Previous Owners Can Really hurt you

[Guest]

So I've had my 81' 850G for a little over a year now and some gas was pouring into the airbox and so my brother and I decided it was time to take the carbs apart and give them a good cleaning. A simple 1-2 hour job turned into 3-4 when we got the carbs off and realized that the previous owner had stripped out almost all of the float bowl screws! He must have used all his might because those screws were so badly stripped I honestly don't know why he did it. When I bought the bike the guy said a mechanic went through and rebuilt the carbs. I think he took it to the wrong mechanic . Anyways we had to go through the torture of trying easy outs which worked on most of them, but there were 2 screws that were not coming. Had to cut a slot in the screw heads and use a flathead bit with a wrench. And all of that just to clean my float needles. Not sure how anyone could be so stupid to not even think "What if someone needs to open these carbs back up?".

[Big T]

A good cleaning should take more than two hours.

[trevor]

Never buy a bike from a "previous owner"...haven't you ever read the ads? The previous owner is to blame for everything. Lol

[tom203]

You got to be lucky like me.. Three months ago I scooped a 850 carb rack..the owner assured me they had been "professionally" cleaned - of course, I believed him ! I bought them sight unseen, fortunately,no one had actually done anything to them, so it was a breeze to remove all the unmolested innards .

[bwringer]

I don't know who this PO guy is, but he needs to be stopped...


My GS850 came to me adorned with several 5/16" and 1/4" bolts stuffed into highly inappropriate 8mm and 6mm situations, many still wearing their original white or brown Briggs & Stratton paint. It was also slathered with highly inappropriate amounts of RTV in many other inappropriate places (which led to clogged oil passages and a seized bottom end a bit later on, but never mind that...)

A few months after I bought my GS850, my wife and I were getting ice cream and the PO actually walked up and said hello. I bought the bike on consignment so had never met him before. I damn near choked on my ice cream. We chatted pleasantly for a bit, and I somehow refrained from punching him, or asking "Dude! WTF?"

He also casually mentioned he was a retired aircraft mechanic... I think I boggled visibly at the horrifying thought of a loved on on an airplane he had molested with sealer and filled with ill-fitting lawn mower fasteners.

[jlyon40]

The carbs were super clean on the inside so it didn't take very long to clean them like it normally would. Only issues was some gunk on the float needles in 1 and 4. And I hope I never have to see the PO again. He lives about 3 hours away from me

[Wingsconsin]

Learn from this !

Rules about Previous Owners --

1) They are terrible mechanics
2) They are worse electricians
3) Their knowledge of carbs is nearly ZERO
4) They LIE ! ("It ran when I stored it") ("The tires have one season on them")
5) They do not give a **** about the next poor fool who has to ride or work on the bike
6) They always think the bike is worth more than it is

Just a few from my experiences --

[Gorminrider]

add to your list Half of them are Aircraft Mechanics...

He also casually mentioned he was a retired aircraft mechanic... I think I boggled visibly at the horrifying thought of a loved on on an airplane he had molested with sealer and filled with ill-fitting lawn mower fasteners.

^^^...By no means the first time I've heard of "aircraft mechanics" as "previous owners" of bikes or cars. In fact, they seem weirdly common, in the second-hand market.
When they get fired they turn to motorcycles or it's some kind of scam. Anyways, I've learned to be very cynical when it's mentioned....

[nejeff]

The carbs were super clean on the inside so it didn't take very long to clean them like it normally would. Only issues was some gunk on the float needles in 1 and 4. And I hope I never have to see the PO again. He lives about 3 hours away from me

Should have probably went the whole way and did them properly (new orings, dipped/ultrasonic'd, etc) but you can do that next time.

Never believe a previous owner is the moral of the story

[nejeff]

In my opinion:

15% of old cycle owners will have their bike in to a mechanic to have the work "done right"
15% of us old cycle owners will fix our own stuff the correct way, no shortcuts
70% of old cycle owners are too cheap and too dumb to ever do things correctly

I lost count long ago how many prospective motorcycle buyers I have told to NOT buy an old bike, this includes family members. You must have certain mentality to own/maintain one. I have seen dozens, scores actually, of failed projects and poor repair jobs.

[erki52]

I bought a CB900 from one of my customers at work, he was building a bike to auction for the Help for Heroes so I thought ' he must know what he's doing' WRONG!!!

The brakes were non-existent, master cylinder had more dirt and water than brake fluid. Carbs took weeks to get to work anywhere near right.

His parting words were....just needs the cam chains adjusting then she'll be perfect.

Funnily enough, I've not seen or heard from him since I bought the bike. I have since sold it but did list all if the 'issues' and all that I had done to get it to run.

[limeex2]

When I was in the biz we called this "My Buddy Enterprises" My buddy helped me do...... it was a good a money maker as fixing it was time and materials only, no qoutes.

[bwringer]

add to your list Half of them are Aircraft Mechanics...

^^^...By no means the first time I've heard of "aircraft mechanics" as "previous owners" of bikes or cars. In fact, they seem weirdly common, in the second-hand market.
When they get fired they turn to motorcycles or it's some kind of scam. Anyways, I've learned to be very cynical when it's mentioned....

Huh, never really thought about that before, but it is remarkably common that a PO will boast of being an aircraft mechanic, like that's supposed to mean he had any idea of how to maintain and repair a motorcycle. Or that one PO will brag that the previous PO was an aircraft mechanic.

Aircraft mechanics have a very... special way of looking at things, and their skills and knowledge do not necessarily transfer (depends on the person, of course...)

My niece's husband is a military helicopter mechanic and has recently moved to fixed wing. When we work on her car, I generally make him stand off to the side with both hands in his pocket unless I need some young buck to swing a sledgehammer. He's also useful for unpleasant stuff that requires lying on the ground at -20F, and he's actually pretty good working by feel when we can't see a fastener. But other than that the guy is completely lost in the reciprocating engine 2D terrestrial world.

A friend of mine worked on advanced aircraft in the Air Force. Turns out the knowledge of how anything actually worked was classified, so they had flow charts detailing how to plug in mysterious black boxes that would then indicate which other mysterious black boxes to unplug and replace. He's really good at remembering and following detailed instructions (which is pretty useful at times), but again, he's mostly lost with ground-based forms of transport.