troubleshooting tips?

for anyone who wants to kickstart (or regular start, but that's less unconvenient, coz you don't get tired pushing a button) a bike that's been standing still for a while (several months or longer) it's recommendable to drain the fuel system and make sure you have new, clean petrol in your carbs. Over time, especially in the carbs, fuel loses its lightest parts and those are the ones that you need to get it to burn easily.

Rust from your tank will most likely not make it further then the floater bowls (or fuel filter if you've got one, if you don't, get one), so it's only the carbs that you have to clean...having mentioned you've got a rusted tank I would clean the carbs anyway, so nothing lost there.

About the spark...there's a difference between spark and spark. You want a fat blue/purple spark. Tiny yellowish sparks don't count as spark.

Once you're sure you've got:
1) A proper spark
2) Petrol in the floater bowls of your carbs
3) An unclogged air supply (you could remove the filter for once if you suspect it from being clogged)

The motor should be able to start...if it doesn't 100 000 things can be wrong. I would first think about ignition timing and compression.

Good luck

gigolojoe wrote:

Hi,
Thanks everybody for the help. Today I took the tank off and the carbs out of the bike. One of the fuel lines from the tank is clogged and one of the carburetor float bowls was full of a dry white chalky sand. Guess I need to do a rebuild of the carbs or replace them.
Thanks

Yikes! :blink:

Well, if anything got sucked in there, its already done the damage it will do, so dont worry about that. Its not catastrophic, and won't likely diminish your enjoyment.

The carbs need to be (like new) clean from head to toe. All the small passageways in the carbs can be cleaned by blowing thru them with a can of carb cleaner and a small piece of brush wire (just to poke your way thru any old crud). Don't get to aggressive with the wire, those orifaces need to stay thier origional size

REMOVE ALL RUBBER PARTS before carb cleaner is used!

While the carbs are off, remove the carb to engine holders and clean them good. Re-install them with some (must be!) gas resistant gasket maker. There must be no air leaks in the entire intake track, from air filter to exhaust tip!

You might want to print this and blow it up, cause it all has to come apart.



Make sure to get that gas tank good and clean, and use some brand new fuel lines, and an inline fuel filter.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info. The large short tubes that connect the carbs to the air box and the carbs to the engine intake are all dry rotted. Where can I get those pieces?

This supplier has been very good for me. There may be someone better. Good luck and keep posting on progress. Ride safe, Steve



www.babbittsonline.com/pages/parts/viewbybrand/default.aspx

Z1 Enterprises is the best place for everything vintage japanese bikes.
If they don't have it listed for your bike, give them a call and they will get it for you.
They're extremely friendly and helpful.

Cheers.

shighley wrote:

This supplier (babbittsonline) has been very good for me....

Really? Others have complained about them. One thing they do is to accept an order for any part listed, then send what they do have. Sometimes this is no good, because the one part is useless without the other needed stuff. Also, they list a price for everything in their diagrams but do not have (nor can they get) a lot of that stuff. Their diagrams are better than others, though, because they provide the full part number (most places only have the diagram reference number).