OK you just bought a old motorcycle : Sportster, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki or whatever for a great price and the person you bought it from swears that: It has hardly been ridden It has been meticulously maintained it was just rebuilt 1500 miles ago It has just set in the garage, basement, shed, barn or wherever for “a while” Sound Familiar?
I have brought more than my share of old motorcycles home and learned that you can save yourself a lot of aggravation by taking a few simple steps and spending a few bucks up front before you roar off on your new 1986 Belchfire 1300. I wrote this guide primarily for old Harley Sportster motorcycles but it applies to most bikes. Just insert carbs where I put carb and if you have fuel injection make sure that your filter is not in the pressurized side of the fuel pump.
Here goes:
1. Buy a service manual.
2.Throw away the gas. Drain the tank, look for rust and crap in the fuel. Look at the last cup or so of fuel, is it full of rust, does it have water in it? If so take the tank off and clean it.
3.Drain the carb, look at the fuel that comes out of the carb, does it have rust or water in it? If so try running a little Methanol through it followed by clean gas. If the carb is flooding tap on it with a screw driver handle. If the float still sticks clean the carb. You may need to rebuild it. Put a cheap in-line filter on the bike this will trap some of the crud you didn’t think was in the tank.
4.Replace the plugs, they don’t cost much and they crap out pretty fast on my Iron heads.
5.Check out the spark plug wires, unless they look really good replace them. If in doubt replace them.
6.Replace your points and condenser. (Don’t know the gap setting? See step one)
7.Replace the <a href="http://batterytender.cmbazar.com” title=”battery charger“>battery unless it really turns the bike over fast or you know it’s new. When you pick up your new <a href="http://batterytender.cmbazar.com” title=”battery charger“>battery get a <a href="http://batterytender.cmbazar.com” title=”battery charger“>battery tender, you will need it. IMHO the charging system on the older Sporties is weak.
8.Check every wire and connection you can get to make sure they are clean and tight.
9.Check every nut,bolt and screw on the bike. Make sure they are 1. Still there 2. Tight. A lot of them won’t be.
10.Change all fluids. I use Harley stuff. If you don’t agree make sure that whatever you use meets your manufacturer’s specs.
11.Check your tire pressure. While your at it ,look your tires over really carefully. Your life depends on them. If your tires are shot replace them. It’s cheaper and easier than growing new skin after you dump.
12.Lube everything. Pay special attention to your chain, throttle cables and brake linkages (if you have any). You really don’t want the chain to break/ come off, the throttle to stick wide open or the brakes to fail when you take your motorcycle for that first test ride!
Nine times out of ten when I bring an old bike in it has bad gas, bad plugs, sticking floats, bad battery or all four. It is a lot easier to go through these steps with your tools handy in a warm well lit place than next to the road in the dark while it’s raining. After you go through these steps you will probably find that your bike runs. If it doesn’t break out your new manual and start trouble shooting.
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