Waking up the Machine

[iBoesen]

Hello All!

New to the forum, this is my first post. I am sure you will be seeing more of me in the coming months.

Last week I picked up a 1979 XS400 for $400.

Bike has so rust but overall it is not too shabby!

My main priority right now is to get the motorcycle running before anything else.

This is what I have done to the bike so far...
-New Oil/Filter
-New Plugs
-New filters "pods"
-Cleaned Carbs (more on this in a bit..)
-Cleaned out tank - new fuel filter and line.
-New battery, fully charged.

So I am trying to get it running and this what I have accomplished thus far.
I have spark, checked it, and it is fat and blue.
I have fuel going into carbs, i unscrewed the float bowls and gas came out.
When I spray starter fluid in it, it runs for a little bit and then dies. Maybe 5 Seconds.

So I have a few questions.
1: I am assuming the stock main jets are in it now, one said 132.5 and the other was not legible but was definitely larger. Now I realize that adding the pods will change the running of the bike. My question is, would it run at all if they were off? Or just run poorly?

2: The times it ran, it seem to run great, both cylinders firing on time. This leads me to believe that it is a fuel delivery issue. Should I be smelling Fuel on the spark plugs? If the gas was getting to the plug and not firing then I would assume maybe a compression issue? BUT, I do NOT smell gas on the plugs. So I am thinking maybe fuel is not getting there.
-This leads me to where I am at tonight.

I took off the Carbs and went to re-adjust my float height. (brass floats--26mm)
This is when I discovered that I never cleaned the PILOT JETS.
3: This would affect the fuel being delivered to the spark plugs, Correct?!
-Anyways, I managed to get one out, but the other one appeared to be stripped!!!

I surfed this forum and got some ideas, I tried getting it hot with a soldering iron and tapping a sharp flathead screw driver into it, but to no avail. This this looks almost destroyed in the hole it is recessed in.
I cant for the life of me get this thing out.

Any ideas/ answers to my questions would be greatly appreciated!! Let me know if my thinking sounds logical or not thats okay too!

Thanks!!
-Mark

 

[rshutchinson]

If you can use an impact on the jets they come out much easier without stripping.

If it's stripped then you can take an allen key or torx bit that just is just slightly too big and hammer it in to the jet then turn it out to remove it. You are likely going to need to replace the jet as it is anyway.

The jetting being off slightly will still allow it to run, yes. However, if you missed cleaning the pilots then I'd say you haven't done enough to clean the carbs completely. All jets, emulsion tubes, slides and needles etc need to be out to clean all the passages.

 

[iBoesen]

So today I went ahead and tired to get the what was left of the Jet out, first i tried the torx but there wasnt anything that it would grab on to after tapping it on the face of the jet. Next I went out and purchased a LH screw extractor.

Long story short the threads on the body of the carb are basically destroyed.

Anyone know where I can get a bs34 carb from? Even just one would do seeing as this one wont accept a pilot jet anymore.

Thanks

 

[iBoesen]

Found these on ebay last night, would these work? They appear to be a bs34. However I am not sure if there is a different model I should be looking at.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1982-Yamaha...ash=item43ded9d746:g:NPAAAOSwHnFVgwNw&vxp=mtr

Like I said my bike is an 1979 XS400.

 

[rshutchinson]

Did you get the jet out though? They don't have any load on them so as long as you can even somewhat screw new ones in they may be salvageable. You can put loctite on the new jets when you screw them in to help grab the threads that are left and keep it in there.

Just a thought before you buy new carbs.

 

[rshutchinson]

The 78-79 carbs were different in that they used brass floats and I believe slightly different jetting from the 80-81.

The rack of DOHC carbs that you posted there are different from the SOHC, however I don't know if the carb bodies themselves are different or if it's just the jetting and carb spacing etc that is different. I have a set I can look at, just have to find them, if no one else can chime in with a definitive answer.

 

[iBoesen]

Thanks for your help! I was unable to extract it so far. I am going to keep working at it.

 

[iBoesen]

Hey everyone, long time no see.
SO after much time working on the bike I finally have it running!
Here is the bike currently
http://imgur.com/gallery/HI1SD?lr=0