Real Life Clue

[Fox]

I feel like i'm in a game of Clue right now. Grab a chair, this is an interesting one...

I bought this 82' XJ550 about 2 months ago. The bike was running great when I got it. Started up real easy, rode great, nice and even through all the gears. Wonderful bike. Havin so much fun just being on it and getting to ride. Right in it's prime.

That's how I leave it. I go to Windy Gap YL camp for a week and the morning after I get back I try to start by bike to go to work. Starter runs and runs and the engine flutters slightly ever now and then, but it won't turn. Weird, but I think, "Been sitting for a week, probably just needs a good shakedown and some new gas in the lines. No big, I'll get it this afternoon." So I go caged to work. Come home, pull the bike out and try the starter. Runs and runs, but engine won't fire. It sounds like no gas is in the carbs but it's just so weird that it would all of a sudden stop working. I'd never had to wait more than 2 seconds for the bike to fire up previously so I do a quick check: gas in tank, petcock on, emergency switch on run, key on (Read: stupid mistakes I have made before). Nothing.

I'm thinking I've just got my petcock turned the wrong way so I hop off and go to the left side of my bike and start fiddling with the gas lines and stuff. Once I'm on the side I notice the big ass dent in the side of the gas tank. That was definitely not there when I left. Immediately, I text all my brothers asking what happen to which they all say they don't know. My oldest brother says the dent happened when I dropped my bike while loading it onto our truck, which isn't true, but I begin to question my self more and more so I let it go. Maybe I did cause the dent and just didn't notice until now?

Let me jump ahead for times sake. I forget about who did it for a while and focus on getting my bike running again. I put in a quart of oil (unwittingly overfilling the crankcase) and some how the bike starts up. Maybe the oil was just low? Maybe the shaking I did got some fuel in the lines? Regardless, it starts and it sounds fine, so I ride to a friends house. At the last stoplight before his house, it stalls (more on this later) and I roll to the curb. Shit. I'm so close to his house, but it's all uphill and I'm wearing a leather jacket and riding boots. By some divine inspiration, I decide to give the starter one more shot and miraculously, the bike turns over and I get to my friends house. Ride his GS500 home for the night and go back the next day. Drain the quart of oil (thinking its flooding my plugs causing them to misfire) and try to start it. Comes to life for 20 seconds then dies abruptly, so now I'm really wondering. Not the oil, plugs are fine, got gas in the tank. Must not be getting to the carbs.

So I pull the gas line from my petcock and a sludgey mass come oozing out of both the fuel line and the petcock. The fractured remnants of the RedKote liner that had crumbled when one of my family members had dropped my bike! That's the only logical explanation. Bike ran fine before I left. I come back, notice a big dent in my tank that I'd never seen before, bike won't run. Acts like no fuel in carbs. So, my theory is someone dropped by bike, broke up the RedKote liner which settled to the bottom of the tank. Soon as I tried to start the bike those particles slid into my fuel lines and now into my carbs thus starving the bike of gas. Amirite?

Questions now is what do I do? Obviously I need to pull off my fuel lines and petcock and clean them out real good, but what about carbs? Yall think I need to clean them all out? Also, I'm gonna need a new tank aren't I?

P.S. Is this not like a game of Clue? It was David, in the Garage, while storing the lawmower!!

 

[Mr.E]

It may be a dead end, but what are the chances someone took it out, left petcock on, gas filled the case and it got vapor locked? I ask that cause 1: it happened to me with a katana 600, and 2: you said it started after putting oil in it. Just a thought. In addition to the obvious. Get that fubar'd liner out. It will only cause trouble. And follow the fuel as far as it could possibly travel, replacing or cleaning anything the chunks can get to. Then reseal your tank and invest in a disc brake lock

 

[hillsy]

You need to clean out EVERYTHING. And check your oil doesn't have fuel it in (replace if it has).

Then use an in-line fuel filter.

Then kick your brothers in the nuts.

 

[Ease]

Also suggest plugs...
+1 on the inline filter.

 

[Fox]

Then reseal your tank and invest in a disc brake lock

That's a good thought about Vapor lock, but I don't think that's the case. It's pretty cool where I'm at and the bike hasn't gotten hot enough to cause any boiling temperatures. It's a good thought though and I didn't even know that could be a problem with bikes, so thanks for mentioning it! I think I'm actually just gonna get a new tank. One of the XJ 550 Seca tanks. Looks a bit more fighter/cafe, plus it'll be a direct swap. And the disc brake lock isn't a bad idea!

You need to clean out EVERYTHING. And check your oil doesn't have fuel it in (replace if it has).
Then use an in-line fuel filter.
Then kick your brothers in the nuts.

