XJ650 starting issues

[honda750]

I got his bike a month ago and its driving me crazy. When I got it I had to clean the carbs and it ran perfectly, but after sitting 48 hrs it would kind of bog out and not really have any guts. It wouldn't run without the choke, and it backfired a couple times on me. I thought maybe that the float level was wrong, so I looked in my manual and it said that using a hose on the drain valve on the bottom of the bowls it should come up to 3 mm below the bowl gasket. I did this, and I set the floats correctly and it only got worse from there. It now does nothing except except occasionally backfiring. On full throttle I can occasionallyt get it to putt, but it won't start still. I put a neon bulb next to the plugs and they seem to have spark, but its still not working. Also, the choke doesn't seem to have an affect on anything.

I really have no idea what's wrong..any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Baking Forums

[oldschoolorange]

if you were having problems try changing your plugs as they may be fouled, After that if needed find the factory specs and set the carbs to them, Carbs are a pain in the a$$ you may need to clean them again

[TechTMW]

Clean the carbs again, and put an inline filter between the tank and the carbs. The normal and reserve straws on an old xj650 of min had fallen out of the p-stick - meanin all the stuff from the tank was going straight into the float bowls. Either clean your tank fully, or make sure you have a filter in there.

Also, have you synchronized the carbs?

[honda750]

I cleaned out the carbs and still no dice. The tank has an inline filter on it as well as the one on the petcock...any other ideas?
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gremlin plants

[stormme66]

I know this sounds silly, but when I was rebuilding the CBR, i had loads of problems with starting, and had just done the carbs. I automatically blamed them, pulled them off 3 times trying to find the problem. Bike just wouldn't start! Changed plugs, HT leads and tore my hair out.

I charged the bike battery fully, and then also jumpstarted off a car battery, the extra battery power got the bike started immediately. Finally traced the problem to weak spark from one of the top coils. Maybe you are a little low on battery power with all the starting in the garage?

Might not help at all, but costs nothing to try

[honda750]

What I've been doing is having the battery hooked up to a 10 amp charger while I'm cranking all the time so I don't think that's my problem. It also cranks really fast. Thanks for the tip, though. Because of what you said I thought I would trace all the wiring and look for a problem. I did find one place where a wire from the radio was pretty chewed up which went straight to the positive terminal on the battery. (the person who had it before me put on the dumbest looking fairing...that will have to go)

thanks for the thought
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Chevy Wiki

[honda750]

It turns out that all I needed was four spark plugs...I really didn't think that would do it, but it's not the first time I was wrong..and it won't be the last. Oh
well, she's running really well now. You'd never guess she had 42000 miles on her.
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Kissing Advice Forum