81 550T build

[Rob S.]

So far so good.

Four-into-four, I like it.

The boy helps, he gets to ride it to school when he's 16. Or 15. 14 if you were a really cool father. You want to be cool, don't you?

[tkent02]

Yea on the fairing, I had one of those on a 750, it was great. Kept the wind off your belly a little bit, looked cool, all good.

Find your son a 100cc dirt bike so he's a pretty good rider before he has to learn about avoiding cars. Let him go through the whole thing with you.

[Beaner242]

Thanks Rob, yes he would drive now if we would let him. If I have my way he will be 18 before driving LOL. tkent, I actually had a KTM 65 that he was learning on, but he just flat out got to big for it. Actually just sold it today. He wants a new KTM but I don't see that happening any time soon. They are just crazy expensive. I may find and old used bike for him to zip around on. OH check your paypal Tom. Should have money for that diaphragm. Thanks

[Beaner242]

OK, so this is new to me because all the bikes I have, or had, have just regular on/off/reserve petcocks. I took mine out to take the tank to body man for a big dent because my body work skills are for s**t. I know some of these bike have a vacuum that run the petcock. Mine looks to be missing a connector for the vacuum line. Also took it apart and the diaphragm looks like it has a crack in it. Question is, can I just use this like a regular petcock without the vacuum line? Do I need to plug the hole where it looks like the barb is missing? Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, my last upgrade I traded from an Iphone to an S4 and I hate it. It never wants to focus right.

[tkent02]

The older style can be made into a manual petcock, not sure about that style. Take it apart and see.

[Beaner242]

I did take it apart, the hole in that pic goes through to the diaphragm so I'm guessing I would have to plug that to make it work.

[Beaner242]

Here is the seat pan after I trimmed it down but I still don't like the way it looks. Going to trim more or go with another seat all together. Don't know yet.

[Beaner242]

Carbs are back together and on the bike. I used the wiring harness that came with the bike and have everything plugged in that I think I need to start the bike. I used the manual and traced and marked all my wires. The only problem I see is that the rectifier I have has 3 yellow wires and according to my manual they should be white w/blue, white w/green and 1 yellow. With the key on I get nothing with the handle bar start button. If I cross the solenoid it will spin the starter. Any ideas?

[cowboyup3371]

Can you post up pictures of what you are looking at? The three yellow wires from the RR go to the stator but that is a different problem than the starter button not working. Have you verified the main fuse to the ignition switch is good and that there is power going to the start button when the key is on?

[Beaner242]

Thanks cowboy. I got the starter button figured out, turned out to be a bad button. New problem is gas pouring out of the carbs on the filter side. I set the floats per the instructions on basscliffs page which I believe was 7/8th of an inch. my haines manual says 1.02. What is the correct height to set the floats?

[cowboyup3371]

22.4mm; ensure you are reading it from the top of the gasket surface of the carbs without the gasket

It's also best to stay metric on your readings so you don't get anything or anyone confused in the process

[Beaner242]

OK thanks cowboy ill try that

[Beaner242]

ok. reset all levels and actually set one lower than 22.4. and im still getting fuel poring out of the carb. Its coming out the hole on the right. This isn't my first carb rebuild but ive never had this problem before.

[cowboyup3371]

I personally haven't run into that problem so wouldn't know how to help. However, I would recommend posting up a question about it in the carb technical forum as some who would know may not look here.

[Nessism]

You planning on running these pipes? Shorty cut off's straight out?