carb problems

[Cuda 69]

So,when I was dumb and had a full wallet, I brought my 1980 XS to get the carbs rebuilt.(last summer) She didn't want to idle,and $300.00 later,when it's warm,it still doesn't want to idle. I turned up the idle to about 1500 and still after idling for a bit,she wants to stall.I think it's to rich seeings it smokes a bit when giving it gas when it wants to stall and when I first start her.Going down the road she runs good,but when you come to a light at idle she still wants to stall.Any idea's? oh,and the guy said he schnced them.I think it's a matter of an adjustment.I know another guy who dyno tunes and is great with carbs(he used to work on my XJ650),but he's exspensive.Guess I should have brought it the FIRST Thanks,John

[mjpxs11sh]

idle

welcome to the site. the difficulty here with your bike is you didnt work on it, so who knows what was done. if i were u, i would have taken it back to the guy that worked on it. it sounds like the internal pilot circut is the culprit. there r passages and the pilot jets themselves. did u just bring in the carbs, or did he have the whole bike. adjustments must be made correctly after the rebiuld with the carbs on the bike and running. no way around that.
with that in mind, there are several posts here to read. enter "no idle" in the search bar and you'll see lots of advice. i changed my pilots when i was having an idle issue and cleaned the varnish out of my carbs. it runs great now after sitting 12yrs. if u clean any pilots, beware they r brass and will easily b opened too large if not careful. thats why i ended up buying new ones. i opened the pilots too much. heres a link to get you started. keep us posted and if u get into the carbs, include photos if u can. good luck. we're all here to help.
Michael

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...ight=dies+idle

[Cuda 69]

thanks,and I brought it back to him,may bring it back a 3rd time cause it ticked me off,I told him the carbs are finicky and he said he's worked on XJ650's and he could handle it.He works on street bikes but his bread and butter is dirt bikes.has a good size shop here in town. Unfortunetly i'm not much of a carb guy.No patiant's.

[James England]

I would say they have not been done properly and that the person who did them isn't experienced in these carbs and doesn't know what they are doing. As has been said, you didn't do the work yourself, so you just don't know what he's done/not done.

If you paid for a carb rebuild, in response to a clearly identified problem, then you should have got a bike back that ran properly.... no excuses. From what you've said, the original problem wasn't even fixed. For the $300 did you get a summary of parts used on the carbs? I would want to know what this person used on the carbs, whether the jets were new or just cleaned, were the diaphragms replaced? etc etc.....

It really could be anything. I think your best course of action is to bite the bullet and do the job yourself. There are plenty of people on this forum who have done so, often for the first time (me included), and there are loads of people who will advise you through the whole process/where to get parts etc.

As many people point out here, these are old bikes and many modern mechanics don't know how to fix them.

[motoman]

Best to do it yourself. Being an avid moto-cross racer myself up till 53yrs. old, Can tell you that vacuum carbs are whole different can of worms, whether they are Hitachi's, Mikunis, etc. I can also tell you that your susposed mechanic in actual reality hasn't a clue what he is doing!........specially him stating he thinks he's a 'hand' with manual slide dirt bike carbs.......two different worlds, starting with the idle mix screw being on opposite end of carb making it an air mix screw on the manual slide dirt bike carb, whether it be a Mikuni, Keihn, Bing, or whatever.

[mjpxs11sh]

Fti

i was one of those 1st timers recently and all went well. what i do remember is the idle mixture screws on the 80-81 have a 1) spring 2) washer and 3) an oring in the mixture tower, and if u dont know they're there, any 1 of them can go missing. that would also cause an idle issue if one's missing. i personally wouldnt take the bike home if it wasnt running properly after the initial test ride. thats why i do my own work, i know what i did. dont let 4 carbs scare ya! nobodies a carb expert the first time around, but i feel im closer now. are u mechanical?