XS Resurrection

[roddio]

HELP After sitting in my patio for nearly a year, (I was in a serious injury accident June 18 last year and could not ride until this week,) my SG starts, but doesn't run consistently. It will run smooth, but misses a bit from time to time. On occasion it will bog, and seem to be running with a piston or two down, then, just as suddenly, pick back up and run great. I had flushed the carbs & gas tank, put in new plugs & battery, replaced the vacuum advance hose, checked the coil pickup fix, so I wasn't anticipating dysfunction. The spark looks good whenever I check, of course.
Any ideas?
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[strom]

Replace plugs and plug caps... check and clean the fuse box and connectors to the TCI unit. But my bet is the spark plugs.

LP

[Snow]

Wow, I couldn't imagine not riding for that long - from the first time I saw my orthopedic surgeon, I was asking him when I could ride, only took me several months.

Are you running all the stock stuff, like stock airbox, filter, pipes, coils, etc?

Strom points to some very easy things to try out and sometimes its the easy things that get us...well... me at least.

Btw, do you happen to know the Ocean Beach area?

[MartyA]

I put stabilizer in the gas prior to parking it for the winter, up here the winter is 7 months long. With your accident you might not have been able to do that. Given you have flushed and cleaned, my guess is varnish build-up on the carb needles or jets, which simple flushing won't necessarily remove.

And I agree with strom, check the fuses and clips for minute corrosion, and then check all other electrical connection. Take them out or apart, wipe all and reconnect. Also check for one that might be occasionally grounding.

The bogging and resuming sure sounds like the coil pick-ups...

[Geezer]

Quite often after a bike has been sitting the float valves will stick closed even if the carbs are not all gummed up.

I'd drain the tank and all the carbs and put in a tank of fresh gas. Now here's a shop trick, if one of the floats still sticks (either open or closed) take a hammer and gently tap the carb body with the end of the hammer handle (pool cue style.) This little jolt with free things up and often solve the problem.

When I was a young mechanic I sometimes found that after I rebuilt a carb it would flood. I'd tear it back down to find nothing wrong and that's when another old biker geezer showed me this trick.

Geezer.

[roddio]

Resurrection Redux

Okay, I replaced the plugs, wires & caps. Unplugged, inspected & replugged all fuses (retrofitted car-type) Have stock carb & airbox, but 1 size up jets & 4 into 1 megaphone exhaust. Good friend had put stabilizer in & filled tank, which I drained and put in my truck's tank, replacing with fresh Premium. Float may be stuck, (thanks for the tip,) as I noticed some gas on the outside of the engine when I started it up this weekend. But bike runs fine SOMETIMES, as I rode out to Ocean Beach for a BBQ Sunday, (wearing a freakin' knee brace!) Bike ran just fine going out, but like terrible a piece of junk on the way back. Had just made the turn onto I-5 from I-8 & it bogged down like it was running on 2 cylinders again. When I pulled over to stop, the problem cleared up, only to reappear once I got on the 94 towards Lemon Grove. Any more ideas? Could it be the stuck float? Seems electrical to me, but what do I know? HELP
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[MartyA]

Sure sounds like the coil pick-up wires. Did you do the 'hourglass' test - stretch the coil pick-up wires and see if the copper inside is broken as the insulation stretches?

Brent H down Atlanta way says if you get to misfiring, try hitting the kill switch for a sec, then grab throttle. If it runs well it could be the pick-up wires. They get stretched as the vacuum turns the advance plate, then killing the motor for a second allows the advance plate to return.

[Ken Talbot]

Check the pick-up coil wires again with the motor running, and don't be afraid to give them quite a good tug. If the amount you can pull with your fingers is enough to cause a break, they were 'broke' already...

[Geezer]

Re: Resurrection Redux

It sounds like it could be partly electrical. One thing you need to do is check for spark on all the cylinders when you're having the problem. I'd recommend taking an ohmmeter and checking everything you can with it. Also make sure all the electrical connections are clean and secure.

You may have to remove and clean the carbs just to eliminate them as the problem. While you have them off, reseal the manifolds to the head; Yamabond 4 is best for this.

Also it never hurts to run a compression test.

With some problems you have to keep eliminating what it isn't to find out what it is.

Geezer

Originally posted by roddio
Okay, I replaced the plugs, wires & caps. Unplugged, inspected & replugged all fuses (retrofitted car-type) Have stock carb & airbox, but 1 size up jets & 4 into 1 megaphone exhaust. Good friend had put stabilizer in & filled tank, which I drained and put in my truck's tank, replacing with fresh Premium. Float may be stuck, (thanks for the tip,) as I noticed some gas on the outside of the engine when I started it up this weekend. But bike runs fine SOMETIMES, as I rode out to Ocean Beach for a BBQ Sunday, (wearing a freakin' knee brace!) Bike ran just fine going out, but like terrible a piece of junk on the way back. Had just made the turn onto I-5 from I-8 & it bogged down like it was running on 2 cylinders again. When I pulled over to stop, the problem cleared up, only to reappear once I got on the 94 towards Lemon Grove. Any more ideas? Could it be the stuck float? Seems electrical to me, but what do I know? HELP
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[Dragonrider]

If the electrical stuff checks out, check your tank vent. If it is clogged/pinched (in the cap for the specials, I believe it is a tube in the standards, but the standard owners can speak up) a vacuum can build up in the tank (especially when near full) and not allow enough gas to flow.

Also check your petcocks and that they are hooked up to vacuum, no pinched/split hoses, or try running them on "prime" for a while and see it you still have the problem.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Roddio,

My bike gets a stuck float valve rarely, and it really creates a bogging problem as the #1 carb floods, it won't take/accept a little throttle, but if I twist it wide open, it will respond adequately, and after tapping the carb a bit to get the float unstuck, it then calms down a behaves normally with easy rollon of the throttle. I had broken the float post and repaired it, and I think that's partly why mine likes to stick, especially if I run it hard at near full throttle for a while which drains the float bowl allowing the float to drop way down into the bowl, so either my float needle valve is getting stuck, or the actual float isn't pivoting on the pin properly, some folks have mentioned about these pins getting bent, just some other things to think/check out aside from the electrical stuff.

A note after reading one of your other posts about driving the bike till the 2nd gear gives out,then trying to find a spare $1,000 to fix it isn't at all true. Have you checked the tech tips section for the 2nd gear Dremmel fix. It can be done for under a $100 depending on where you get your gaskets and dremmel grinding bits/stones!! Just an FYI for you!