DIRTYFACE
XS650 Member
Before I contact Hugh’s hand built again, I figured I’d ask you guys and Facebook first. I am at my wits end though, spending days and days trying figure this out so I truly need some help.
1980 xs650 special bs34’s
Prior to swap:
Everything bone stock. Fired up and idled alright, but boggy and stuttering 0-40 mph 1st-3rd gear. Left plug fouled, either carbon or most likely gas. Right plug looked good. Cleaned carbs and they were dirty but nothing was clogged. The left carb has original brass float that looks pretty ancient and the right has after market brass float that looks new. The right slide diaphragm had about 1/2 inch of delamination on the rim, but no holes through so I carefully patched it with E6000 adhesive. The left diaphragm was good (side with fouled plug).
Put carb back on same exact issue. Ended up swapping to uni foam pods at his point because the oem air filters were hard to find. No change after pods.
Swapped to Hugh’s Hand Built PMA and CDI ignition kit.
Pulled entire wire harness, installed PMA and timing tab, marked tdc on case cover, temporarily wired PMA, pick up coil, CDI, reg/rec, ignition coil and capacitor triple checking my connections and had good frame grounds. Made sure to ground body of reg/rec. Wired 20 amp fuse from + spade of capacitor. Grounded other spade of capacitor. Didn’t wire any lights, switches or anything but what is mentioned above.
Kick, kick, kick and the most I’d get was a sputter of a start. Took off capacitor and wired up everything the same but with a battery. Didn’t use the relay that was included in the kit though, which in my understanding is only necessary if you’re using a key or starter button. Battery grounded to frame, all other grounds straight to negative post on battery. Hot wired the starter to battery and bike starts, but starts to miss and stumble then kills. Got a 14.8 volt charge spec on battery though. Tried all adjustments on timing tab and no real change. Pulled plugs which are gapped properly per Hugh’s instructions, and problematic left plug was wet with gas and didn’t seem to have fired much if at all. Right plug looks alright, from what I can gather with brand new plugs and not ever getting motor up to heat.
Lowered left float bowl float, no change. Did ohms test on all new components per Hugh’s instructions and all seemed to be close to spec although my numbers were a bit off and I’m using the cheapest multimeter you can buy at Walmart. Most importantly the ignition coil resistance from spade to plug wire was nothing/open circuit so I believe the coil isn’t shorted internally.
Last thing I tried was reversing the spade leads on coil, wiring them opposite to what Hugh’s instructions said. Initially it fired and ran better and longer then it ever has since swap. But killed abruptly and difficult to get started again. Whenever the bike kills throughout all these changes, I have to wait a a good 5-10 minutes to get it started again, which leads me to believe at least that left cylinder is getting flooded.
I’m at my wits end, spending every waking moment trying to figure this out. At this point I need some help.
Thank you for reading this long story.
-Paul
1980 xs650 special bs34’s
Prior to swap:
Everything bone stock. Fired up and idled alright, but boggy and stuttering 0-40 mph 1st-3rd gear. Left plug fouled, either carbon or most likely gas. Right plug looked good. Cleaned carbs and they were dirty but nothing was clogged. The left carb has original brass float that looks pretty ancient and the right has after market brass float that looks new. The right slide diaphragm had about 1/2 inch of delamination on the rim, but no holes through so I carefully patched it with E6000 adhesive. The left diaphragm was good (side with fouled plug).
Put carb back on same exact issue. Ended up swapping to uni foam pods at his point because the oem air filters were hard to find. No change after pods.
Swapped to Hugh’s Hand Built PMA and CDI ignition kit.
Pulled entire wire harness, installed PMA and timing tab, marked tdc on case cover, temporarily wired PMA, pick up coil, CDI, reg/rec, ignition coil and capacitor triple checking my connections and had good frame grounds. Made sure to ground body of reg/rec. Wired 20 amp fuse from + spade of capacitor. Grounded other spade of capacitor. Didn’t wire any lights, switches or anything but what is mentioned above.
Kick, kick, kick and the most I’d get was a sputter of a start. Took off capacitor and wired up everything the same but with a battery. Didn’t use the relay that was included in the kit though, which in my understanding is only necessary if you’re using a key or starter button. Battery grounded to frame, all other grounds straight to negative post on battery. Hot wired the starter to battery and bike starts, but starts to miss and stumble then kills. Got a 14.8 volt charge spec on battery though. Tried all adjustments on timing tab and no real change. Pulled plugs which are gapped properly per Hugh’s instructions, and problematic left plug was wet with gas and didn’t seem to have fired much if at all. Right plug looks alright, from what I can gather with brand new plugs and not ever getting motor up to heat.
Lowered left float bowl float, no change. Did ohms test on all new components per Hugh’s instructions and all seemed to be close to spec although my numbers were a bit off and I’m using the cheapest multimeter you can buy at Walmart. Most importantly the ignition coil resistance from spade to plug wire was nothing/open circuit so I believe the coil isn’t shorted internally.
Last thing I tried was reversing the spade leads on coil, wiring them opposite to what Hugh’s instructions said. Initially it fired and ran better and longer then it ever has since swap. But killed abruptly and difficult to get started again. Whenever the bike kills throughout all these changes, I have to wait a a good 5-10 minutes to get it started again, which leads me to believe at least that left cylinder is getting flooded.
I’m at my wits end, spending every waking moment trying to figure this out. At this point I need some help.
Thank you for reading this long story.
-Paul
