Hello all.!

Well after lots of research for a smaller bike for the wife to start out on... I came across a craigslist ad just last Saturday.  Called and went to see it.  Made offer and left the SUV and rode the bike home.  I hid it around the side of the house and wife finally awoke and noticed the truck gone... "WHERE's THE SUV?"  me: "i dunno"   COME ON... what did you do? trade it?   NO, ITS SAFE.  well? ok, what did you buy?  WELL MAYBE SOMETHING?  

That point I went around and pushed the bike into the garage.  YUK - WHAT IS THAT?  after 20 minutes I explained the history behind the bike from 86 to present and it was a bike set up for short legged humans (women to)... and the previous owner was a smaller woman so it was perfect.  She eventually sat on it and agreed it fit nicely.  Its the nice maroon color (red is fav).

(((Job well done!)))

SO... Sat Night I tinkered around cleaning it up real nice and real purrrty.  Sunday I rode it around a bit and handled nicely for 11,700 miles on it.

Sunday we go out to the local Harley dealer (only bike shop open on a Sunday) and bought good gear for the wifey.  Jacket and Boots.  Already have a helmet as we are scooter riders.

Monday rolls around after I get home from work... IT DOES NOT START!  It turns over but does not start.   I just parked it, shut it off and left it overnight in the garage.  Checked I was in Neutral, clutch held in, swich is ON, petcock is on ON and tried PRI too.  but, it does not start.   Other owner said they just changed oil, new sparkplug and simple tuning.  At a loss!   I had on a battery tender all night too.  was Green in the morning.  Cranks nice but will not fire up.   sounds like no gas.  not really smelling any strong gas oder either.  Looked into tank and saw no rust.  I even had it jumped to a portable battery made to jump cars/etc in a pinch.   Not electrical.   Bike worked FINE all weekend even doing the backfire when turning it off!

So I am going to start with whereever someone recommends to start looking.  Gas, petcock, filters?  not sure how to take the tank off yet... searched this site and googled it.  Send me some tips.   Nice reliable bullet proof bike now not impressing the wife!  Or me!

-joe (ducklips)

It will run, and she will love it! Did you go back and get the SUV? Keep at it. Someone on here will have an Aha! moment. Welcome.

If it ran well when you brought it home, Id say ya gots a lousy battery. Id say the guy charged it up to sell the bike & its really not a decent battery. Beside3s, you dont want her stranded, get a new battery & get a GOOD one.

Well here is the story so far.  I GOT IT RUNNING I GOT IT RUNNING!!!


OK I learned to ride off YouTube so I can learn to wrench off YouTube & the internet (and this site and others).   I started with basics as told above threads.   Finally got tank off.  It has a nice inline shut-off valve installed (like a home natural gas line) so once the tank was off and in PRI gas flowed.   FUEL=CHECK

next was FIRE... so I tried to remove spark plug (ran to auto store to get deep socket 18mm... removed plug.   Cleaned per some video's, used spray brake cleaner to clean threads/tip.   Check for spark and GOT SPARRRRRK now.... FIRE=CHECK

45 minutes later I finally assembled the bike back together... tank replacement is a PITA plus there are these rubber things that helps seat it.. they were older and kept falling off.   Remembering McGuyver... I simply wrapped tin foil around both to hold in place as I could not find my electrical tape (or a paper clip or gum).  Worked like a champ.

Did a little dance - turned around and touched my nose and sat on bike, turned KEY, petcock in PRIme and it FIRED RIGHT UP!  (happy dance time).  Shut off, turned petcock to ON and restarted and took for a 10 mile ride.

FIRE/AIR/FUEL=check.  VROOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

Of course I woke the neighbors as I shut it off when it backfires!  (Sanford and Son (or Onslo from Keeping Up Appearances car))

But it works and I cannot even spell W-R-E-N-C-H, but now I are one!

I did buy a OEM used muffler off eBay as I do not like the loud Jardine slashcut noisy thing that is one one.  Loud Pipes gets one SHOT is my motto.  I want my neighbors talking to me.  SO I await that delivery.

Total time... 3:00 hours of Fiddle farting around with it.  Not bad for a computer guy geek.  Kinda proud I fixed it.  I am leaning toward the plug and its inability to not spark as the problem.  Otherwise I am not sure if a combo of things helped.   I called the previous owner and she never had this problem.  Murphy and his law or whatever... I bought a used thing and it stops working!

Oh well, it is running and time to teach the wife to ride.  Safely then MSF school she goes.  Better to know a bit before as some schools are not too tolerant towards complete nooobies.  She owned/rode a quad/ATV before so shifting and clutches are not a stranger to her.

Plus we scoot all over on our 150cc chinese scooters.

CHEERS ALL and thanks for all the advice it all helped!
This $850.00 purchase from craigslist is going to be fun.

JOE (ducklips)

Glad you got it started up. When you get the gumption go from front to back and check ALL connections. Any that appear mildly corroded..plug and unplug several times and apply dialectric grease. Any that appear loose, tighten. If the starting issue still comes and goes, or gets worse, and you're certain you're getting fuel and air in proper quantities consider the ignition coil and/or CDI as suspect.
  I did a bunch of mods over the spring, got it all back together and it ran like crap and sometimes would die altogether. I assumed my new carb was poorly jetted (which it was) but the real culprit ended up being the CDI going bad rather abruptly and continued to go bad at a slow pace IE - Worked dandy before I took it apart, started being wonky when I got it back together and slowly got wonkier and wonkier over the course of a couple weeks until it just quit on me.
   I thought it was the ignition coil but a quick swap with a fellow forum members's coil revealed that wasnt the issue. Swapped his CDI and just for the hell of it and voila. Started right up. Got a used one on ebay for $80. Brand new is $3-400 IIRC.