choke lever pushed in and bike dies

[DeanR]

I just started the XS for, I think, the second time this year. Pretty sad eh? Started ok, revs gradually increased as usual with the choke lever pulled out. But it would conk out as soon as choke lever was pushed in. This would indicate ??

The bike lives in the garage behind the ST, very rarely ridden and in top notch condition. Always stored with full tank of stabilized and circulated gas, which is then used in the lawn mower all summer. Filled with new gas again for storage as winter again arrives.

I gotta ride this thing!

[jetmechmarty]

I am going to make a guess. Plugged pilot circuits. You close the choke and cut off the fuel supply. Ethanol fuel spoils quickly.

[MPittma100]

Conked

What I have seen that would give you poor to no idle is clogged pilot jets in the carbs. When it is running, see if all of the (exhaust) pipes are "hot". If you have a cold one, you can assume that you have carb issues. With the little to no running time, the chances are leaning toward contaminants in the fuel system.

If you are not running fuel filters, you might want to install some.

This line of thinking, of course, is assuming that all cylinders have ignition and good compression.

MP

[James England]

Are you pulling out the choke one or two stops?

How long are you letting the bike run, on choke, before putting the lever back in?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Dean,

Get off your lazy butt and clean those carbs! (Relax folks, we're friends) Had you added the fuel stabilizer and run it thru the carbs before you stored it?? Also, fuel stabilizer won't necessarily keep it from getting gummed up, at least not as well as SEA FOAM or equivalent. Also, how old is the gas?

This could be another fuel type thread .....does the Stabilizer actually prevent the fuel from loosing it's OCTANE over many months of storage or just prevent JELLYING? Starting with 87 oct, loosing 1 octane per month storage....I think I remember someone stating that below 80 octane and engines won't run??

T.C.

[DGXSER]

Dean,

Good to see you getting the old beast out for a jaunt!! To bad it is kicking you back for relegating it to the back of the garage!!

I would tend to lean toward gummed up carbs as well. I know the stabalizer helps, but I do not think it quite holds up as long as you let it set.

Even after living on that advanced ST of yours, you still recall the ways of carburation I believe. Choke on this bike = extra fuel. Extra fuel runs fine. Remove some fuel, it runs like crap. Not enough fuel to run properly.

Most likely cause of not enough fuel, gummed up passages.

[MaximPhil]

Hi Dean,
Before you do all that hard work I suggest 1/2 a can of Seafoam in a tank of fresh gas and run her up and down the thruway
See if the chemistry will do the work for you

If that works get her out more often to prevent the problem recouring.
Phil

[DeanR]

Thanks for the food for thought guys. I'll post up after I get a chance to get some no ethanol gas in there. (It's REAL close to being empty, maybe that's part of the problem duh)
But then again, I don't know why fuel level would have anything to do with the choke lever.

I have a spare set of carbs that I've messed around with a little (not enough to know what I'm doing), but have never had the carbs off this bike. Number 2 exhaust has been taking a while to kick in and get warm since a couple years ago. Yea, I suppose a good winter project would be to get em in the house for a good cleaning, or three. Under the direction of the XS11.com knowledge base of course.

[Mashermoto]

Ditto cleaning the pilot jets...just had to do that this summer for the same reason. Left my bike setting in the garage too long during 100 plus degree weather without starting it once in a while.

I would recommend using some spray can carb cleaner of any brand and compressed air. DON'T OVER TIGHTEN THE BRASS!!! More than just a snug fit and you will drill them out the next time.

Also, don't ignore the float bowl measurements...both sides.

Don't mean to hijack your thread, but during my last carb cleaning I removed the all the jets and nozzles, sprayed everything inside and out with carb cleaner and then sprayed compressed air through all the ports. I noticed a piece of rolled plastic came out of the air jet port on the bell housing end. It looked kinda like a piece of scotch tape had been rolled up and placed in there.

Was that rolled plastic strip susposed to be in there

[DeanR]

Well, finally put a gallon of fresh, no ethanol gas in. It hesitantly started with choke pulled out, smoothed out gradually, and then eventually kept running with the choke lever pushed back in all the way. No 2 barely warmed up, as usual, so it never smoothed out completely. I'll take it for a real quick spin and No 2 should get going.

Don't really want to pull the carbs yet, so in goes some trusty seafoam to see what happens.

On second thought, maybe I should work on actually looking forward to pulling the carbs for the first time. Especially since I know I need to!

[Mashermoto]

DeanR,

I would encourage you to try the Sea Foam treatment. My pilot jets were already clogging again, even after the through cleaning just awhile ago.

I used a strong mixture and ran a tank full. Wow did that work well And didn't have to wrestle with carbs

[madmax-im]

Hey Dean...yah know you should be runnin that bike...all that sittin around aint no good...especially an XS as pretty as yours. I know the ST gets the nod 99.9% of the time...that was my problem too with my XJ...but I still ran it more than you've run yours...still I didnt give it enough attention after I got my 1st ST back in '07...even so I miss not having it...