Give me fuel, Give me Fire!

[Dub]

I like the safety wire idea also. Simpler than my method and probably less chance of interfering with the float pin and bowl clearance.

So.....

Latest update:

I had the bike torn down to the main frame/engine and forks while slowly cleaning and inspecting things.

Got the clutch slave rebuilt and back in and bled. Painted the cover. Put the swing arm, sub-frame and entire rear of the bike back on. Rebuilt the rear brake caliper and bled. Mounted the rebuilt carbs and put the gauge cluster back on. Reinstalled the exhaust.

Should be enough to at least attempt to make some music.


Was hoping to attempt to fire this bike back up for the first time in who knows how long. All went according to plan....until it didn't.

Saturday was my goal to get it back together enough to hear her run.
Got the carbs back in after floats set and verified with a liquid level test. Installed new battery. Turned the key and got a neutral light. Flipped the switch to RUN. Finger on the start button...... and nothing. Well actually the headlight dimmed and the fuel and oil lights came on. No clickity, no vroom vroom, no sounds whatsoever.

So I pulled out the service manual to start digging and was sure this is electrical related.
First check, starter relay. No clickity but within spec. Shorting the ground turns her over. Check. No clickity but within spec makes me want to check the run switch. Pulled apart and looks ok but no power on the other side when switched. Cleaned the contacts and went to put the spring back and POP. Over my shoulder it went. I heard it hit my anti fatigue mat but could not find it. Where can I get a spring? How about a clickity pen. What do you know, perfect fit. Trimmed it into thirds and provides good tension for brass plate contact. It does not fulfill my goal of a stock bike but what the hell. LOL


Put it back together, turned on the ignition and what do you know. I have clickity at the starter relay when in the run position. Start button turns her over. Check.

Next. Try to start it in gear with the clutch in. No dice. Closer inspection reveals some fraying on the safety stand wire at the swing arm location like it was pinched at some point. Pull the switch and meter it. Fail. No reading at all but the wire was not fully broken and ohmed out with continuity so the switch itself is bad. Jumped the side stand switch she turns over with the bike in gear and the clutch in. Clutch switch working. Check. Do need to replace the side stand switch though. 

So now the real test. Add some fuel and try for the vroom vroom sound. Hook up my pit bottle through the fuel pump. Open the valve and let the bowls/pump fill. Then I hear the drip drip sound. Not the sound I was looking for. Especially considering I set the floats and double checked them on the bench with a liquid fill and bowl height measurement BEFORE I installed them. Looks like one of my floats doesn't want to play nice and needs 

an attitude readjustment. No worries, the air box is not on yet so easy enough to pull the bank.

But I still want to hear some vroom. Start cranking and she wants to catch but doesn't. Open the choke, close the choke. after about a minute of on and off cycling, I decide I was gonna pull the plugs to check for spark.I pulled the number one cap and reset it because I got side tracked and didn't want to forget about it. When I came back a few minutes later, I just decided to reestablish my cranking baseline and tried again and she stumbled but caught. After a few more stumbles she bit. There was the sound I was looking for. A great big VROOM VROOM. That came with a garage filled with blue smoke but that didn't stop the giant grin on my face.

Shes got fuel and shes got fire!

Now.... The fuel pump is making a clickity clickity sound for about 5 seconds when the run button is on. I think that is normal and the prime process.

So the next step is to flush and clean the tank. It has some light rust on the center line hump but not too bad overall. I need to get a new fuel filter, especially after the flush. I got some Berrymans go go flush juice for its first actual tank full.

Also need to change the fluids and swap out the brake lines. I rebuilt the front calipers already. I bought some braided lines from APEX on Ebay. They were fairly inexpensive and he was super diligent in making sure the lengths and the ends bend and angle rotation were correct to replace the stock lines. I also changed the line on my old airhead at the same time and he made all of them perfect. I am keeping the brakes stock at this point and might change them later. I want to just get her back on the road and ride to establish a baseline before I start changing things. The brake lines however, were due so that was an exception, like tires are.


At this point I am convinced the start run switch lost contact and the PO wasn't sure what to do or didn't want to have the dealer fix it. I bought it from his brother who's house it was parked at. He knew nothing about motorcycles. It is apparent the bike was sitting for quite some time. The last inspection sticker on it was from 94. NJ stopped moto inspections in 2010. The PO bought it in 2007. I wonder if he ever had it registered or inspected? Either way, this bike has not ran in probably about 10 years by my best guesstimate. The brother cant recall and said the bike was parked at his house and sat there for a "few years".

Doesn't matter now however because the bike has had a taste of fuel and I think she LIKES it. Even with the blue smoke, she purred like a kitten at idle and there was zero hesitation when cracking the throttle. She is well on her way feeling the warm asphalt against her rubber soon.

Dub