnt have near as much power as it should. I test drove a beat up base model 79 xs1100, and it blew the doors off mine by far. After reading up, I found that their are differences (like in the carbs) in the specials that make them a bit more powerful than the regulars. The bike also backfires a lot too.

While I had the tank off, I unplugged almost every connector I could find and sprayed them generously with kooler kleen. I know the bike needs a tune up, and from what I've read, it seems like the carbs will need to be rebuilt.

[CatatonicBug]

The amazing thing about these things is that as long as you aren't afraid of them, anyone can fix them - generally without fancy tools. Don't be afraid to take this thing apart and look inside. The manual gives a lot of info, but not all of it. Ask questions and just jump in. You'll become a mechanic in no time.

My first car was a '68 VW bug, and a lot of what I learned by working on that thing applies to my bike. It's really rather simple and it's all mechanical - no computerized stuff on these things! I've never had ANY bike experience before in my life. I started with a non-running bike a month ago. With the advice of the people on this site, I managed to spend about $80 in rebuild kits and fluids, and my bike is now running nicely. It may not be perfect, but at least it can carry me down the street without making any funny sounds.

Dig in and start learning as much as you can. You will be amazed at the amount of satisfaction you'll get from knowing that you were the one who fixed it. Plus, you'll feel a lot more comfortable knowing that the next time it needs some work, you won't have to spend hundreds at the shop paying some other guy to take your bike apart. Even if it may take a bit longer than a pro, you will know all the little intricacies of your particular machine.