Thraxxface
XS650 Enthusiast
For anyone that’s not familiar with the issue at hand, we started this conversation over another thread I created about changing my OEM stator to a XSCharge PMA. Essentially, I started a 320 mile journey with my bike and at about 75 miles into the journey my left cylinder started to lose power. I got about 5 more miles in and the cylinder died completely. The left side of the engine was much hotter than the right side and the left exhaust was rainbow pretty. The bike was abandoned at an auto shop until I was able to get it back home.
When I got the bike home I took the plugs out and put a socket on the crank bolt. With two fingers the engine spun like butter. So I knew the engine was seized. I then checked all of my valves and found the left cylinder to be way over tightened. This was weird because I adjusted the valves myself and checked them 3 times before I left with them being within the factory specs at cooldown all 3 times. I checked and adjusted my points and found my top point wasn’t even touching at any part of rotation. About a dime sized gap between. With all that checked I put the key in and tried to start. It takes a few minutes but it eventually does start. Here’s her terms and conditions. Choke on startup, even when warm, 15% throttle always. No more, no less, or she says good night.
Here’s some things that I notice. When she starts, she only runs at 1k rpm. If I open the throttle it’ll go up to about 1500 rpm but will die immediately after. If I let go of the throttle it also dies. Choke must be on every time I start it but in order for it to stay on I have to turn it off right away. There’s a bad backfire through the carbs every 5 or 6 seconds. Both cylinders reek like petrol, the intake side of the carbs have a nice layer of unspent petrol around them, when the bike is off and sitting for a moment the carbs start to dump petrol out the intake side of carbs. Clearly there’s a fuel issue but I’m still trying to get into a school around here so I’m not terribly knowledgeable on the specifics. I do not have pictures of everything at this moment. I’ll share what I do have in hopes that it might help.
When I got the bike home I took the plugs out and put a socket on the crank bolt. With two fingers the engine spun like butter. So I knew the engine was seized. I then checked all of my valves and found the left cylinder to be way over tightened. This was weird because I adjusted the valves myself and checked them 3 times before I left with them being within the factory specs at cooldown all 3 times. I checked and adjusted my points and found my top point wasn’t even touching at any part of rotation. About a dime sized gap between. With all that checked I put the key in and tried to start. It takes a few minutes but it eventually does start. Here’s her terms and conditions. Choke on startup, even when warm, 15% throttle always. No more, no less, or she says good night.
Here’s some things that I notice. When she starts, she only runs at 1k rpm. If I open the throttle it’ll go up to about 1500 rpm but will die immediately after. If I let go of the throttle it also dies. Choke must be on every time I start it but in order for it to stay on I have to turn it off right away. There’s a bad backfire through the carbs every 5 or 6 seconds. Both cylinders reek like petrol, the intake side of the carbs have a nice layer of unspent petrol around them, when the bike is off and sitting for a moment the carbs start to dump petrol out the intake side of carbs. Clearly there’s a fuel issue but I’m still trying to get into a school around here so I’m not terribly knowledgeable on the specifics. I do not have pictures of everything at this moment. I’ll share what I do have in hopes that it might help.