Dear all,

My poor old XJ900 has been standing for eight years and it's time to use it again.

I've cleaned out all of the carbs, jets, float bowls and all moving parts seem to be OK.

Fuel is getting to the float bowls but she just won't start. Coughs a few times on full choke but that's it. She will run a bit on a sniff of fuel directly into the carbs so I know that the mechanical bits work. I don't think that any fuel is getting to the cylinders so I must have missed something blocked?

Any ideas?

try a squirt of oil in each cylinder she may be down on compression due to standing that long

Yeh " and if that don't work ,check the choke system,,

try cleaning the drillings in the carbs, when the choke is applied drilling(s) in the carb(s) are opened in order to draw neat fuel from the float chambers into the venturi ... this then allows the engine to start. adding fuel directly to the cylinders actually does the same as the choke (e.g rich fuel mixture) .... take the float bowels off and in the float bowel you will see a hole in the bottom (near the drain port) that is connected to the hole (in the float bowel) that the brass tube from the carb body lives in when the carbs are all together ... if the hole small hole (near the the float bowel drain) is blocked .... you get no enriched mixture to the venturi ,,, so in effect no choke !

Thanks everyone. Compression is good but I'll try the drillings next. Sigh! This must be the third carb strip.

should be able to do it with your eyes shut then

Thanks everyone. Compression is good but I'll try the drillings next. Sigh! This must be the third carb strip.

Perhaps you could get them sonic cleaned ?