It's never run before in my possession (with the execption of how it does now) I bought the bike about 4 months ago, in non running shape. The owner thought that with a fresh battery it should start right up... it didn't, it had no power whatsoever. I've always wanted a cafe racer (this bike, my first, was bought with this intention) once I discovered that it wasn't immediately rideable, I started the teardown and conversion process inspecting parts as I went repairing, replacing, refinishing what needed it trying to find the source of the initial problem (fabricated new seat, refinished and rebuilt carbs when I took them apart one was bone dry, refinished and sealed tank, new petcock, cropped frame, installed turn signals, new bars). Turns out the main switch has 3 contacts inside it and upon cracking it open I discovered one of these had been arcing and was corroded away, I rebuilt it, and started to assemble the bike again. When I tried to start it the first time after all this I accidently put the exhaust flanges in backwards and it wouldn't even try to start, fixed that, and it started right up. It was fairly late at this time and without muflers it was quite (delightfully
) loud so I just ran it around my complex a few times just to feel how it ran and make sure all was good (I didn't have it running long enough to discover the problems that happen 20 min into it running) The next day I rode it out to a local park for a BBQ a few of my friends were putting together, and it ran just long enough to get me there and started to stumble and died, ended up trucking it back home. Next day I tried to start it up, but it would only hit on one cylinder, replaced the left side coil, started right up. Rode it to Starbucks... stumbled, backfired, died. Hung out there for a bit, started it up with some difficulty, got half way home... died to the point where it wouldn't start/run, pushed it the remaining third of a mile or so. Started it up the other day with the mufflers on for the first time and messed with the air screws to see what would happen, but couldn't detect and change in idle (my tach doesn't work so you just have to go by ear)...and that brings me pretty much up to now
I never did a warm compression check the 176+- was cold, I'll do that tonight.
Honestly I'm not really sure I could tell the difference between starving for fuel and dieing from an air leak or anything else (not real familiar with this bike yet, or bikes in general) I'm 95% sure it's getting fuel from the petcock but beyond that I couldn't say.
The carbs are really clean inside and I don't think they're clogged anywhere. I wasn't sure how to set the float level (what to gap and at what point in thier stroke) so I just left that as it was before. The diaphrams were difficult to set into place since they need to be stretched ever so slightly to fit, I'm pretty sure I got them seated... but I can't be dead sure. I haven't synched them (there's 2)
Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to fill in the whole picture.
thanks for sticking with me
Kit