Shit. That mean's carbs no? Well, now I know what I'll be doing this weekend. No worries, they'll all be getting a swift crotch kick soon as I find out who it was.

+1 on the inline filter.

So THAT'S what those things are for! I really had no idea. Can you pick those up at autozone?

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

+1 to kicking brother in the nuts. Mine dropped my aprilia when he was moving it to get his bike out of the garage

 

[Mr.E]

+1 to kicking brother in the nuts. Mine dropped my aprilia when he was moving it to get his bike out of the garage

Brothers are good foe that. Mine broke into my garage damaging the door, cause he didn't want to wait 10 minutes for me to get home.

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

"doors are cheap" he says. PSH. THEN GO BUY ME ONE, and THEN break into my garage. haha.

Sorry to pull this thread off a bit, but I do agree with the family member must have taken it out, dropped it, and now you should clean everything out again especially the carbs. Also, don't use those brass filters, use the paper ones, they are a little larger, but trap all that little stuff that can get past the brass ones sometimes.

 

[Fox]

"doors are cheap" he says. PSH. THEN GO BUY ME ONE, and THEN break into my garage. haha.

Sorry to pull this thread off a bit, but I do agree with the family member must have taken it out, dropped it, and now you should clean everything out again especially the carbs. Also, don't use those brass filters, use the paper ones, they are a little larger, but trap all that little stuff that can get past the brass ones sometimes.

If theres one thing to know about me it's that I love derailed threads. Seriously.

Aww! but the brass ones look so much better!

 

[4eyes]

Make sure the fuel filters that you get are for gravity feed. The ones designed for after a fuel pump won't flow right.
They are usually cheaper at lawn mower parts stores than at bike shops.

 

[VonYinzer]

Fuck that. What kind of asshole would ride your bike THAN drop it THAN lie? Fixing it is easy. Coming to terms with the fact that you're surrounded by fucking dick bags will take longer.

 

[Fox]

Fuck that. What kind of asshole would ride your bike THAN drop it THAN lie? Fixing it is easy. Coming to terms with the fact that you're surrounded by fucking dick bags will take longer.

Well shit man. Tell me what you really think of my family.

I don't think any one rode it. I think someone tried to move it and they misjudged the weight or something and dropped it. Shitty of them not to fess up, but they're my family. I'm sure it'll be sorted out once I talk to poppa Rod. I'm not happy, but what am I gonna do? Walk around pissed off at them for the rest of my life for dropping my bike? No. That shit doesn't work. Hopefully it was an accident and the person who did it will come forward. If not, then I'm surrounded by dick bags but I'm gonna love them just the same.

4eyes,
I'm thinking I'll get one of DCC next time I put in an order.
This one looks cool. Probably not for $11 though.

 

[VonYinzer]

Didnt say ya shouldnt love em my man. Thats all good. But your bike is more than a piece of metal. It should be like another family member. Im not talking shit on your family bud, Im sure theyre cool people. Sorry if it came across that way. That said, we need to hold our bikes in high regard.

 

[Redbird]

Not trying to start crap or throw anyone under the bus, but I think it was ridden or atleast run after the dent occured. If it was just a matter of dropping/denting/knocking the liner loose and particles clogging the petcock/fuel lines... the bike should've started the first time on the fuel left in the bowls. The sludge likely wouldn't have migrated past the petcock, but definitely wouldn't have migrated past the needle/seats in the carbs. Unless you ran the bowls dry before you went on your trip?

As for "retaliation"... I find it amusing to tell the perp that you tea-bagged one or more of their personal items (whether you actually do it or not). And watch them squirm while they try and figure out which one/ones

 

[Fox]

Yinzer,
Yeah you're right in that my bike is more than just a bike to me, and had this been my CL360 I'd been working on for the past year, I wouldn't have left it at, "Who dropped my bike?" I'd find them and destroy them. But in the case of the XJ, it's all still stock and the damage is easily reparable (Read:New tank), which I was sort of wanting to get anyway. I'm not happy about it no, but it's easier to forgive since it's so easy to fix if you know what I mean? No harm done, just wanted to lay out why I wasn't ranting and raving. They are cool people, but one of them is a being a fucking dickbag, now to find which one that is...

Redbird,
That's a good tip. I hadn't thought of that, and no I didn't run the bowl dry before I left, but I damn sure will next time. That does narrow the field a bit, but someone could have taken it out post-drop. We'll have to see how it all goes. They get back to tonight, I'll keep everyone posted.

Haha, I'm DEFINITELY using that!