New Owner, New Rider

[jbs80106]

bad sound outta the front end...

unscrew both the tach cable and speedo cables from the back of their respective instruments and spray some lub down into the cables. They get dry and the Clymer's manual will say to lub them each spring as part of the getting ready to ride season.

[Worldwidekid]

Thanks a ton for all your info. When I first noticed the leak from the stator cover, I did notice that it was an oil/gas mixture. I initially thought I had two separate leaks, but after plugging what I knew was the oil leak with the shirt, I noticed that the gas leak stopped as well. So... gas must be leaking from the same spot. I was afraid of that, because it seems to me like it'd be a pretty severe problem, but I honestly don't know.

[BassCliff]

Oil and gas should not mix!

Mr. Worldwidekid,

If you've got gas in your oil, DO NOT ride your motorcycle until the carburetors have been repaired and the oil has been changed. If you're lucky, it's not a carburetor issue and you just need to replace your petcock. Sometimes these vacuum-operated petcocks wear out. I would recommend getting a new one so that you don't have to worry about it for another 20 years. The petcock rebuild kits have dubious success.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[rphillips]

I think, to get gas in the oil, both the petcock & the carbs are faulty. If the petcock is faulty, the needle & seats, if working properly, will stop the fuel flow. If the needle & seats are leaking, a good working petcock will stop the fuel flow.

[spyug]

You are getting a lot of god advice but i think you may be getting confused with all the help. I also think you have more than one problem stopping the bike from running and you need to sort these before anthing else.

I'm thinking you have:
1) a charging issue.
2) a fuel circuit issue.

With these older bikes if they sit for any length of time they will develope issues with corrosion and or gas spoiling. Corrosion will affect the electrical circuitry and bad gas will plug petcocks , lines and carb passages and jets. This is simplistic but usually goes to the heart of the non running problem.

Before you delve into these things take BCliff's advice and drain your oil. If the bike sat it is very likely gas has gotten by the carbs into the cylinders and down into the sump. If you put your nose to the oil filler and smell gas..you've got contaminated oil......not good for lubrication.

I'll be surprised if your charging system is working but don't despair it could be an easy fix. As mentioned, before you do anything clean all the connections you can see especially the main positive and negative terminals at the battery. In addition, and this is really important, make that extra negative lead from the regulator/ rectifier to the negative poat of the battery. Mine was not charging and that simple thing was the fix.
The first test of the charging system requires the bike to run so you should address the fuel issue. Be aware that a majority of electrical issues are result of bad grounds so clean all ground contacts and connectors very thoroughlyl.

Before anything else, pull and clean the carbs as per the carb cleaning papers. If stale gas has been in the system (and gas gets stale within weeks) it breaks down and goes to a gel like state which can and does plug jets and passages. Couple this with minute rust from the tank and undoubtedly the carbs are plugged to some degree.

Once you have clean carbs and if you have any rust in your tank get an inline filter and fresh hose and run it from tank to carbs. The tank may need cleaning too but that can come later.

Get a gallon or so of fresh gas and a set of fresh plugs. Fully charge your battery on a trickle charger to at least 12.6 volts or better.

When you get the bike running again, take your multimeter and check voltage agross the battery posts. At revs of 2000 to 2500 you should be seeing 14+volts ( and may even go up into 15v) for a healthy charging system. If not ,you are into the stator papers and if you go step by step you learn what part is not working correctly. Likely it will be the regulator/rectifier before the stator so don't panic as that is an easy replacement.

Once the bike is running and charging then look to cleaning up the tank if rusty then tackle that leak. After that it's ride baby ride!

You can do all this so don't even think of taking it to the robber wrenches (their not all bad but the money is better in your jeans\\/).

Good luck and keep us in the loop.

Cheers,
Spyug.