Time to get this bike running.
I started by checking for spark. There was spark, but it didn’t look too energetic. I cleaned the corroded coil grounds and hoped that would improve things a bit. It might have, but the bike still wouldn’t start.
I was going to perform a compression test, but this bike has 12mm plugs and the smallest my tester goes is 14mm. Oh, well.
I then checked for fuel flow out of the tank. With all of the rust perhaps the filter was clogged. No dice. There was fuel flow, so that’s not the problem.
I then moved on to the carbs. I didn’t have the parts to do carb rebuilds, so I pulled them off the bike, removed the bowls cleaned them up as best I could, and then reassembled. I didn’t take pictures, but carbs were cleaner than expected inside. Still, there were some clogged jets. After reinstalling the carbs the bike sprung to life with just a touch of the starter button. Yes!
The brake lights wouldn’t work with either front, or rear brakes applied. The front brake was a loose connection at the switch. The problem with the rear brake was that the pedal adjustment was so tight that the pedal wouldn’t move far enough to pull on the switch. I’ll know as soon as I pull the rear wheel, but the adjustment is now at the end of the rod suggesting new brake shoes in back.
The coolant overflow tank was empty, but the radiator was full, so I added a bit of distilled water for now. I’m going to flush the cooling system in the near future.
Before working on the bike any more I wanted to give it a good washing. It cleaned up better than I had hoped! I took the second seat off and installed the small trunk. Looks pretty good!!
Before wash
After wash. A lot of what looked like surface corrosion was just dirt.
Taking a chance, I took the bike for a run around the block. Everything seemed to be working OK except for the temperature gauge. The really good news is that the odometer works, so perhaps this bike does only have 28k miles on it. As the previous owner had donated the bike, I never spoke with him directly. I hope to. The seller was going to contact the PO to see if we could set something up.