1982 yamaha xj550 won't start...any knowledge on carburators anyone? not looking...

M

married man

New member
also has the bike been dropped or wrecked?my brother had the same bike and had a very minor lay down.found out the electronic ignition on the side cover took the abuse at first look everything seemed fine but the problem persisted. a good mechanic finally determined that one of the wires had broken inside of the insulation for the ignition.cold it ran great as soon as it warmed up pfffft same condition you described as the wire warmed up the expansion made the connection intermittent sometimes it ran other times it wouldn't.
 
...for frivolous answers here? I just bought a 1982 Yamaha xj550 maxim today... Well went to pick it up today. When I first saw it and tested it out, it started right up, idled fine, accelerated fine, no problems. Today, a week and a half later, i went to pick it up. Couldn't get it started and at first (due to the strong smell of gasoline) thought maybe it was flooded. Well, it took forever to get it to start but it finally did. Then it wouldn't stay running. After messing with it it started and ran but at very high rpms. if i gave it throttle, the rpms wouldn't drop back down to idle but the throttle snapped back like it should. the only way to bring the idle down was to throttle it wide open then let go and the rpms would drop to normal. Then it died on me at a light and I wasn't able to get it started again. No rust in the tank, new gas, there is spark, engine does turn over, new plugs, wires, air filter, basic tune-up, etc. Thinking its the carbs but i was told it was just cleaned. Wondering if the floats are set too low, would it cause this problem?
the bike actually was tipped once and appearantly pretty hard. the gas tank on the right side is scuffed pretty good and dented. but it has been like that for a while and the bike was ridden quite a bit last year. It also only has 8870 miles total. The original owner kept it at his cabin and only rode it for recreation occasionally. When the guy i bought it from got it (4 years ago) he put another 3,500 miles on it. He had tipped it in an intersection the first time he brought it out.
 
It's unlikely the float settings are at fault.
"I was told the carbs were just cleaned"
Do you believe everything people say to you?
If they were cleaned - there's a good possibility they weren't cleaned adequately.
The high idle could be from the carbs being out of sync.
That model bike has CV carbs - they operate from the vacuum of the engine.
If the throttle slides were sticking, had worn springs, ripped/torn and leaking slide diaphragms - all can contribute to the problem.
Remove and clean the carbs - especially the jets (hold them up to the light and make sure you can see through them), make sure the slide operate properly and synchronize them.
 
that bike has constant velocity carbs,remove the top covers and take the slides out,there is a diaphram attached to the top of the slides make sure there are no tears in that diaphram. Then flip the carb over and remove the float bowl covers and remove the jets.now blow out EVERY orifice with compressed air. Or since at this point the carbs are apart soak all the metal parts overnight in a carb claener,DO NOT soak any rubber parts in the cleaner! After reassembly those carbs need to be synchronised.
 
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