Orangetuesdays
XS400 Enthusiast
First off, hello! I'm from Bloomington, MN. This will be my first post on the forum but I've read through quite a few threads.
Well, my girlfriend got a hold of a 79 XS 400 awhile back. Unfortunately she didn't do anything with it except let it sit in her garage. I don't know if it ran before she got it or not. Well, I guess she's tired of looking at it or something but she said I could have it if I got it up and running. Score!
I'll start off by saying that I know little to nothing about motorcycles or automotives in general, but I am very willing to learn. I know some very general basic things and I've been picking things up here and there reading through the forums.
First off, I've been trying to use the kickstart since I don't have a good battery.
Alright, so the XS. Well, obviously it won't start up. It's been sitting for about 6 years from what I understand. The oil looks pretty good--nice and clear and doesn't appear to have any gunk in it, though I haven't looked inside. I just checked what was on the dipstick. It didn't have any fuel in it so I rinsed the gas tank out (looks like there was a little fuel in it and it condensed down into this really thick liquid) and ran some fresh fuel into it. I turned the petcock to "on" and the fuel seemed to flow in alright. There didn't seem to be any leaks or anything until fuel start leaking out through both the air filters. Great! I took the air filters off and took the carbs out. They were a little dirty but overall not too bad. I cleaned out the float chambers and gave the pins and everything in there a good rinse off with some carb cleaner and put the carbs back in. That fixed the fuel leaking through the air intake. Tried to start it up and still wouldn't go.
I've tried putting a dead battery in just in case it needed to be there to close the circuit but that doesn't work either. I've tried hooking up a live battery but I don't know if it'll work since it's not the "correct" battery. I believe the voltage and everything is correct on it and all but it's not the right size that fits into the battery compartment. I've used a multimeter to check and see if the circuit closes completely when the batter is in and it does. I've checked all the connectors and fuses and those all are in good condition too--no rust or corrosion. I'm also missing the physical "start" button. The spring is there but the little plastic button part is gone. I tried using a screw driver to push it but nothing seems to work there. I checked the sparkplugs and they had a lot of carbon on them, so I gave them a good cleaning and they look alright for the most part.
When I do use the kickstart it sounds like something inside is "spinning". I'm not really sure how to describe it other than it sounds like a wound up spring quickly uncoiling or something. This sound doesn't happen every time I try to kickstart it--only sometimes. Sometimes I'll get small puffs of white smoke out the exhaust when I kick, but also not all the time.
Any help would be awesome! Remember, I'm a complete newbie to this stuff and I'm more or less using this as a project to learn with. So far it's been a blast! (even though the bike still doesn't start up. lol)
Thanks!
Well, my girlfriend got a hold of a 79 XS 400 awhile back. Unfortunately she didn't do anything with it except let it sit in her garage. I don't know if it ran before she got it or not. Well, I guess she's tired of looking at it or something but she said I could have it if I got it up and running. Score!
I'll start off by saying that I know little to nothing about motorcycles or automotives in general, but I am very willing to learn. I know some very general basic things and I've been picking things up here and there reading through the forums.
First off, I've been trying to use the kickstart since I don't have a good battery.
Alright, so the XS. Well, obviously it won't start up. It's been sitting for about 6 years from what I understand. The oil looks pretty good--nice and clear and doesn't appear to have any gunk in it, though I haven't looked inside. I just checked what was on the dipstick. It didn't have any fuel in it so I rinsed the gas tank out (looks like there was a little fuel in it and it condensed down into this really thick liquid) and ran some fresh fuel into it. I turned the petcock to "on" and the fuel seemed to flow in alright. There didn't seem to be any leaks or anything until fuel start leaking out through both the air filters. Great! I took the air filters off and took the carbs out. They were a little dirty but overall not too bad. I cleaned out the float chambers and gave the pins and everything in there a good rinse off with some carb cleaner and put the carbs back in. That fixed the fuel leaking through the air intake. Tried to start it up and still wouldn't go.
I've tried putting a dead battery in just in case it needed to be there to close the circuit but that doesn't work either. I've tried hooking up a live battery but I don't know if it'll work since it's not the "correct" battery. I believe the voltage and everything is correct on it and all but it's not the right size that fits into the battery compartment. I've used a multimeter to check and see if the circuit closes completely when the batter is in and it does. I've checked all the connectors and fuses and those all are in good condition too--no rust or corrosion. I'm also missing the physical "start" button. The spring is there but the little plastic button part is gone. I tried using a screw driver to push it but nothing seems to work there. I checked the sparkplugs and they had a lot of carbon on them, so I gave them a good cleaning and they look alright for the most part.
When I do use the kickstart it sounds like something inside is "spinning". I'm not really sure how to describe it other than it sounds like a wound up spring quickly uncoiling or something. This sound doesn't happen every time I try to kickstart it--only sometimes. Sometimes I'll get small puffs of white smoke out the exhaust when I kick, but also not all the time.
Any help would be awesome! Remember, I'm a complete newbie to this stuff and I'm more or less using this as a project to learn with. So far it's been a blast! (even though the bike still doesn't start up. lol)
Thanks!