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I just bought a 1980 XS1100 SG for $650. When I bought it it wouldn't start up on its own. If I pulled the spark plugs and put a little gasoline into the cylinders though it would fire right up until the gas in the cylinders was burnt. It had been sitting for approximately a year, so I figured the fuel system was gummed up. When I got it, I took the carbs out cleaned them up with carb cleaner, blew out all the passages with compressed air. The rebuild kit I bought didn't come with new jets so I soaked them in cleaner and blew them out, they seemed pretty clear. Put everything back together threw the carbs back in the bike, filled up the tank, hit the starter and it fired right up. It was a little bit rough at first as can be expected, but it started to level out. After about a minute and a half it just fell all over itself and died. Couldn't get it to start back up again. So I bought another 4 rebuild kits this time with the jets. Blew everything out again, cleaned it again, it looked like there was some bad gas that got in there again (because I didn't clean the tank out last time). So I replaced all the jets (I've got #120 main jets in all four carbs now) inspected the diaphragms, replaced the float needle and seat, the works. The only things that I didn't replace were the air jets which seemed to look clear and the needle in the diaphragm assembly which also seems clean. Put the carbs back in (forgot to hook the throttle cable back up) started it up and it started right up again applied throttle (manually on the carb itself) and it responded instantaneously. It was running a little rough at first but it levelled out and was running real smooth. Turned it off to hook up the throttle, once that was done, it started up again but started acting like it was running out of fuel. Now it won't start again without starter fluid and then it will run for a bit if you apply the throttle to it, but then it just runs out of gas again. All the fuel bowls are full. Any ideas what my problem could be? Any suggestions no matter how trivial would be much appreciated.
Sorry for the long post but that's the whole story.
Sorry for the long post but that's the whole story.
) so I'll pull the carbs and check the float heights tomorrow or the next day. Is there anything else that you guys can think of? I'm just at a loss here. Could the carb synch cause issues like this? It just sounds like its not getting enough gas to start and run. I suppose I will try the triple clean method I hear so much about and see if that works. 
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