It was all good until....

[Brad]

So I talked my buddy into buying a 80 xs11 and 36 hours later, bad news. He got it home yesterday at noon, I went over to admire his purchace, went to get fluids and some seafoam, applied a boost and it was alive. A little sputtering and a few pops and backfies until it was warmed up, then it ran like a champ. We put on about 30 kilometers and he had to go home a tend to his parenting duties as his wife had to work. We planed on a road trip today to test it out and the day turned out to be about 7 hours longer than planed. We got ready to leave and again, it needed a boost. We applied a boost and it was alive. A little sputtering and a few pops and backfies until it was warmed up, then it ran like a champ. We drove for about 50 kilometers and had a break, it's was only 5 above at the time and we needed to warm up and have a smoke. Got back on the road and about 50 klicks later, his muffler fell off. Pulled over and picked up the muffler, tried to start his bike and again, not enough juice. We gave it a couple of good pushes and on the third time, it fired up and luckly, his in laws lived up at the next town, so we headed there for some repairs. We pulled in for a highway fix of the broken pipe by getting a larger tube and making a coupler to re-join the broken pipe. With a thank you to the father in law and an hour of his garage use, we tried to fire up his bike and not enough juice again. On the battery charger it goes and again and it fired up. We got another 30km down the road and his bike dies. Said it "sputtered and the booged out." Having been the victum of running out of fuel myself, I thought to look in the tank, it was low and we put the pet's on reserve and nothing. No power again, just a few clicking sounds. So tried to push start it again and couldnt get it to start. I ran up to the next town and got some jumper cables and raced back to boost his bike with mine, again, it would turn over a little, then sound like a dead batter with just some "clicks". We dis connected his battery and tried to start with just my battery, same result, just a few clicking noises. We took out the starter and applied power and it worked fine. Put the starter back in and disconnected the power cable to the starter and applied the jumper cables from my battery, again, just a few clicking sounds. We then called the father in law to come give a boost with his truck and 30 min later, he arrived. This time the bike turned over and sputtered a bit, fired a few times but not enough to get it running and it sounded like something was dragging inside the motor so on the truck it went. I feel bad for telling him to get this bike and he's seen and ridden mine for the past few years and seen that I've have very few problems and we both agree that these are great bikes, he gets one and it didnt even make it 100 kilometers. He also tried getting registered on this site last night as a new member and couldnt so I'm posting for him. Its it ment to be or just really bad luck? With all the knowledge here we are searching for any ideas on where to start looking for a solution.

[James England]

I'd say that your battery is not charging and you are gradually running down whatever power is left in it until it drops below the level required to operate the TCI unit (ignition black box). The TCI will stop working and no longer produce a spar once the voltage drops. I suspect you have either a bad battery, or the charging system is not working. This could be all sorts of things... the alternator/generator itself, the rectifier regulator unit, or the demon block connector from the alternator ((behind the fuse box plate) which gets corroded, or the relevant wiring.

In order to rule out fuel, you need to put some in the tank and turn the petcocks to 'prime'. I'd run it on 'prime' too, just to eliminate the fuel shutoff diaphragms from the picture.

Can you be more specific about the "it sounded like something was dragging inside the motor" . What do you mean? you may have heard the starter motor whizzing after an 'almost start' situation.

[DAVINCI]

Brad,

You have bad grounds. Clean em all up.

[Lonerider62]

He probably does need a new battery but if it were me. I'd get a meter and see how many volts are getting to the battery when it's running to see if the charging system is in decent order. If it's not reading a good 14-14.5 Volts at about 3000 there's a problem somewhere there. Of course, if the grounds are crudded up you'll have all kinds of electrical problems.

[natemoen]

Agreed, you need to go through the electrical system on that thing.

As to registering your friend. You need to follow the directions on the main WWW.XS11.com page that are printed in red because self registration is closed due to spammers.

[DGXSER]

As James stated, these bikes have a minimum voltage to run the TCI, 10.5 V IIRC. Below that, the TCI will not signal the coils to spark. So, you may have finally worn the battery down. But, replacing his battery with yours should have solved that issue. The last one does sound like fuel issues.

