chuckles_no

I just cleaned, rebuilt, and synchronized the carbs for my xj550. Whoever got their hands into those carbs, previously did a real dandy. The air/fuel mixture screw seals were already drilled out and reset to... get this... #1 carb was 3 turns out, #2 and #3 were 3 1/2 turns out, and the #4 was 2 1/2 turns out. I almost never mess with the manufacturer setting on those and just gave a wild guess on how many turns and know I am way off. I have them all turned 3 turns out. But it is running rich and my RPMs hang bad around 3000. They are cleaned and rebuilt now, and balanced. Idles and runs nice all except for the rpms hanging high. No air or vacuum leaks at all. Does anybody know the setting for the xj550? and if they were equipped with afterstock, larger jets, should it be set to less than stock or more. By "more or less" I mean screw turns. In should be lean and out should be rich.

ok thats not too bad coming from an actual Yamaha shop. Most of the time, as far as my experience goes, dealers and certified service centers charge more than independant shops. Either way I just want the darn thing running and starting right... ready to have some fun with. Thanks for the peace of mind.

I actually took it to a bike shop. Figured I'd better have a professional look at it since I don't know anything about 4 stroke motors or anything about motors with more than one carb. These are mainly harley guys but they do foreign bikes too. Just hope they know how to balance carbs and have the tools. Do you have any idea how much shops generally charge for this kind of work?

If unbalanced or dirty (or both) carbs (there are 4 on this bike) could make the bike run really bad, flood easily, not start at all, idle at very high rpms, or rpms don't drop when the throttle is in idle position.

The bike had 2 owners before me. The original owner barely rode it then tipped it and hurt himself so he stored it for 7 years before selling it to the guys I bought it from. Has 8970 actual miles on it but the bike is a little beat up looking. And its running really bad. Actually, it broke down on me like 4 blocks down the road after I bought it. When I first looked at it, it ran fine but when I came to pick it up, it had the following issues... Idled insanely high. Even with choke off. Flooded easily. When throttled, the rpms wouldn't drop back to idle. The throttle went back into idle position and the cable was working properly but the rpms wouldn't drop unless i gave it a quick full throttle rev. Died on me and couldn't get it started again... I pushed it like 2 miles to a bike shop. These guys are harley guys but know foreign bikes too. 2 days before I picked it up, the guy i bought it from had a carb clean done on it and that is when the problem started, i am assuming. like i said, when I first checked it out everything was going great. Could these problems be from an improper cleaning or the carbs not being balanced? Also, worst case scenario, from your experience, what am i looking at spending to get this bike running and riding reliably so I can trust it not to die on a road trip. It is my first road bike. Before this my experience is with dirt bikes and 4 wheelers... the biggest being a 250cc

I actually had the same problem on my first YZ 80 dirtbike. Scared the heck out of me. I'm new to street bikes but my problem was a tear inside the actual tire. You couldn't see anything from the outside but it tore inside. When we put a new tire on it stopped

So I saw a bike that had a for sale sign for $900 on the side of the road. I have ridden dirt bikes since I was like 7 years old but the biggest thing I ever rode was a 250 yamaha 4 wheeler. I figured, "dirt bike, street bike, all the same." Yeah right. The weight and power of a street bike through me (almost literally) for a loop. I am a grown man but skinny at 5'10" 140 pounds. Anyway, It ran well when I checked it out. Started right up, ran well, shifted well, idle nice, etc... I payed for it in increments before I picked it up a couple of days ago. This time, however, it took forever to get it started, it didn't want to stay running, it ran bad, and then, finally after i decided to try riding it home, it died on me like 4 blocks down the road. The people I bought it from are good people. Friends of good friends and well known in our community. And both on the rescue squad in our area. It had one owner before them... a guy who bought it brand new and almost never rode it. He had actually tipped it about 10 years ago and never rode it again. It sat in a shed at his cabin, drained of oil and gas and set for storage. He sold it to the guys I bought it from 3 years ago. The guy who they had do the maintenance on the bike and regular check ups was the last guy who touched it. They had him do a carb clean on it 2 days before I picked it up and that is when the problems started. I brought it to some real bikers who own the only other motorcycle shop in town and they said, from the symptoms I described, it sounds like the carbs are dirty and not balanced or synchronized. Maybe some of you have had the same experience... Idled insanely high, 3-4 thousand rpms without the choke flooded easily when throttled wide open and released the rpms dropped to normal, but as soon as i gave it throttle, even with the throttle back in idle position, the rpms didn't drop. This isn't a cable problem either as I did check and the cables all around are in excellent condition. Any insight anyone?