TheRunaway
XS650 Enthusiast
MY 1981--/--650 was running a little rough last week. It had all the signs of needing a float height adjustment (from what I gathered), so I decided to spend the weekend fixing it.
It started when I noticed gas leaking out of the left side carb (view from saddle) right where the float bowl attaches. I researched RESEARCHED RESEARCHED. Thought I had it all figured out. Took a sh_t load of notes too.
Based on some videos I saw on youtube, I decided to go ahead and do my Cam chain tension adjustment and my valve adjustment. Cam adj. went fine as far as I know. Valves gave me a lot of trouble. Every time I set them to .06 and checked to make sure .07 wouldn't go it would be fine. UNTIL I WENT THROUGH FULL ROTATION AGAIN. Sometimes all the way up to .10 would fit! ugh. I tried at least 6 times with the intake valve to no avail. That's when I decided to leave it be and move on before I messed something up that I thought was supposed to be pretty simple. What is going on there??
(Oh yeah, my spark plugs were black. Internet told me that also alludes to a bad float height adjustment. Is that true? Do I need new spark plugs? I thought that might be the problem too.)
Which brings me to the carbs. Mikuni BS34s. I took everything apart, got the carbs out (fun stuff), and saw that whoever had them before me had stripped the screws for the float bowl. So I had to jimmy those out and get new ones. Got the carbs pulled apart. Everything looked great! Like they had been rebuilt and cleaned. So that was good! Checked my float height. It was at about 20mm. So I fixed them both exactly at 22mm. Made sure everything was moving and smooth, clean and free of debris. Tightened my sync screw all the way down then brought it up 2.5 turns based on more info I had found. Put it all back together this morning and when I put my tank back on and attached my tube (luckily I hadn't put my filter back in the box) the left side carb started pouring gas out the back into the air filter box!!! I unhooked the tube, waited a minute and wiped the gas, then put it back on. Nothing happened that time so I put the filter in and got everything ready to fire it up for a test. It started (sounded off, not sure why) then turned off. It wouldn't start again after that until I had waited about thirty minutes. I gave it one last shot and gas came out of the left carb again so I called it quits.
So there's everything! Lot of info but I wanted to be thorough to help with troubleshooting. I need help! I'm taking my carbs back off tonight. So any help today would be awesome. Thanks guys.
It started when I noticed gas leaking out of the left side carb (view from saddle) right where the float bowl attaches. I researched RESEARCHED RESEARCHED. Thought I had it all figured out. Took a sh_t load of notes too.
Based on some videos I saw on youtube, I decided to go ahead and do my Cam chain tension adjustment and my valve adjustment. Cam adj. went fine as far as I know. Valves gave me a lot of trouble. Every time I set them to .06 and checked to make sure .07 wouldn't go it would be fine. UNTIL I WENT THROUGH FULL ROTATION AGAIN. Sometimes all the way up to .10 would fit! ugh. I tried at least 6 times with the intake valve to no avail. That's when I decided to leave it be and move on before I messed something up that I thought was supposed to be pretty simple. What is going on there??
(Oh yeah, my spark plugs were black. Internet told me that also alludes to a bad float height adjustment. Is that true? Do I need new spark plugs? I thought that might be the problem too.)
Which brings me to the carbs. Mikuni BS34s. I took everything apart, got the carbs out (fun stuff), and saw that whoever had them before me had stripped the screws for the float bowl. So I had to jimmy those out and get new ones. Got the carbs pulled apart. Everything looked great! Like they had been rebuilt and cleaned. So that was good! Checked my float height. It was at about 20mm. So I fixed them both exactly at 22mm. Made sure everything was moving and smooth, clean and free of debris. Tightened my sync screw all the way down then brought it up 2.5 turns based on more info I had found. Put it all back together this morning and when I put my tank back on and attached my tube (luckily I hadn't put my filter back in the box) the left side carb started pouring gas out the back into the air filter box!!! I unhooked the tube, waited a minute and wiped the gas, then put it back on. Nothing happened that time so I put the filter in and got everything ready to fire it up for a test. It started (sounded off, not sure why) then turned off. It wouldn't start again after that until I had waited about thirty minutes. I gave it one last shot and gas came out of the left carb again so I called it quits.
So there's everything! Lot of info but I wanted to be thorough to help with troubleshooting. I need help! I'm taking my carbs back off tonight. So any help today would be awesome. Thanks guys.