XT600E cutting out.

[-Ralph-]

Do we know what the exact problem is ???? is it hard to start ? not reving ? low on power ?

Starts on the button every time, unless its been sat for a week or more and you forgot to turn the fuel tap off. It doesn't seem to like being left for long periods with the fuel tap on for some reason, but if you look on HUBB or Thumpertalk lots of XT owners say the same.

The problem is on occasion when you ask for power, the engine cuts out. It doesn't do it at any particular revs or speed, though it never does it below 3500, but it could be at 4000, it could be at 7000. It is worse when it's cold, you can ride a couple of hours without it happening when hot. It will cruise at 80 mph all day so long as you don't push the bike too hard getting there. The only common symptom when it happens is a wide open throttle and asking the bike to accelerate hard.

It's not a power loss, splutter and die like it's running out of fuel though, it's an instant death, like you've hit the kill switch.

Pull in the clutch and coast, give it a second or two, and you can restart the engine off the starter button, re-engage the clutch and get going again. It's pretty dangerous though. Traffic behind you gets a surprise when you suddenly loose power, and I dare not overtake anything lest it happens on the wrong side of the road half way past a truck, or in lane 3 of a motorway.

Battery voltage good
Charging voltage good (so I assume the reg/rec and stator are good)
Spark plug good (tried a new one)
Can't see anywhere that the wiring loom is rubbing against the frame, all electrical connections unplugged, cleaned, WD40'd and reconnected.
Fitted new starter solenoid (this was knackered - starter motor jamming on, but it also feeds +ve to the loom from the battery so I wondered if this was affecting voltage to my ignition coil and was part of the problem)
Bypassed side stand switch
Fuel flow from the fuel tap good
Emptied and rinsed fuel tank with all fresh fuel
Air box clear
Fitted a brand new K&N Air Filter
Removed carbs and sprayed everything through with carb cleaner, it's clean as a whistle, nothing seems to be blocked, primary and secondary carb seem to open as they should, and secondary carb diaphram seems to return on it's spring as it should. Carb vaccuum diaphragm rubber was OK.
Carb bowl float level OK
Carb inlet rubbers OK
Fuel tank breathers OK, still does it with the fuel cap off
Valve clearances sorted

[-Ralph-]

PS: The bike is a 2002, but only has 12,000 miles on the clock.

[garyboy]

just an intuitive guess from a non-expert ... I would say its none of them .. but carb mixture [jets blocked somewhere .. prob main jet] and air filter clogged .. from the drowning.
((also .. is the elec thingy cdu ?cpu? fully dried out?))
also i would guess that 130 is a typical reading?

[Stewie]

I'm sitting on the fence :laugh: , but I would have thought it was a bit of everything, bar the bent valve stems, new rings and reseat the valves should do it....... :cheer: .

[-Ralph-]

Edited and added to the OP

[garyboy]

again.. not pretending to be knowledgable .. but this sentence may be it?
`Fitted new starter solenoid (this was knackered - starter motor jamming on, but it also feeds +ve to the loom from the battery so I wondered if this was affecting voltage to my ignition coil and was part of the problem)`

have you tested the ohms thingies of the coil?
and what was the compression reading previously? and when?

[xtzrick]

Obviously the 1st thing to check is your valve clearances because it's free (once you've got the tools )

Providing you have enough voltage to spin the starter at full speed nothing else electrical will effect the compression reading.

Rick

Edit: cut a bit out because I thought 600Es had auto decomp, apparently not :whistle:

[garyboy]

oi reckons you got a burnt/partly damaged wire, near your solenoid, which is causing a slight fault in your low voltage circuit to your coil. this is causing cut out at high revs, but may not show as a fault on your high voltage circuuit of the coil.
i wouldn't think this would affect compression readings tho? and think that 20 or 30 psi below book price is about right?

[xtzrick]

Is your throttle fully open when you test? it needs to be

Rick

[-Ralph-]

Yep, engine warm throttle wide open. If not I only get 100psi. There's definitely an issue with low compression, I'm going to fix that and see if it sorts my issue. Even if it doesn't, it needs sorting anyway.