kick kick kicking away

[rider119]

Just bought an 82 xs650, its kick only, well has a starter but if I hook it up it just keeps spinning and never stops. It acts like it wants to start as it will ignite for a second then dies. Compression seems good, carbs seemed to be clean, haven't tried new fuel, and other ideas?

 

[DozerDan]

is the fuel on and flowing?
Do you have spark?
How do the air filters look?
How do the plugs look?
Is the choke on/off


I would try new fuel and make sure the bowls are filling.

What does it do with a touch of starting fluid?

 

[XSLeo]

Being an 82 it has the TCI so check to see if you get spark at the plugs as you kick it over.
The TCI is very voltage sensitive, this means you need to have a good battery and charging system.
Once you find good spark and it's still hard to start read this, www.amckayltd.com/carbguide.pdf This will help you tear down, clean, inspect and reassemble your carbs.
It also has a section on tuning the carbs.
Your XS650 needs a good battery, clean fresh gas. Without you won't get it running well.
Leo

 

[rider119]

I've got a brand new battery fully charged, pamco ignition, and with the pamco is there supposed to be a replacement for the timing on both cylinders, or does it just replace one of the mechanical one with one electronic one and run both cylinders that way? I'm new to street bikes and xs's so please excuse my dumb questions. Also I pulled the plugs out and tried kicking the engine over while grounding the plugs to the cylinder to check spark and got nothing. I thought it may be because of the paint to I tried grounding to the frame and other areas and still got nothing.

 

[rider119]

It does occasionally want to start so I know it has to be getting spark then.

 

[gggGary]

Take some bare copper wire wrap it around the base of the plugs and a good ground point. Be careful kicking your engine with the plugs out. VERY easy to smoke electronic component$ that way. The pamco fires one coil with 2 plug wires the timing rotor has two sets of magnets so it fires both sides at every revolution of the crank, AKA a wasted spark set up.

 

[XSLeo]

It works pretty much like the stock TCI. it fires both plugs as the pistons come up to TDC. one piston is on the compression stroke and the spark will ignite the air/fuel charge. The other piston is coming up on the exhaust stroke and fires the exhaust, which does nothing, thus the name wasted spark.
This is fine. It's the way most vehicles run.
One thing that works well is to strip a couple feet of the solid copper wire out of a piece of house wiring. Put a circle in each end of the wire. Slide it in across the top of the engine. Screw the plugs into the circles in the ends of the wire. Now try checking for spark.
Has the bike ran since the Pamco was installed? If not I would check all the wiring for the Pamco. Be sure all connections are correct and tight. Be sure the ground is good clean bare metal to clean bare metal contact.
When you have the bike turned on check for voltage at both the coil and Pamco. It should read the same as battery voltage. If not you need to figure out why.
Leo

 

[rider119]

I guess what I am asking about the pamco is that where it mounts in the round housing on the side of each cylinder only one side has the electronic ignition in it with a wire coming out and the other has what appears to be the original mechanical timing mechanism in it, is that supposed to be that way?

 

[rider119]

anyone know how to post a pic from a phone to here?

 

[rider119]

 

[rider119]

should there be a hole like this on the top of where my pamco ignition mounts in? also on the bottom there seems to be a large piece missing.

 

[rider119]

 

[rider119]

 

[gggGary]

Your pics will need to be in a shared space, your links want a password for access. So we can't see them.
Yes Pamco on the left, advance mechanism on the right. Those compartments are not internal to the engine so holes blocked to keep water out is all you need. replacement housings are easy to find if yours are hacked up.

housing should look like this

But with a rubber grommet at the wire exit.