Pre-Start suggestions. with pics

[Anonymous]

I need suggestions on what to do before attempting to fire up my '82 GS 850 which has been sitting dead for about 8 years now. Spoke to a guy at the Honda shop (only bike dealer in town) and he said to put about a capfull of trans fluid in each cylinder so it will get some lube early. This just sounds wrong to me! Please help me, as I don't want to blow up the damn bike before I get a chance to ride it!

[DMPLATT]

I've always heard of squirting some Motor Oil in the cylinders, but never heard of Tranny Fluid?

If it were me, and I may be dead wrong here, but I would squirt a bit of oil in each one, leave the plugs out and crank it a few times. Just to see if I could hear any abnormalities.
Another thing I might try is to take the cover off of the right side, where the crank is and try rotating it by hand. This would give me a feel for how everything is. If it feels nice and smoothe, then I would crank her up. This cover, at least on mine, also doesn't require a gasket. 3 screws and it's off.

I'm fearful of just starting it right away.

I'm by no means an expert here.

[Anonymous]

The reason for using tranny fluid instead of oil down the cylinders is that ATF has a much lighter weight than oil. ATF will "penitrate" around the rings and lube them up. I have done this numerous times to cars, lawnmower engines and yes even a bike. It will blow smoke for a bit but it is a good thing to do. Didn't do it once and since I didn't it gouged the cylinder.

[DMPLATT]

The reason for using tranny fluid instead of oil down the cylinders is that ATF has a much lighter weight than oil. ATF will "penitrate" around the rings and lube them up. I have done this numerous times to cars, lawnmower engines and yes even a bike. It will blow smoke for a bit but it is a good thing to do. Didn't do it once and since I didn't it gouged the cylinder.

So that answers MY curiousity. ATF DOES burn off? That was my concern.

[Anonymous]

850

what I did for a bike that sat for 25 years was I filled the crank case up to the top of the filler hole with 5w-30w oil and let sit over night, then drained it, pulled the plugs and put atf in the cylinders, I also pulled the valve cover and poured oil over the cam lobes and cam chain put the cover back on then cranked the engine for minute to get oil pressure and pump the cylinders out, then put the plugs in and fired it up didnt rattle or make any funny sounds from being dry, yes its a lot of work but its better than tearing the thing up being in a hurry, the clutch was stuck so expect that and DONT JAM IT IN TO GEAR, it will lurch away from you, put it in gear while the engine is off and give the bike a push with the clutch pulled in to break the disks free first, if the bike was kept in side the motor should not be frozen but if out side I would get a focus type flash lite and look down in each cylinder hole and look for rust, and also follow the advise that was given about hand crank the engine a bit to may sure that its not stuck,Good luck let us know how it goes