First Time Bike Owner

[Guest]

Hey All,

To sum up, I bought a bike about a month ago. I plan on tearing into the bike this off season and doing the recommended maintenance I have been seeing and reading up on around this site. Does anyone have any tips or tricks or advice that I can use as far as order to follow in regards to Carbs vs. Stater vs. Valves? Is one more of a PITA than the others and I should set aside a certain amount of time (Weekend project vs. after work for a few hours)?

When cleaning/rebuilding the Carbs. Do you do one at a time so there are not 1000's of small pieces laying around - or - step one with carb one, two, three and four, step two with carb one, two, three and four so you know each one is exactly the same (in my mind possibly less confusing)

I am not completely useless with a tool in my hand (I work on my own Jeep), but is there anything that an experienced wrencher can relay to someone who has never owned a bike before. Any special tools, jacks or stands that I need?

Any tips, tricks or hints would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[GateKeeper]

Have a look at my rebuild thread for some answers to your questions, lots of pictures on the carb cleaning that I did, plus much more

and have a look at any of the other rebuild threads as well

for a good job on the carbs you will need to dip em for 24 hours and then put them back together, once you have all the O rings in hand as well

good luck and keep us posted

[spyug]

Welcome.

You don't state whether the bike is running or not so you should verify that first. Check that the engine is free and will turn over first by hand. Pull out all the plugs and open the right hand engine case and with a 19mm wrench turn the big nut clockwise. If its stuck, don't force it but using a 50/50 mixture of ATF and acetone put a few ounces into each cylinder and let it sit to penetrate any rusted rings. Check again in a day or two and repeat if necessary.

Once the engine is confirmed free put the plugs back in and with a well charged battery give it a crank and see if attempts to start or indeed runs.

At that point you would be safe to go ahead and start the project.

Carb cleaning will likely be a necessity, especially if the bike has sat for any length of time as jets will likely be gummed up. If there is rust in the tank, you will likely find some in the carbs too. If you do have a rusty tank you will want to clean and seal it before using it or you will get rust in the carbs again. Don't trust an inline filter to solve rust issues either as tiny rust molecules always get by.

In addition to the carbs, you should check the adjustment of the valves as tight valves are common and make starting quite difficult so plan on attending to these too.

There likely will be issues with the electrical system to iron out but all of these things are covered off in the welcome package you will soon recieve.

Good luck with the project and post some pics of your new ride.

cheers,
Spyug

[MisterCinders]

Hey All,

When cleaning/rebuilding the Carbs. Do you do one at a time so there are not 1000's of small pieces laying around - or - step one with carb one, two, three and four, step two with carb one, two, three and four so you know each one is exactly the same (in my mind possibly less confusing)

Any tips, tricks or hints would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

With 2 cans of dip, you can soak all four carb bodies at the same time.

To keep the parts straight - two words: muffin tin.

HTH

[Crankthat]

My favorite Old bike tool.

Hammer driver.
Buy quality, you want good tips as you don't want to destroy the Phillips heads while trying to take out.
Then as you do remove phillips replace with some new non phillips hardware.

A torque wrench will prove its worth in the life of your bike.

Soak your carb jets good with PB blast before you try and remove them.(let sit a couple of days)

I keep a Lidded bucket of kerosene in my work area and set carbs in for a couple of weeks flipping and shaking to get all air bubbles out. For first time cleaning .
Helps with a prewash to to keep your dip clean.
Comes in handy for other parts too.Transfer kero from one bucket to another with a strainer with paper towels to last longer. (I have been using same kero 7 years that method)

And make sure your Flathead screwdrivers sit nice and snug inside jets to keep from damaging jets. (good to havea extra set of old screwdrivers to grind down sharp edges on screwdrivers)

The list goes on and on!

Anybody else feel like typing?

[David-Z]

You don't state whether the bike is running or not.

I see how that can be helpfull... Sorry. The bike does run, start and drive near flawlessly. The only issue that I know of, is that sometimes it stalls out.. at first I thouht it was due to my lack of experience, but not so sure anymore. Just the other day the light seemed to switch from green to red.. upon "emergency brakeing" she stalled out then too. From what I have read and gathered, this is probably a stater issue. Other than this, the bike runs super rich (very noticible and friend said it was hard to ride behind due to a gas smell), but I think a good cab cleaning should do the trick. Hopefully get me better than 25mpg too.

David/CityBoy