Hello everybody :greeny: ,
I'm brand new on this forum (did a small intro yesterday as a first post), and also to riding.
Sorry for the long post, or for what may seem any lack of mechanical/riding experience, but honestly that's just what it is :help: .
I bought my 92' xj 600 S about half a year ago. After riding a little I noticed I had trouble starting and also battery was depleting every couple of days. Immediately replaced spark plugs, battery, oil and oil filter.
1. The lost wire: later on I noticed a wire a little loose coming out from under the right handle. The wire had been completely cut, probably by the plastic cover from the handle bar. After removing the front fairing I found out the wire was from the hot grip, which the previous owner had installed. I isolated it and my battery depleting issue disappeared. Does anyone have any suggestion if I should repair the hot grip, or remove it completely? I don't see myself riding in winter so ...?
2. Neutral switch (or side stand switch?): my bike also seems to have a will of it's own: after starting the engine, while in idle, the neutral light sometimes comes on, sometimes it doesn't (I'm guessing it's electrical). After I mount the bike and pull the side stand sometimes the engine completely shuts off and sometimes it doesn't (same goes for the light) - at this point with the side stand pulled up, if I tilt the bike a little to the left the neutral light turns on and I can start the bike again (occasionally as soon as I tilt the bike back straight, the engine would shut off again - repeat the tilting) . I know it may sound stupid but this only happens sometimes. I have the feeling there is something causing a short somewhere but I honestly have no idea what or where it is. The thing is many times it starts without any kind of problems. Any advice?
3. Running with petcock on "Prime": someone wrote about this issue, but mine is a bit different: while riding on the highway one night, after about 25-30 km, at a speed of 120 - 130 km/h I suddenly felt my engine loosing power. I had plenty of gas so it wasn't that. I downshifted and every time that happened it seemed like the engine would tend to stop completely. In the end I got to a complete stop. I have to say the engine seemed extremely hot. Although I tried several times, the engine would turn, but not start. After cooling down for a few minutes, I set the petcock on "Prime", and after a few attempts I managed to start it. On my way back, while riding I turned the petcock back to "On". Needless to say, once I hit stop lights back in the city, same thing happened while downshifting, but at a lower speed. The whole cooling down/ riding on "Prime" story repeated (twice actually just to be sure :wallbash: ). I initially thought it may be a petcock/fuel delivery or vacuum issue, after reading a few posts on this forum. However today I went for a one hour ride with the petcock set on "On" again, and everything went smoothly. In the end, although I don't know what it may be, I would like to know if the engine would suffer any damage while riding for long distances with the petcock set on the "Prime" position?
4. I think I'm running rich (after again reading some posts here), since my spark plugs are black as the depths of hell (according to the pictures on the back of my Hanes manual). I also have a custom exhaust (SITO ?) which the previous owner installed. Sometimes it backfires for a few minutes after not riding for some days. My carbs are clean and definitely not leaking gas, but I have no idea if they are balanced. Any ideas about the whole riding rich issue? I have to mention I also replaced the CR8E spark plugs with iridium CR8EIX, after having a lot of starting problems. Those seem to be gone now.
Sorry again for the long post, but if anyone has any kind of advice, it would be greatly appreciated.
