P.O. Nightmares

[RJz1100E]

Come on guys, don't let me be the threadkiller on this one.8-[

[marvinsc]

I'm in the Same Camp. I bought Mine on Ebay and Drove 1000 Round trip to bring Her home. PO said all it really needed was Riding and He was Right, the More I ride, the Better She Gets. All I have done is Replace the Air Filter, Battery, Tires, Seat Cover, and Oil and Filters as Needed. I can't Complain.:-D

[Cathy344]

Well, as aside from one ride around the block to get a feel for anything that might be wrong with her, I really haven't had a chance to do a great deal of riding of my eBay special yet. After I do, I may be back to this thread with MUCH more to tell.

As is, the first bone headed maneuver my bike's PO did was to install one of those "cruise controls". Now, you may be ready to tell me that lots of riders use throttle clamps, and that's all find and good, but this one was such that it made it impossible for me to hit the engine cutoff switch. It's no longer on the bike.

The true bone headed maneuver was discovered when I removed the cam cover to replace the gasket to discovered one of the head's acorn nuts just laying there in the valley. Apparently, while reassembling the engine, he just fumbled it down there and never bothered to retrieve it and torque it on properly. I did that, and I think the change in head bolt forces opened up a slight oil leak in the head gasket.

One of the really dangerous things my bike's PO did was to allow the gearshift link rod attachment to the little pittman arm to become tenuous at best. The bolt through the pittman arm is so corroded, I'm surprised it didn't just snap during my round-the-block test ride. Had I taken notice of it, I wouldn't have even attempted the test ride.

[DimitriT]

The PO on the 550 drilled out the idle jets so he could start it with no choke.

Also on the #2 carb he drilled out the hole for the idle mixture in the carb body.

The sliders were also dinged up and needed to be polished to work right.

The air filter was a piece of dry packing foam.

He Kreemed the tank with the sending unit in there.

Countless missing rubbers and bolts.

The petcock never worked on prime. Turns out he broke the metals tabs off the vacuum diaphragm.

After putting in new jets and replacing the carb body (and countless other maintenance items, repairs and upgrades) the bike runs amazing. It's now my commuter/backroad scrambler/beach runner bike. Turns in 55 mpg and hums along doing 70mph all day. Even took it off road a little on a trip out to Cape Cod.

Next I want to get Massachusetts Antique Motorcycle plates on it.

[bonanzadave]

Whats a PO ?

[mc9hundo]

Whats a PO ?

previous owner

[bonanzadave]

previous owner

Right. Well then I guess my PO was this guy...

[Schweisshund]

My bike had 2 PO - original owner had for 3 months then sold it to the guy I bought it from. I bought it for $100 and it was in very bad shape



I just started rebuilding the rear brake master cylinder to discover transmission fluid had been put in the resevoir - no - not DOT 3, 4 brake fluid that was rusty - TRANSMISSION FLUID.

[Smokinapankake]

My Kat's PO told me he had seen it do burnouts for 150 yards, duude. Not a good selling point. I found the ignition had been bypassed with lamp cord wore to create a dead mans switch wired into the aux. switches on the side panel. Shift rod was a piece of 1/4" round bar stock hose clamped and welded to a piece of 1/4" square bar stock, all jerry rigged to a shift lever off something else (it had the tang where the heim joiint bolts above the pivot, not below). The Muzzy exhaust canister was gutted.

MY GPz's PO had cross threaded the right fork tube top cap in. The left fork tube was missing a few pieces inside. The tank was rusted through from water. His dog chewed the front fender.

Sometimes I wonder what the fascination is with old motorcycles. Or rather, why do we put up with their mistreatment at the hands of others?

[fishmeok]

On my '81 GS850G the P.O. "rebuilt" the carbs. Apparently that meant taking the float bowls off and putting them back on. At least, that's all I could tell after I took them back apart. He then left the petcock in prime- I drained almost 2 gallons of varnishy gas and oil out of the crankcase.
ALSO the the starter would not work on the bike so the P.O.O (not a typo) put a litle pushbutton jumper down by the solenoid. The guy I bought it from improved on this by wiring a cutout relay into the pushbutton switch. I soon discovered that this was sucking every bit of amperage out of my start cart and sending it directly to ground the first time I had the bike running. The melting wires and white smoke clued me in. I immidiately removed the entire circuit with my right hand of justice...
It gets better- the P.O. had removed the kickstand looking for a starter cutout, but never checked the clutch. I fixed my starter problem in 15 seconds by bypassing the clutch switch.

This was the sort of guy who liked to put the front wheel of his bikes up against the wall of his garage (inside!) and do burn outs..
Cheers
Mark

[the_journeyman]

My PO, was obvious mechanically inclined, but not 100% informed about some motorcycle maintenance.

Good: Pod filters, shorty aftermarket can, new clutch, new fork seals etc.

Bad: Replaced chain & sprokets BUT appears to have narrower sprokets than chain & the chain is all kinds of stretched & doesn't appear to be an o-ring or x-ring chain.

Not sure if it's good or bad: Aftermarket camshafts, some kind of advanced ignition using a mix of 1150 parts & 850 parts, & an aluminum spacer so the cover fits over the 850 parts ~