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47 Posts
The PO had left the bike sitting for about 10 years, with gas in it....
Needless to say this has caused numerous issues with the entire fuel system. The petcock leaks while in the "off" position, the inner walls of the first fuel hose from the petcock to fuel filter are pretty much crumbling to bits, the filter doesn't look terrible but a new one wouldn't hurt for sure.
Upon getting the bike the first thing that I did was a good going through of the carbs with some carb clean, shop towels and about half a box of q-tips, the enrichment plugs were tacky to the touch from the dried gas, one of which had seized in there and needed to be extracted. With enough carb clean and patience it finally came free. After reassembly of the carbs (I didn't take them all the way down just removed the bowls and vacuum pistons/diaphragms, which are a real pain to set btw) and installation of the carbs she ran for a while. I soaked the petcock internals in a bit of brake fluid to expand the rubber which did fix the leaking issue in the "off" position, I then cleaned it out with fuel and seafoam.
Being how its winter here I then had to store it in the shed, I stablized the fuel and let it run to get into the carbs, turned off the fuel and hooked up the battery to the tender and locked her away.
I checked on things a day later and found a decent amount of fuel had dripped on to the floor from what appears to be some sort of carb vent tube. This was much better than my initial fears of the crankcase being flooded with gas. None the less I drained the oil to be sure, smelled normal and was at about 3 quarts without having removed the oil filter. The PO(S) that I bought it from had told me he'd changed the oil recently but it sure looked like old oil to me. At any rate, I'm thinking one of the needles is stuck open and allowing gas to flood the carb, as well as the petcock still seeping while "off". I've read Pingle's are the way to go since the oem ones are not rebuild-able. Any suggestions on where to go for all my (many) parts needs for the bike?
So all in all the list of things the bike needs is ever expanding but I guess that working on them is half the fun of owning them.
Needless to say this has caused numerous issues with the entire fuel system. The petcock leaks while in the "off" position, the inner walls of the first fuel hose from the petcock to fuel filter are pretty much crumbling to bits, the filter doesn't look terrible but a new one wouldn't hurt for sure.
Upon getting the bike the first thing that I did was a good going through of the carbs with some carb clean, shop towels and about half a box of q-tips, the enrichment plugs were tacky to the touch from the dried gas, one of which had seized in there and needed to be extracted. With enough carb clean and patience it finally came free. After reassembly of the carbs (I didn't take them all the way down just removed the bowls and vacuum pistons/diaphragms, which are a real pain to set btw) and installation of the carbs she ran for a while. I soaked the petcock internals in a bit of brake fluid to expand the rubber which did fix the leaking issue in the "off" position, I then cleaned it out with fuel and seafoam.
Being how its winter here I then had to store it in the shed, I stablized the fuel and let it run to get into the carbs, turned off the fuel and hooked up the battery to the tender and locked her away.
I checked on things a day later and found a decent amount of fuel had dripped on to the floor from what appears to be some sort of carb vent tube. This was much better than my initial fears of the crankcase being flooded with gas. None the less I drained the oil to be sure, smelled normal and was at about 3 quarts without having removed the oil filter. The PO(S) that I bought it from had told me he'd changed the oil recently but it sure looked like old oil to me. At any rate, I'm thinking one of the needles is stuck open and allowing gas to flood the carb, as well as the petcock still seeping while "off". I've read Pingle's are the way to go since the oem ones are not rebuild-able. Any suggestions on where to go for all my (many) parts needs for the bike?
So all in all the list of things the bike needs is ever expanding but I guess that working on them is half the fun of owning them.
