I have a 1985 Honda XL600R. It has dual carbs and the fuel valve is on-off-res. (with no vacuum assist). I bought this bike 2 mo. ago. When purchased I was told it wasn't running very good, and leaked some oil around the head/valve cover, but the top end had been rebuilt. I tore the engine apart to find a beautiful cylinder and piston. The valves seemed to seat well and everything seemed good. However the timing chain was off one tooth. I fixed that and cleaned and adjusted the carbs to specs. Once back together I found that a new battery was needed and after that it ran great. I took it out on some trails and it performed strong all weekend. I rode it to work for about a week when the following problem begain to manifest itself:
It ran good for a while and then would die at idle. It progressed to a slight sputter when cruising, and then got worse. This morning I took it to work (or attempted at least) for the first time in 3-4 weeks. about a mile away from the house it began sputtering and losing power really bad so I hit a neighborhood road to avoid traffic. With every sputter came light blueish exhaust. It got worse rapidly and then died. I tried kick starting it for about 30 min (it had even cooled down) to no avail. I noticed some liquid coming out of the air filter box (on the left side of the first pic) It looked a little oily and had the scent of gas! I then pushed it home 1.5 mi. (good thing it's not a full on street bike!!!) Tonight I pulled the filter out and the bottom portion was drenched in gas. The small black canister in the first pic (on the left side, just under carb #1) has a drain with a plug at the bottom (shown under the letter K on the suspension linkage, in pic 2). I unplugged it and the same gaseous liquid came pouring out. I was amazed at how much came out. It was then that I noticed that the canister had a line going to the bottom of the air filter box. (What exactly is this canister any how???) after that It started with 2 kicks. I rode it for about 8-9 min and it began to have the same symptoms, I eased it home and it died while idling to my parking spot.
I have tried taking the gas cap off while riding, and the gas valve (I'm not sure the technical name mentioned in other posts) is letting plenty of gas out. Spark plug is new, Did the test on the electrical components except the Capacitor Discharge Ignition unit, which has no way to be tested, when I first got it and had what turned out to be a bad battery, and everything was in specs. It also has a new spark plug. Any ideas??? Sorry about the long thread but I'd rather give more info than not enough... Thanks in advance!!!
Oops, just realized I can't upload the pics, I don't have a URL available. sorry
Tyler
1985 Honda XL600R
