XS650 Battery loses charge overnight, After recharge cannot stay running

DylanXS

DylanXS

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Hi all, I have been having issue with my bike and am relatively a newbie working on motorcycles.

My issues are: Battery loses charge sitting overnight. I have but a tender on the battery got it back to 100%, it starts with a little throttle but cannot stay running. Pulled choke which keeps it running, but dies as soon as I put it back in.

Any help for my next step is greatly appreciated!
 
Have you cleaned the carbs? Checked the float levels? As far as the battery seems like maybe it's time to get a one. Dead cells maybe?
 
Its a newer battery and the bike was running fine with it. How difficult is it to clean the carbs? If I do this myself how long will it take and could I run into any major issues?
 
Cleaning carbs isn't super hard, take your time and note what goes where. Start at the bottom with the float bowls. Remove the bowls and you'll see your floats, float valve, main jet and under a plug will be your pilot jet. The floats are held in place by a small pin. Remove the pin to take the floats off. The float valve is held in place by a small clip. Inspect the valve and make sure it goes in and out freely. Submerge the floats to check for leaks. Clean everything really good. Up top in the carbs will be the diaphragms, be super delicate with these. Take your time. A good can of carb cleaner, a toothbrush and an hours time may do it. Assuming they aren't ridiculously dirty. Oh also, look up the carb guide here on the site. It will help as well, my hint to you is that those carbs appear to be later model bs34's.
 
DylanXS said:
Its a newer battery and the bike was running fine with it. How difficult is it to clean the carbs? If I do this myself how long will it take and could I run into any major issues?
Click to expand...

Hi Dylan and welcome,
never mind how new the battery is, if it's charged up one day and flat the next it's hooped.
It's easy to clean carbs.
The search button will lead you to the correct methodology but I don't think it'll tell you this:-
It's even easier to drop small carb parts on the floor so they disappear.
I work on carbs inside of a big ol' cafeteria tray to keep the parts from straying and I work on them one at a time so I have a reference to put them back together right.
 
Well, it may not be the battery. You could have a short in the wiring somewhere that's draining it. Remove (or totally disconnect) the battery and see if it goes flat like that over night. If it does then yes, it is bad.
 
So I think I have ruled out any issue with the battery, It is now holding charge overnight. My issue now is the bike will not stay running without full choke. It is making slight popping backfiring noise on one side and bogs down and dies.
 
OK, then as mentioned, it sounds like a carb cleaning is needed. It sounds like the low speed or pilot (idle) circuit has gotten plugged.
 
judging by how clean the bolts are it looks to me like those carbs haven't long been off and probably cleaned .

I would try remove the carbs as a complete asembly leaving the inlet stubs on the cylinders then just remove the float bowls only .

Then you can clean the floats , the needle jets , the bowls and main jets the pilot jets and check adjust the floats without disturbing the carb syncing or disturbing anything else.

Refit and test ..you might find thats all you have to do. :thumbsup:

The thick oil left of image looks worrying though. I'd like to see a picture of the base of the cylinders .

ps your video link is not working
 
DylanXS said:
So I think I have ruled out any issue with the battery, It is now holding charge overnight. My issue now is the bike will not stay running without full choke. It is making slight popping backfiring noise on one side and bogs down and dies.
Click to expand...

Hi Dylan,
so did the battery problem mysteriously cure itself or what?
And despite what peanut sez about a partial carb clean probably being all that's needed, it's been my experience that the one little port, jet, needle or passage you didn't clean will be the one you should have.
It's a corollary of McPherson's Law of Dynamic Negatives.
 
So yes my battery wasn't my issue. I took the majority of everyone's advice to clean my carbs. Took them out leaned the Jets and put everything back together. Now I still have the same issue starting is tough, requires choke to run, and now my right side exhaust is popping intermittently. Not sure if I screwed up something along the way?
 
It isn't always the jets themselves but the passages between the jets and the outlet holes in the throttle body. Are the mixture screws uncapped so you can remove them and use compressed air?
 
I didn't check my float height, I'll get back at it again, what's the height for an 83 xs650s?
 

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