XJ11 wont start, electrical problem?

[XS11HOLLAND]

Hi Everyone,

My winterproject (as i explained in my introducing post) will not start.
It was not used in years, and durty , dusty. It was placed in a shed, wich was dry.
First things first:

The first day i pcked up this neglected bike, i cleaned the tank, checked the sparkplugs, en airfilter. I bought a new battery.

I tryed to start the bike, after a few times starting it came a little back to life. It ran on 3 cilinders, but i was happy. It did not kept running, and the carbs flooded. the next try it did not fire, but when i let the start button go, after a second there was a big bang.
Than i made the discision to clean the carbs. the effect was the same, only big bangs after starting, somtimes after a few seconds when i let the button go.

I checked the sparks. All 4 do spark. But when i turn on the ignition, randomly it sparks. (on 1and 4, or 2 and 3) It is the same when i turn of the ignition. When i start i do have spark on al 4. It looks it could be running.

I dont get it. Is it normal that when you turn on and off the ignition, you get sparks?
What could be the problem?

Thank you!

[XS11HOLLAND]

http://imageshack.com/a/img923/7408/EHeeWW.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img921/8034/n4bVxe.jpg

[XS11HOLLAND]

Hi Everyone,

My winterproject (as i explained in my introducing post) will not start.
It was not used in years, and durty , dusty. It was placed in a shed, wich was dry.
First things first:

The first day i pcked up this neglected bike, i cleaned the tank, checked the sparkplugs, en airfilter. I bought a new battery.

I tryed to start the bike, after a few times starting it came a little back to life. It ran on 3 cilinders, but i was happy. It did not kept running, and the carbs flooded. the next try it did not fire, but when i let the start button go, after a second there was a big bang.
Than i made the discision to clean the carbs. the effect was the same, only big bangs after starting, somtimes after a few seconds when i let the button go.

I checked the sparks. All 4 do spark. But when i turn on the ignition, randomly it sparks. (on 1and 4, or 2 and 3) It is the same when i turn of the ignition. When i start i do have spark on al 4. It looks it could be running.

I dont get it. Is it normal that when you turn on and off the ignition, you get sparks?
What could be the problem?

Thank you!

[sthomag]

.

I dont get it. Is it normal that when you turn on and off the ignition, you get sparks?
What could be the problem?
!

When you turn off the ignition, you'll often get sparks because the effect is the same as points opening on an old-style ignition. Coils are triggered when the current is cut OFF: it causes the electrical field in the secondary winding to collapse and you get a big surge of current. You can get a similar effect when the ignition is turned on, but usually the spark isn't as big.

Usually this won't make a difference because you don't have a lot of unburned fuel-air mixture hanging around in your cylinders and pipes. But if you've been trying to start the engine and run a lot of fuel through it, that's different. If an exhaust valve happens to be open when you shut off the ignition, you get that spark, it ignites the rich fuel mixture in the cylinder, and that flame goes out the exhaust valve and ignites all the mixture in the exhaust pipe: Bang!

If you have fuel, you're getting a spark when you turn over the engine, and it doesn't start, there's only a few things it could be:

1. Your ignition timing is off.

2. Your ignition is weak; it sparks, but not consistently. That could be because of old or fouled plugs, bad plug wires, or bad coils.

3. Your carbs are flooding. That could be because the float needles are perished, or because the floats have been knocked out of spec, or they have holes in them. Or it could be because you forgot to replace some of the jets when you cleaned the carbs.

4. Perhaps there's an obstruction in your intake somewhere. An oil-soaked air filter element or a blocked airbox intake might cause the symptoms you describe.

I think your carbs are flooding for some reason. Take them off and check them out: especially look at the float level and the float valves. And check to make sure your ignition timing is correct.

[XS11HOLLAND]

Thank you for the answer! it clearify's a lot.
First i have to check the timing.

the first time it runs, but it doesnt react at all.

I will be coming back to this.

More suggestions about this isseu?

[Jeffintampa]

Make sure you clean up all your grounds to.

[XS11HOLLAND]

Last night i've got it running!
I cleaned up all the grounds, cleaned up a few important connections, and try to start it on brake cleaner. It fired up right away, only on three cylinders.
Than mounted the tank, and connected the fuel lines.

After a few try's it drinks the fuel. Now it only runs on 3 cylinders, but i am happy.

The first cylinder exhaust is nog getting as hot as the other ones, but is getting hot to. It runs, but if i turn the gas, it runs on 3 cylinders.

What are my options?

[3Phase]

Last night i've got it running!
I cleaned up all the grounds, cleaned up a few important connections, and try to start it on brake cleaner. It fired up right away, only on three cylinders.
Than mounted the tank, and connected the fuel lines.

After a few try's it drinks the fuel. Now it only runs on 3 cylinders, but i am happy.

The first cylinder exhaust is nog getting as hot as the other ones, but is getting hot to. It runs, but if i turn the gas, it runs on 3 cylinders.

What are my options?

Good morning, well, afternoon, XSHolland!

You have a couple of options: fuel and ignition.

Before you dive into the deep end of tuning and troubleshooting, did you check engine cylinder compression and the intake and exhaust valve clearances? If the compression is low in #1 cylinder just stop right there because you're not going to be able to tune around it. The valve clearances are supposed to be checked overnight-cold and they have to be set correctly or you'll chase your own tail trying to tune the engine.

Getting back to the immediate problem with your bike, if the #1 carburetor has a fuel problem causing it to run cold at idle/low RPM does it go away at higher RPM or is it stuffed up like a clogged sinus throughout the whole range? Low RPM problems would most likely be a dirty Pilot fuel jet, if it's the whole range then it can be a clogged float valve inlet screen, float height adjustment, stuck float or any combination of dirty and gummed up jets and carburetor passages.

For an ignition problem, check the spark plug again to see if it fouled while you were working on the engine. If the you think the spark plug is good, swap the #4 and #1 wires, then try swapping the spark plugs to see if the problem follows the wire or the plug to the #4 cylinder and #1 starts working.

Welcome to the forum!