Winter Project: Getting my motorcycle operational again

[HntnFsh]

That's not a spot that would typically work very well with rtv

[Rob]

There is a black o-ring like gasket that sits in the channel.  Photo 1 shows  the channel and photo 2 is the stock photo of the replacement gasket I have coming.

The amber/tan gummy stuff is more like rubber than it is varnish or sludge.  Carb cleaner did not phase it-it needed to be picked/scraped out of the channel.

Someone has been in this carb before me.  I bought the bike used so that is not surprising.  A few of the screws were stripped and were pretty difficult to remove.   The kit has replacement screws so I will be swapping them out. I am wondering if the last person who worked on the carb was trying to get a better seal and put something in the channel with the gasket. 

Not planning on putting anything in the channel other than the gasket when I reassemble it.

A manual would probably be a good investment.

[Rob]

Photo is before I cleaned it up.  It sparkles now.

It occured to me the other day that assuming I get it started, I likely won't be able to run the bike till April when my driveway and the access roads lose their snow!  I may have to trailer it to dry pavement so I can test ride it.  I won't be able to wait that long!

[SeaRun1]

We can ride on the mid-winter break trip around Banks Lake!

SR1

[Rob]

We can ride on the mid-winter break trip around Banks Lake!

SR1

Last year I came home to 8 inches of newly fallen snow and another 4 into the evening!  Barely got the RV up the driveway!

[SeaRun1]

Maybe you could get a Timbersled attachment for your Yamaha….

Looking forward to you getting that bike running.

SR1

[Jpmiller]

My only piece of advice I haven't seen offered yet is, if you don't end up needing a break to prevent throwing something across the shop in frustration don't take a time away from it enough to forget about it. The biggest issue with any repair/rebuild is getting distracted or forgetting about it. In my opinion the only thing worse than a bike sitting unused in the shop for ten years is a big sitting disassembled and partially fixed/restored for ten years.

[Alex4200]

The very last step in your process. Make sure everything is in working order before you hop on it for a test ride. In particular, the brakes. Two years ago my wife had to pick a bike up off someone I knew and call for help. He was test riding on a cul de sac after rebuilding a bike. Guess he didn’t ensure brakes were working properly and the front brake locked up on him quicker than he expected. Resulted in a broken hip and several broken ribs. And he was an experienced rider.

[luvmystang67]

The very last step in your process. Make sure everything is in working order before you hop on it for a test ride. In particular, the brakes. Two years ago my wife had to pick a bike up off someone I knew and call for help. He was test riding on a cul de sac after rebuilding a bike. Guess he didn’t ensure brakes were working properly and the front brake locked up on him quicker than he expected. Resulted in a broken hip and several broken ribs. And he was an experienced rider.

I second this.  One thing I really like when working on things like water pumps on cars is that the sealant usually needs 24 hours to cure, which gives you time to think about what you might have forgotten and look at your photos that you took along the way to see if anything jogs your memory.  Without this, I'd say 80% of the time, I get so excited to "try" what I've put together, that I forget something.  A refill on oil, an electrical connection, a refill on antifreeze, turning over the engine to get water or anything else out of the cylinders, a tool not back in the tool box... you get the idea.  Its REALLY REALLY EASY to forget something when you're excited to try to start your machine.  Highly recommend taking a day off when you think you're done, just to think about the whole thing and chill out to recall what you might have forgotten.  If its not a day, take a couple of hours and just run through everything you did and ensure that you've buttoned up any loose ends.

[Rob]

Good comments all the way around regarding down time and waiting before calling a major step complete.  In climbing after we did something significant like an anchor build or rappel set up, we would stop and re-assess what was built before using it.    Never hurt to pause and say "how am I safe right now" either.

Parts came for the Carb.  I am going to re-assemble the carb today, or Friday and try to re-install it on Saturday I think.

[Rob]

Well, I got the carb re-built and re-installed.  Went mostly OK I think although I have two questions.

I was worried about being able to fish one of the wire harnesses thru from one side to the other as it was a tight fit and odd routing.  I had an idea to use needle nose pliers and paracord to run the route, then tie it to the harness and pull it back thru.  Worked Great!

I was glad that I purchased the carb rebuild kit as a few of the orings and the gasket were pretty stiff and worn looking.  One o-ring just snapped in two when I pulled it out.  I also replaced the float needle as it has a rubber tip, to screws from the top of the carb (just because) and the 4 screws holding the float bowl in place as they had been stripped by the last person who cleaned the carb.  Darn near had to drill one of them out but a manual impact driver was able to get it loose.  Photo of the parts I replaced is below.

I have a question on the float needle.  It hangs on the float with a little wire hanger (circled in blue in the photo).  When I rotate the float up and down, it does not hit the wire bale at all.  This is true with the old and new float needle.  I assume that is OK, and that since the bowl sits upside down, the needle is moved by gravity/direct contact to the metal tab on the float assembly.  Does that sound right? 

Second question will be in the next post due to photo limit of two per post.

[Rob]

Second question.  There is a little elbow shaped brass colored pipe coming off the float bowl that seems to lead to nowhere.

It is circled in red in the attached photo.  This is NOT the fuel line - that is 3x larger than this pipe and can be seen to the upper right of the red circle.

Is this just some kind of vent?  or did I neglect to attach it to something?

[Rob]

I guess one more comment/question.

When I re-attached and mounted the throttle cables I noticed that when I increase the throttle and then release it, the cable does not pull the throttle back to idle - it just sits on full throttle (or at whatever setting I rotate it to).

There is a bit of slack in the cable that should return it to idle, but not much.  I am assuming I need to somehow adjust the cables so that it goes back to idle when released on it's own.  (I did verify that I put them back onto the carb correctly).   I am a bit confused firstly as to what has changed that has made the return to idle cable no longer bring it back on it's own.  Secondly I am confused as to how to adjust the cables to get them to work as expected.  I can do some research on line on that pretty easily.  Just seems curious and has me worried I did something incorrectly on the re-install.

[CP]

Second question.  There is a little elbow shaped brass colored pipe coming off the float bowl that seems to lead to nowhere.

It is circled in red in the attached photo.  This is NOT the fuel line - that is 3x larger than this pipe and can be seen to the upper right of the red circle.

Is this just some kind of vent?  or did I neglect to attach it to something?

Looks like a bowl drain line. 

[Sandberm]

I'm thinking that if you loosen that alan head bolt you can drain the float bowl on the carb out that elbow. It probably should have some plastic hose on it.

Did you take the throttle off the handlebars? If so you may have slid the throttle tube back on too far and it is hanging up on the end of the handlebars. Or the cable is corroded. Get a new throttle cable or squirt some wd40 into the cable to lube it. Or, the slide its getting hung up because you did not reassemble it correctly.