1993 XT 350 issues

[Thian_sum]

I recently purchased a 1993 XT 350. the man i bought it from said that it ran about 9 months ago when he put it in the shed cause he didn't ride it much anymore. he suggested we clean the carbs and it would run fine. so when my roommate and i got it home we cleaned the carbs out and got it some new gas. we tried starting it and it wouldn't start. so we changed the plug and tried again. still nothing. so i cleaned the carb again and put it all back together. tried again. still nothing. sprayed some starter fluid in cylinder and it fired up for about a second. sprayed some through the carbs next and it fired for about 3 seconds with the throttle wide open but when i let off to see if it would idle it just died. there are apparently a bad gasket between the two halves of the cylinder and just below the cylinder where it connects to the crankcase. it still has good compression so i don't think those are a huge problem (but then again i'm not a mechanic). is my carb messed up or does it need adjusting or what? would taking it to a bike shop and having them adjust it help any? like i said, it ran for a few seconds at full throttle but died.

any help would be amazing

[pd350]

Obviously , you need to THOROUGHLY clean your carbs . That means every jet and passage . There should be no air leaks in the insulators ( rubber boots between carbs and head ). Be sure that the small hoses ( tubes ) between the carbs are sealing good .

Did you remove and clean the pilot screw and ventri opening . It's located under a brass plug on the front underside of the primary carb . If that plug is still there , very carefully drill it out . The pilot screw can be set at 2 1/2 turns out from lightly seated . Do not turn that screw in any farther than the lightly seated position or the tip might become lodged in the venturi and break off . Then you'll have a real problem .

[maim]

sounds like the pilot jet is plugged as it will run at wot. seen bad gas do funny things as well.

[Thian_sum]

one of the insulators has come off from the aluminum part.

i did not remove or clean the pilot screw and i dont have a drill to get the brass plug out. is there another way to get that plug out? i cleaned the main needle jet and all of that however the smaller one just beside that (i assume its the secondary jet or something) is very small and i cant find my smaller screw drivers so i cant get that out right now so i havent been able to clean that yet.

[Thian_sum]

i will try some new gas but im very certain the pilot jet is clean since i just put it back together not five minutes ago

[Thian_sum]

ok i found the pilot screw. i was thinking you were talking about a different place. i did remove and clean it. i did not however seat it as you suggested so i will fix that problem

[XR440THUMPER]

The gasket you were talking about being bad will have a little oil seapage. That's a built in decompression mechnism. pd350. Covered the carb pretty well.

[jsnmid]

You need 2 new intake boots. Don't worry about anything else until you have those on.

[Thian_sum]

ok well i got it running....turns out i never cleaned the pilot jet....dumb mistake on my part....however....when i got it running oil poured out and it smoked really bad...i've pulled the head and cylinder off and i found out my head gasket is blown and the gasket between the crank casing and the cylinder is in several pieces....are there any gaskets in the crank case that i should check out? and where would be a good place to purchase new gaskets for all of those? im not sure what the one between the cylinder and the crankcase is called exactly....money is a bit of an issue so i need to be able to find them for rather cheap

[pd350]

You can cut your own base gasket out of rubberized gasket material available at NAPA . I did and it's working fine .

You should use an OEM Head gasket for best results available at your local Yamaha dealer or :

http://www.partspitstop.com/pages/ECommerce/ViewCart?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.partspitstop.com%2Fpages%2Foemparts%3Faribrand%3DHOM%23%2FYamaha%2FXT350E_-_1993%2FCYLINDER_HEAD%2FXT350E_%281993_MOTORCYCLE%29%2FCYLINDER_HEAD_%28XT350E_-_1993%29

Yamaha - GASKET, CYLINDER HEAD 1

Item: 55V-11181-00-00

$23.47

Here's the base gasket # :

Yamaha - GASKET, CYLINDER

Item: 4DR-11351-00-00

$9.36

And you should also be sure that the large O ring at the cylinder base is good .

Yamaha - O-RING

Item: 93210-89447-00

$5.26

There is no gasket between the case halves , but Yamabond or a like case sealer is used .

There are gaskets for the clutch and mag covers .

You might consider replacing the valve stem seals with Viton seals as the originals are likely shot and will allow oil into the combustion chamber. Those are available on Ebay for about $14 . While you have the head apart do a light lapping of the valves .