20 Most Recent 1985 Yamaha XJ 700 X Maxim - Page 7 Questions & Answers

What city do you live in?

at the bottom of engine should be in between exhaust

Sounds like your alternator isn't charging your battery and, therefore, the bike is running completely off your battery. Have both your battery and alternator checked.

Please rate my assistance. Thank you.

It is in the carbs, A bike will act like that when it needs to be jetted, most jets are not adj, but whoever built the bike, must have messed with the carbs, you can go back to factory settings, which is about 1 1/4 turns out, and try it, you might need to get new jets, you might want to try dyno jet kit, they are adj and work great.. I had to do my bike, the exhaust was burning my eyes, backfired, wouldn't run, factory jets didn't work. But I found a dyno jet kit on ebay, and it works great. But before you take the carbs off, take a piece of heavy paper and cut the air intake in half with the paper to see what it does, then cut by 1/3, then 1/4, just to see if the intake is messing with you. Check it out, hope it helps.

visit this site www.xjbikes.com and contact chacal.

Some regulators need to be attached to the frame for a grounding spot. It is possible.

Most probably just a bad meshing of the starter and the gearbox drive. If the starter doesn't throw the gear out far enough you will get a grinding sound. This will mean it has to work harder to turn the engine over , so causing the battery to drain more and the engine to take longer to start.

Does it have points, or electronic? Check it out, it might be your problem.

Check the 'kill' switch.
Check the starter motor/brushes.
Check the solenoid switch.
Is your bike's fuse box the old one, if so it time to replace..its done its job the bike is now 24 yrs!
plz visit this site www.xjbikes.com and contact chacal XJ parts vendor.
Good Luck.

Remove the head, scrape all of the old gasket material from the head and the engine block, then install a new gasket and put the head back.

sounds like the valve clearances are to tight. if you adjust the clearances you should be fine

If you have a vacuum petcock malfunction (hole in the diaphragm) or if the fuel petcock is left in the prime position and a float needle sticks, then you get you get gas running into the cylinders, past the rings, and into the oil. When you start your motorcycle the oil/gas mixture has no place to go, the crankcase is too full, and the mixture exits through the crankcase breather into the air box where it will ruin a paper air filter. Always turn your fuel petcocks off when not driving. If the petcock diaphragms are bad rebuild the petcock with K&L rebuild kits or replace the fuel petcocks with new ones. If the float needles in the carburetors are bad or sticking, take the carburetors apart, clean them, and replace any worn or damaged parts You will have to change your gasoline saturated oil for it will no longer properly lubricate your motor.

Check the wiring inside the headlight case--that's where the wiring for the bar controls are connected into the main wiring harness. Look for loose or corroded connections. Try to get the starter working correctly, then concentrate on getting the engine to run. No-run usually means either no fuel into the cylinders or no spark to ignite the fire. Make sure to keep the battery charged while running the starter for testing.

Check on the website ViragoTechForum.com Many gurus of all things Virago hang out on there.

if your battery dead after a night run you battery charger that charges your battery is not working, and your lights runs directly on your battery with charging it

visit www.xjbikes.com theres a lot of info in there

Please visit this site http://members.tripod.com/dave_jack/id38.htm

All engines need the same three to four things to work correctly..
Compression, Fuel, Spark, (timing).... But, usually those bikes, have fuel issues. The fuel tank spigot has a vacuum controlled valve which when the engine is cranked, suction is applied and fuel then can flow. Second,, the needle and float in the carb tend to get gummed up along with the main and idle jet... You need to make sure the carb is maticulously clean, Using carb cleaner, and tag wire,, or a piece of fine wire ( be careful not to enlarge the tiny holes). Keep refering to the 3-4 list fuel, compression, Spark,,,timing.....
Good luck...!!
Rib

I love those triples! I had a red one with a set of bags and fairing from yamaha back in the 90`s and it was a great bike-the valves needed to be shimmed every 20k or so other than that shaft drive and rock solid. The manual on it calls for 0.16-0.20 I ALWAYS set mine at 0.16 and it ran fine.

Hi,Just pull down the instrument panel and check the speedo meter, open it up and put some lubricant into those gears, check the gears if there is some damage.Hope that helps!