Dann
XS650 Member
Hey everyone. I'm new to this forum but have been searching on and off for the last week or so trying to find a solution to why my XS650 wont start.
Here's the rundown. I purchased a 78 XS650 bobber a couple weeks ago and it ran fine when I bought it. I took it out last week to work for the first time and noticed it was hard to kick start. (Ever since I got it I have had trouble kick starting it. I would sometimes kick it about 10-15 times before it fires but once it fires it was fine) I went to the store and came out and had to kick it 5 times to get it running again. I was only in there for maybe 15 minutes but once it fired it ran smooth. I got to work and by the time I was leaving it would not start for the life of me.
I ran a compression test after I got it home and its showing 60 on both cylinders which I thought was real low. This is with the carbs off the car. I took the carbs and cleaned them out. I adjusted the floats to close (was leaking some gas) and replaced the float cover gaskets. I also swapped the spark plugs and tried to start it again with no luck. I wanted to test if I had spark so what I did (didnt really know how to check for spark) was I pulled the plugs and left the wires connected. I did this around midnight to make sure it was dark. I turned off all the lights and tired kicking it a few times. If there was a spark id assume I would see a small flash of light for a split second right? I could be crazy here in my assumptions but in the end no matter how many kicks I did not see any spark. I went on to replacing the points with two new ones the seller gave me. I did not adjust the timing yet. Tried again and still no spark. I dont know how to test the electrical system and I dont know how to set the timing on this bike. I'm going to try to follow this thread this weekend to set the timing
http://www.650central.com/fsetting_pointstype_ignition_on.htm
but I was wondering if anyone has a simplier way of setting the timing or if thye could chime in on what might be going on and how to trouble shoot it.
The bike is running batteryless and has the xscharge system with teh stock points ignition. I dont know how to hook up a timing light since there is no battery and without a battery I cant really test to see if I have power to my multi-meter to do the points adjustment can i?
I attached some photos of the bike and the parts i'm working with. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Here's the rundown. I purchased a 78 XS650 bobber a couple weeks ago and it ran fine when I bought it. I took it out last week to work for the first time and noticed it was hard to kick start. (Ever since I got it I have had trouble kick starting it. I would sometimes kick it about 10-15 times before it fires but once it fires it was fine) I went to the store and came out and had to kick it 5 times to get it running again. I was only in there for maybe 15 minutes but once it fired it ran smooth. I got to work and by the time I was leaving it would not start for the life of me.
I ran a compression test after I got it home and its showing 60 on both cylinders which I thought was real low. This is with the carbs off the car. I took the carbs and cleaned them out. I adjusted the floats to close (was leaking some gas) and replaced the float cover gaskets. I also swapped the spark plugs and tried to start it again with no luck. I wanted to test if I had spark so what I did (didnt really know how to check for spark) was I pulled the plugs and left the wires connected. I did this around midnight to make sure it was dark. I turned off all the lights and tired kicking it a few times. If there was a spark id assume I would see a small flash of light for a split second right? I could be crazy here in my assumptions but in the end no matter how many kicks I did not see any spark. I went on to replacing the points with two new ones the seller gave me. I did not adjust the timing yet. Tried again and still no spark. I dont know how to test the electrical system and I dont know how to set the timing on this bike. I'm going to try to follow this thread this weekend to set the timing
http://www.650central.com/fsetting_pointstype_ignition_on.htm
but I was wondering if anyone has a simplier way of setting the timing or if thye could chime in on what might be going on and how to trouble shoot it.
The bike is running batteryless and has the xscharge system with teh stock points ignition. I dont know how to hook up a timing light since there is no battery and without a battery I cant really test to see if I have power to my multi-meter to do the points adjustment can i?
I attached some photos of the bike and the parts i'm working with. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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