Dusty but not that rusty

[Guest]

So been looking around on here for about a year and a half trying to gather information on getting my 550 running. One surprisingly successful Taiwanese carb kit later it runs and well at that. Now it's time to make it roadworthy. Its history isn't too bad it was restored by a meticulous father and son five or six years ago then sold to my friend and his dad so that he would have a chance to see if he really wanted a bike before he dropped a bunch of on a Harley then the dad would relive his younger years afterwards on it. A couple of lazy fall overs in the yard and a bent signal stalk off a tree he said those rare words "you were right dad I'm glad I didn't buy an expensive bike." It bounced around between their barn and garage till fall 2016 when I was able to purchase it after I fixed some trailer lights and put a plug in the bed of their farm truck. It then went to my garage where it was disassembled. The carbs were in bad shape but I had rescued a few snowmobiles before so it can't be that bad. It was. I've never seen fuel go bad like this, stuck to the floats corroded the stems and the bowls. I cleaned them as best as I could and started looking for gaskets but I couldn't find a cheapish way to get what I needed from one source without getting a PayPal. So it went to the corner again to sit dejected, and unloved until a warm week this past February when I decided to just order the cheap kit to see if there was any hope, but with fighting a mag problem on the TBM I volunteered on and stretching a trailer it was back burnered again until this past weekend. I put the new parts in the carbs and installed them to see what would happen and it LIVES! So now there's two bugs to squish, tires and chain before it sees more than the backroads around my house.

[2BRacing]

After being unused and unloved for so long, I suggest that you replace the rubber parts in the front and rear brake calipers and master cylinders with OEM parts (Taiwanese or other cheap brake parts are definitely not a good idea for brakes) and read up on the other maintenance, like adjusting valve clearance, that should also be done.

Enjoy wrenching and riding!

[APmech]

Shooting to get it going down the road first. But there is a plan for both of those. The valve cover is leaking so new gasket and valve adjustment bit it maybe has 100 miles since it was done last. Handle bars are due for some modernization so new front brake stuff then. And the rear is mechanical. For a few months it's only got to do 4 mile trips on back roads to a friend of mine house and a few trips out to the timber to go mushroom hunting.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Welcome to GSR, couldn't help but wonder if this is the same APmech from Garage Journal?

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106289

David

[APmech]

Nope sorry