Cold #1 exhaust

[Bartman]

I had taken every terminal apart a few months ago when I had to take the wiring harness totally out of the frame. I had a burned open wire that prevented me from having tail lights. I used a buff wheel on my variable speed rotary tool to remove corrosion on every thing that I could and then coated with grease. There are three wires going to two O terminals bolted to the regulator. I will run a separate ground to that next, I had wondered if that was getting ground through the frame.

As I stated before, the battery that I am using is a GLass Matt battery that my brother had used for over five years on his bike and then sat in his storage room for over a year before he gave to me and that was almost a year now. I will put it in my mower next, I bet it will turn that motor over with no problem. We're sold on the power and time you get from those batteries.

[skids]

My old boss always said that it is talking to you if you are listening. That being said, it was popping out the exhaust AND when I pulled a single plug off the vacuum tubes caused the motor to either to bog down or rev up. My question is, if it sucks air at this point and the motor changes then THAT is telling me that my idle screw is running rich or lean. I am trying to use all of my tools at hand to make this right. So, if one of you’s guys will crank up your bike and after warming up pull off a vac plug, what does your bike do?

Personally, I would not make any idle mixture adjustments based on that, if that is what you mean by "idle screw." Get your synch down pat, then adjust mixtures separately. Don't changes to many variables at the same time!

[crazy steve]

One thing to keep in mind with the regulator is you can have a partial failure. If only one or two diodes are bad, you can still see adequate voltage but may not get enough current to charge the battery. Best bet is the check the regulator diodes as per the manual to make sure they're all good...

[Petersg_99]

I've got a spare regulator. If you want to pay shipping costs, you can borrow my spare...

[Bartman]

Hey Skids,

I didn’t trust my old gages, but now I find that they were OK. Carbs #1 & #2 were synced to a level of “10” and the #3 & #4 were synced to a level of “5”. I had to very slowly turn the center sync screw and then slowly turn the main idle screw to finally get all of the carbs in sync.

But with that drilled out #1 needle hole, I was having to try and get it to run as good as I could make it. With the motor revving up when I pulled the vacuum plug it was telling me that I didn’t have that needle in the sweet spot yet. You can’t just turn the needle out 1 ½ turns when you have a 1/8” hole to deal with. At the end of the night, when I pulled the vacuum lines it barely revved at all from #1. The other 3 barely bogged down. Still not perfect but a whole lot closer.


Hey Crazy Steve and Petersg 99,

As far as the voltage, I think that a new-heavy ground wire to the regulator will make a large difference. If not, I can check the diodes but I have another bike I can swap with to verify and the junk yard 3 miles away has one if needed. If all else fells then I will be giving Peter a call. Thanks for the offer, let me try at home first.

[Bartman]

Tonight I put the ground wire on but there was no additional increase in voltage. I looked at the second bike's regulator and it is square like the picture Peter sent. The one on the bike is larger and had rounded corners. I will talk to Chris about it tomorrow. I seem to remember him saying something about it last year.

[oldyam80sg]

If you need a regulator to keep i got one from Geezer so you can have my old one.PM me if so.Taken off my 80 SG.

[Bartman]

I talked to Chris today and I have the 82 XJ's regulator. Tonight I swapped it with my other 78XS regulator and cranked her up. At idle 12.25v to 13.8 when revving.

I then pulled out the manual and checked the diodes. Both regulators were fine.

I have been reading and should have touched the green wire to ground and see what the max output would be. I will do that soon. Like next week!

Tomorrow I am ordering the new battery and also going to Florida for a quick weekend to see the in-laws. So no working on the bike except in my head.

Thanks for all of the offers, I will keep them in mind. But I do have a correct regulator for this bike and the next project is getting the XJ motor that Chris has been sitting on for several years. So the other regulator is the correct one that motor. Chris sold me the remaining parts + motor several weeks ago.

We work with the original owner of the 82 XJ. That guy had a friend die and he quit riding. The bike sat up for 15 years. Chris got it and sold some of the parts over the years he had it. But the motor only has 17k miles.

[Bartman]

I got home today and my son was here. I rolled the bike out of the basement to crank it up to show him the progress. I went ahead and hooked the volt meter to the battery so that I could short the green wire to ground and see it the voltage would increase.

The bike cranked right up and the voltage was over 13 and when I revved the motor it went to 14.16v. For some reason it was better than before? Just for fun I did short the green wire to battery ground, (at idle) no change... I didn't do anymore because the rain was starting to come down. I was happy the the voltage was better and later in Church I realized that I might should have revved the motor to get the max voltage when I short to ground? I know, I shouldn't be thinking of the bike in church, it was a fleeting thought.

