blivy
XS650 New Member
Hey everyone. Brand new to this site.
I'm fairly new to bike mechanics too (I just rebuilt a cx500 for myself and am now helping my buddy with his 1978 XS650).
About his bike--1978, great condition. He's owned and serviced it regularly for the last 10 years. However, he doesn't do the work on it himself (he and I are trying to learn together).
His bike started dying on him earlier this month. Last week I went to check it out with him. When it ran, it ran beautifully. But then at what seemed like random times would sputter then die. Once it died, it would be very difficult to restart.
Fuel was new and fine. Air filters were clean. Spark plugs looked good and gap was correct (though can't remember the spec offhand). Battery tested at (if i remember correctly) at around 12.5 - 12.8 volts when engine was off.
He tried to get the bike to start and it just didn't seem to want to fire up. Even kicking it off, it refused to start. It would take about 10 tries to get it going and then it would run for a little bit (sounding great, getting pressure out of both exhausts--so i think that means that both sides are firing) before sputtering and dying again.
Then during one of the times when we got it started again I started testing out the controls and found that whenever I turned the blinker on, the bike's idle would change (drop and become unsteady) and then the bike would die shortly thereafter.
I don't know much about these bikes--any ideas of what this might be or a sequence of what to check out next (and how to do so)?
Thanks for the help.
-blivy
I'm fairly new to bike mechanics too (I just rebuilt a cx500 for myself and am now helping my buddy with his 1978 XS650).
About his bike--1978, great condition. He's owned and serviced it regularly for the last 10 years. However, he doesn't do the work on it himself (he and I are trying to learn together).
His bike started dying on him earlier this month. Last week I went to check it out with him. When it ran, it ran beautifully. But then at what seemed like random times would sputter then die. Once it died, it would be very difficult to restart.
Fuel was new and fine. Air filters were clean. Spark plugs looked good and gap was correct (though can't remember the spec offhand). Battery tested at (if i remember correctly) at around 12.5 - 12.8 volts when engine was off.
He tried to get the bike to start and it just didn't seem to want to fire up. Even kicking it off, it refused to start. It would take about 10 tries to get it going and then it would run for a little bit (sounding great, getting pressure out of both exhausts--so i think that means that both sides are firing) before sputtering and dying again.
Then during one of the times when we got it started again I started testing out the controls and found that whenever I turned the blinker on, the bike's idle would change (drop and become unsteady) and then the bike would die shortly thereafter.
I don't know much about these bikes--any ideas of what this might be or a sequence of what to check out next (and how to do so)?
Thanks for the help.
-blivy
