Dave is open for business !

Looks to me like the "Local Savage Owner" was very fortunate.  You're a good man Dave.

What sort of solution do you use in that ultrasonic cleaner?  Do you have any pics of the carb parts after you were done cleaning them?  I've been thinking about getting one of those cleaning contraptions and would like to see what sort of job they do.

That steel wool plug in the breather nipple was innovative.  As tightly packed as it was, I suspect it did a pretty good job of blocking oil mist (and air too).  Do you think it might have aggravated the oil leak?

Was the wear confined to the drive pulley or was there significant wear on the output shaft too?

What you've done so far sure looks nice.  In a few days, she will be purring like a kitten.  

I began the tank cleaning by rinsing out the old gas with a pint of gasoline.  I removed the petcock and made a small plate and rubber gasket to seal the petcock hole.  I put in a pint of gas and shook, then removed the petcock plate and drained.  I repeated this a couple of times.

I then put the plate back on an poured in about a pint of Simple Green and a handful of metal stud drywall screws.  I shook and shook until I was tired....then shook some more.  I then added about a quart of water to the Simple Green and shook some more.  I then removed the plate and drained out the cleaner - but left the screws inside.  (Drywall screws have sharp edges and work far better than nuts and bolts).

Then I added 2 gallons of Evaporust and set the tank out in the hot sun.  Evey half hour I would shake the tank to coat the parts of the tank that were not submerged.  The Evaporust is good for many tank cleanings.....I think I have cleaned 2 tanks with this Evaporust previously.

After about 6 hours I dumped the Evaporust back into the plastic jugs it came in - and I used a magnet tool to retrieve the drywall screws out of the tank.  I then dumped in a quart of E85 to flush out the Evaporust.  They say to use water to rinse - however I always get flash rust when rinsing with water - the E85 doesn't flash rust.  The first rinse came out looking like Pork Gravy....I repeated the rinsing until the E85 came out clear.

Then I repeated rinsing with gasoline and drained it into a clean stainless steel pan, and I kept rinsing until the gas came out clear without any rust bits.  The Evaporust loosens the rust particles - but it does not dissolve them.....so there are a lot of rust flakes to get flushed out.  I didn't keep track - but I likely rinsed 5 or 6 times before the flakes were gone.  You can re-use the gas for flushing as long as you don't put any of the rust flakes back into the tank.

The Raptor petcock had a broken filter screen, and the screens were very soft to the touch.  Ethanol fuel (E10) is hard on Nylon.....and some motorcycle tanks are made from Nylon and they get soft and well when E10 fuel is used.  I would not be surprised if these filters are made from it (Nylon has the same milky white color as the filters).

NOTE:  The filters are stained orangy from the stale fuel that was in the tank - the new filters are off white.

I put in a new Raptor petcock before I put the tank back on the bike.

Dave wrote on 06/06/21 at 19:13:32:


I hope you charged an apple pie an hour  

Strong work, Master.  I need a Dave near me!

Fantastic work, Dave! I’ve seen far too many horror stories, and experienced a few at the hands of dealers myself, even worse than what you discovered here. This is exactly why I do as much work myself as is possible.  You’re doing a great service for this owner, and I hope they understand it.  Keep up the great work!