The battery has been ordered, waiting now.

One of the last things I want to do is to take it off of the center stand and let sit for a day on the side stand and see if the carbs act right and it cranks correctly after sitting.

[fredintoon]

- - - later in Church I realized that I might should have revved the motor to get the max voltage when I short to ground? - - -

Hi Bartman,
this is paraphrased from a story I was reading:-
"Oh Lord, look kindly on your son who finds time for worship even when his bike needs work."

[Bartman]

Hey Fred, Yep, hopefully he knows I'm trying.

Tonight I cranked up the bike after sitting all night and day on the side stand. No problem! I also borrowed a lazer thermo checker and the 4 pipes were very close to each other when I checked.

I need to take one more look at the gas tank. I want to ohm out the gas sending unit. The gas gage hasn't worked on the instrument panel when it was hooked up in the past.

I also need to put the kill switch in. The original one was totally shot. I found another one in the junk yard and need to go through it and then wire it in.

Thanks again for all of your help with this project.

[Bartman]

Tonight I pulled the gas gage out of the tank and fiddled with it enough to get the 8 ~ 80 ohms reading when the float moves. I put it back together and onto the bike. Then I turned the key and still no gage needle movement. I looked at the manual and it said to check that there was 7 volts at the green wire going into the tach. I got the 12 volts on the brown wire but no 7 on the green wire. It ohms OK back to the regulator so the harness is OK. I guess that the regulator is not as good as I had hoped.

If the charging is up over 14 now, it might be just be a good idea to go to Radio Shack and get a small voltage regulator and hard wire it to the green wire and not do any more fooling with it. Or if I can find a good 7 volt source around the house and use it to check the gages and see it they work or not without the regulator hooked up.....

I plan on getting insurance tomorrow and then to the tag office.

[skids]

I put a solid state VR in one of my old tach housings, but it was 1/2 volt off and it made a big difference in the reading. For all of the trouble, you might want to just get a new housing unit (one that works).

[Bartman]

I swapped the tach with my other bikes and it works.

I finally rode the bike after working on it for almost 1 year. I had to be careful because of new tires, new ride and checking everything out. I put 50 miles on it and am now processing it all in my head.

Last year, one of the first problems that I had to work through on the bike was a bad kill switch. So I had soldered the wires together and taken the switch totally out of the bike. I have set the motor’s idle and revving with my pint sized weed eater gas tank and no kill switch. Last week I put a “new” kill switch in but now the throttle doesn't feel right, very stiff. Using my little pint sized weed eater gas tank I cranked the motor one more time and sure enough, it was running at 5k and I had to monkey with the cable and idle screw to make it run correctly……I don’t trust it now as I really moved the idle screw AND backed down the nuts on the cable at the throttle handle.

I then put the real gas tank on and side covers and seat and fairing and took off to the gas station. Filled her up and the gas gage works!

I rode to my brothers and mothers house to put some miles on it. It had a few spots where it felt like it was not coming off of idle and into pilots very smoothly. But once the RPMs came up it pulled fairly well, as I have read, it doesn’t run right until around 70, I agree. At 55 it is wondering what you are doing back there?

My brother asked about the Dyna Beads that I put into the tires and I told him that I hadn’t seen any issue yet. I later got on the interstate for one exit and it pulled strong and smooth. No issue with vibration at all, I won’t say how fast I was going….with that fairing it was having to PUSH real hard!

I must say that the sound coming out of this motor and exhaust reminded me of the movie BULLIT with Steve McQueen. Do you remember the sound of his Mustang during the car chase, it sure sounds like what I heard yesterday!

The last mile before home is uphill at a good angle. I dropped into 4th and revved it hard till home. I then let it idle and I grabbed the thermal laser gage and looking at the top of the exhaust pipes coming out of the motor. The #1 and #4 were like 325° and the #2 and #3 were 265°. I thought that the two center cylinder would be much hotter? What’s up with that?

My front brakes make a lot of noise. Those new pads are squealing badly.

Tonight I will pull the seat and tank back off and see if I can get this throttle cable placed correctly. I also plan to pull the plugs to take a look at them.

Question: If I take the throttle cable completely off of the carbs and crank the motor. With no tension from a throttle cable on the carbs, should that be the absolute correct place to set the idle setting? Once that is set correctly, then put the cable on and make it right???

[bikerphil]

With the throttle cable removed from the carbs, set the idle speed with the main idle screw. With he cable installed, it should not change that 1100 RPM when the handlebars are turned left to right, only when the grip is twisted.