Marty is right. Drain the oil from the engine. Pull the small filter from the right hand side under the small cover. Drop the sump panel, and pull the main oil filter. Look for metal / plastic debris in the folds of both filters.
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Slipping gear? Maybe bad valve adjustment?
- Thread starter Owen8
- Start date
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
I’ll get on that! I have a day off work tomorrow so ill get right too it. Let’s say I find metal/plastic in the oil what’s my next course of action? Let’s also say I don’t find anything, what should I check next?
Post pictures here once you have both the strainers out and inspected. I would follow the advice you get here if I were you.
There is always metal in the old engine oil. With a new engine running-in, this will be very fine particles and not a lot. So you need to look in the drip tray you drain into. Not too difficult to remove six small bolts and take the sump filter off. Should be easy to remove the side filter too. Maybe put them in a washing-up bowl and rinse with petrol. Assess whether you find a small amount of very fine metal, or a bunch of metal flakes or even bits and pieces and any other debris, plastic, rubber. But take pictures and ask - the detective work assessing what is happening inside the engine from what comes out with the oil is something many of us enjoy.
Especially when it's someone else's engine - just kidding.
Especially when it's someone else's engine - just kidding.
Do as Raymond has suggested and you will find the evidence we need to prompt the next move. You might also check to see if any of the debris is magnetic; this gives those in the know clues as to where the crap has come from.
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
Everything looks super clean…
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
Don’t mind the mess I didn’t have a big pan so I had to use kitchen bowls…
The filters look very clean in the video.
Any debris in the oil collection bowl? Let the oil settle then gently pour off oil into another vessel so as to leave any debris in the bottom of the the collection bowl.
Take some piccies and let us see.
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
Not too bad I think most of that shit is from the drive way. I left it to go get new motor oil. Also another quick question what is yalls preference 15w-40 or 20w-50
Motorcycle specific oil with zinc.
Regular car oil will cause the clutch to slip.
Just checked what I've been running, Valvoliine 20/50 Motorcycle 4 Stroke is how it's listed.
Considering how little the engine holds I don't skimp on quality.
Other opinions may vary.
Regular car oil will cause the clutch to slip.
Just checked what I've been running, Valvoliine 20/50 Motorcycle 4 Stroke is how it's listed.
Considering how little the engine holds I don't skimp on quality.
Other opinions may vary.
20w-50
Make sure it doesn't contain "friction modifiers." Wet clutches don't like it. They'll slip... big time.
Make sure it doesn't contain "friction modifiers." Wet clutches don't like it. They'll slip... big time.
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
Ok sweet thank you guys! Any thoughts on what could be causing the power issue still? If it was the cam chain wouldn’t I see plastic in my filters or at least some metal shavings? I’m so lost on what it could be now…
Is it a "new to you" bike or have you been riding it for a while?
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
It worked perfect for about a week but there was valve chatter so I decided to do a valve adjustment on the bike. After the valve adjustment is when the loss of power occurred however I have triple checked my valves all are set perfectly.
There is one very easy maintenance task to do to a “new to me bike” or even a seasoned bike and that is to drain the carburetor float bowls. Purge with clean gas. Ride it wfo hoping to clean the pilot passages.
Try that
Try that
This has to be where something went wrong. It ran fine. You adjusted the valves. Now it doesn't run. I'm over here in Mississippi. What am I to make of that?
Where did you get your adjustment procedure? You adjusted on the back side of the lobe? This smells of you did it wrong. We should discern exactly what you did to adjust them before going off on a tangent. Points bike, correct? Is the ignition stock. Something went wrong.
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Agree. When you do something and it gets worse, undo or redo that something. Troubleshooting 101.
Can you shoot a video of the valve adjustment? Maybe we can see what's what.
I disagree and hope the op has done the valve adjustment properly as he has studied procedures.
A new to me bike is likely to suffer from tank / fuel / carb symptoms of loss of power
A new to me bike is likely to suffer from tank / fuel / carb symptoms of loss of power
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
The carbs have been redone twice! New pilots, new float bowls, new gaskets and cleaned all over! I adjusted my valves as followed… I took off all 4 of the covers rotated my crank until I hit too dead center… looked for which side had play in the valves or which side wiggled… after I determined which side was loose I adjusted that side… intake set to .004 and exhaust set to .006… I even tried the intake at .003 as I’ve seen some people prefer that. Ive had them where my feeler gauge has a lot of drag and I’ve also had them where my feeler gauge has little drag… one thing to note is I’m missing a o ring on one of the valve covers but I can’t imagine that’s the reason for all that loss of power… I’ve even adjusted the cam chain to where the plunger is flush with the bolt. I’ll send yall a video in a couple of minutes to show the feeler gauges drag on each valve.
Owen8
XS650 Enthusiast
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