What I did not see in your post is the condition of his bike. Had it sat for a few years? If you got down to the bottom of the tank, you may have got a bunch of crap in the carbs to. There was a recent post by a fellow who could not get fuel to flow on the reserve setting, it worked with the petcock in ON but once fuel got below the ON level, kicked to reserve and no fuel came out.

I would suggest starting wiht the fuel system and charging or getting a new battery. Once you get it running, test the voltage at the battery at idle should be around 12 V and at about 3-4k should be 14V. If not, then start witht he connector James mentioned. You need to pull the right side cover and then remove the panel the fuse block is mounted on, behind it lives a few connectors, the biggest white one is your alternator connection. That one often needs a good cleaning!

[James England]

For that block connector (and all the others), I would advise your friend to buy an aerosol tin of De-Oxit. It's a USA product which we have to import to the UK and it's expensive. However, two quick blasts (with a minute or so in between) removes all the green gungy crud from electric contacts. In fact, it leaves them clean, shiny brass. I would strongly recommend using this product on every block connector you can find, including those in the headlamp shell. Do the handlebar switches too. Do the bullet connectors too (if there are any). Personally, I'm not a great fan of dialectic grease and always clean the connectors with De-Oxit and put them straight back together without anyother treatment.

As DGXSer mentioned, you may have run crud into the carbs but I would sort out the electrical side of things first, then try to run the bike again and go on from there...

[Brad]

Can you be more specific about the "it sounded like something was dragging inside the motor" . What do you mean? you may have heard the starter motor whizzing after an 'almost start' situation.

Hi James, the sound we herd was from either the front of the motor or near the bottem. It also sounds like its not turning over properly. The sound was not from the starter engaging, had a dragging metal sound. Kinda like a chain against some casing.

[DGXSER]

That could be VERY bad. As in the most likely issue may be it tossed the cam chain. That may have caused some bent valve as well. Less likely is the Hyvo chain getting tossed.

First thing I would do is pull the valve cover off and see if the cam chain is there.

[James England]

Hi James, the sound we herd was from either the front of the motor or near the bottem. It also sounds like its not turning over properly. The sound was not from the starter engaging, had a dragging metal sound. Kinda like a chain against some casing.

Oh dear, not good. There are two chains which it could be.... the cam chain, which runs down the front of the engine, or the Hy-Vo drive chain. Its unlikely to be the latter, IMO, because it's a very beefy chain that rarely gives trouble. It sounds like something may have occurred with your cam chain if you are hearing a dragging metal sound from the front. I would refrain from turning the engine with the starter for now.

If I were you, I would remove the fuel tank and then take off the rocker cover (ie topmost cover of the engine)... done with the bike on the centre stand. You'll see the camchain in the middle. Look to see if there's anything obviously wrong like the chain off the sprocket/s. If not, remove the camchain tensioner from the front of the engine and look inside with a torch. Look at the end of the CCT pushrod and check that the rubber block is still on it. Don't turn the engine at any point. Then replace the CCT with a smear of RTV or similar under it.

If the camchain is OK etc, remove all four plugs from the engine and also the left had side engine casing. You can then use a wrench on the timing plate 'nut' to turn the engine clockwise gently. Look at the valves and see that they all move and check that there is compression on each cylinder by pressing your finger hard on it whilst turning the wrench. Stop immediately if you feel any undue resistance, or notice valves not moving or hear any grating noises or whatever.

Basically, you need to find the source of this chain-dragging sound before moving on...

[DAVINCI]

Guys, the starter clutch backlash "WHIZZ" sounds very much like a chain, so don't panic yet

[Brad]

We got deeper into it...

Looks like the plug and spring are not in the can tensioner, we have my bike beside his and we are comparing components.

[natemoen]

The plug is just there to attempt to stop oil drips. The spring cannot come out through there it is on the inside.

[James England]

Guys, the starter clutch backlash "WHIZZ" sounds very much like a chain, so don't panic yet

I think it sounds more like a 'whizz' though....personally, I've never thought it sounds like a chain dragging along something.... more like an electric drill.

[DGXSER]

I do know what you mean Davinci, when the starter clutches are not spun quite hard enough to engage fully they can sound like metal skipping around metal like that.

Still, if your in doubt of the cam chain being in place, and if the cam shain tensioner is some how fubarred, I would definitely take the time to pull the valve cover off.