rburch93
XS650 Member
Hi all,
First of all, I’ve come across a few other similar threads to this, but I have a feeling that the root issue in those cases is different than the one I’m running into, so I decided a separate thread might be good. Apologies if this topic is redundant.
Anyway, I’m very new to the motorcycle thing- I purchased an 82 xs650 recently w/ kickstart only. Cleaned and balanced the carbs after buying and starting learning to ride. I was hooked from day 1... For whatever reason, the bike was rewired by the PO to run off of a super small battery that was rechargeable. The battery was one of those packs that look like saranwrapped double A’s all lined up (same size and shape as 3 AA’s next to each other, shrink wrapped in plastic...) but even more strange, it had a line leading into it that you could literally plug into the wall to charge overnight. The whole system worked okay, other than losing your headlight on a dark backroad in the middle of the night at 40mph.. Anyway, the electric became less and less reliable over time, and got to the point I wanted to switch it out. Bike was running perfectly at this time- (which was less than a month ago- it started 1st or 2nd kick, idle level was good, and really no driving related issues.)
Anyway, i purchased a larger battery (12V 9ah) and rewired everything based on the attached diagrams. Many of the components of the ignition system aren’t stock, but the mainb wires are there. Stator is working according to my multimeter, and i do have a spark when I ground plugs to the engine and kick it. All the lights work as they’re supposed to.
That said, i can’t get the thing started. I’ve messed around endlessly with the choke, with giving it different amounts of throttle... everything i can think of. And to make things worse, I’m having pretty severe and delayed kickback about 1/4 of the kicks, and it has backfired a few times as well. Anyway, I’m curious as to if you have any suggestions on how to problem solve this. I have read threads saying to retard the advancer timing for starters... that said, I’m slightly perplexed because the bike was firing up very consistently with no kick back ever before i rewired and got a bigger battery. Is it possible for the timing/advancer to get screwed up without doing anything to it? Is it possible that i have some of cords swapped so that it is causing the timing to be off? Could the bigger battery have an affect on it? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. My ankle and knee are about ready for a break, so thought I’d try to trouble shoot before i do any
More ligament damage.
Thanks!
Ryan
First of all, I’ve come across a few other similar threads to this, but I have a feeling that the root issue in those cases is different than the one I’m running into, so I decided a separate thread might be good. Apologies if this topic is redundant.
Anyway, I’m very new to the motorcycle thing- I purchased an 82 xs650 recently w/ kickstart only. Cleaned and balanced the carbs after buying and starting learning to ride. I was hooked from day 1... For whatever reason, the bike was rewired by the PO to run off of a super small battery that was rechargeable. The battery was one of those packs that look like saranwrapped double A’s all lined up (same size and shape as 3 AA’s next to each other, shrink wrapped in plastic...) but even more strange, it had a line leading into it that you could literally plug into the wall to charge overnight. The whole system worked okay, other than losing your headlight on a dark backroad in the middle of the night at 40mph.. Anyway, the electric became less and less reliable over time, and got to the point I wanted to switch it out. Bike was running perfectly at this time- (which was less than a month ago- it started 1st or 2nd kick, idle level was good, and really no driving related issues.)
Anyway, i purchased a larger battery (12V 9ah) and rewired everything based on the attached diagrams. Many of the components of the ignition system aren’t stock, but the mainb wires are there. Stator is working according to my multimeter, and i do have a spark when I ground plugs to the engine and kick it. All the lights work as they’re supposed to.
That said, i can’t get the thing started. I’ve messed around endlessly with the choke, with giving it different amounts of throttle... everything i can think of. And to make things worse, I’m having pretty severe and delayed kickback about 1/4 of the kicks, and it has backfired a few times as well. Anyway, I’m curious as to if you have any suggestions on how to problem solve this. I have read threads saying to retard the advancer timing for starters... that said, I’m slightly perplexed because the bike was firing up very consistently with no kick back ever before i rewired and got a bigger battery. Is it possible for the timing/advancer to get screwed up without doing anything to it? Is it possible that i have some of cords swapped so that it is causing the timing to be off? Could the bigger battery have an affect on it? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. My ankle and knee are about ready for a break, so thought I’d try to trouble shoot before i do any
More ligament damage.
Thanks!
Ryan
