Trouble starting

[bangpaul]

After leaving the bike fallow for a few months, I'm having trouble getting her started in the mornings, which are still quite warm here. It just doesn't seem to want to ignite, and sputters along, occasionally nearly firing, until after a few minutes it finally starts.

It sort of sounds blocked up or something. I think the carbs are definitely due for a rebuild. Does anyone think it might be something simple due to the bike not being used for a few months?

[Barry]

Could be stale fuel or gummed up jets. That usually takes more than 2 months though.

[tvrla]

Even though it's warm, the chokes should still be needed. I'd pull the float bowls and blow out the little jets in the wells. Sediment may have plugged them. Also, aim some carb cleaner into the brass tubes that project into those wells - they deliver the fuel to the chokes. Not talking about the overflow out the bottom of the float bowls.

When you pull the float bowls, take a look at the fuel in there - is there water in the bottom? It'll look like a bubble at the bottom underneath the fuel.

[Bob_Roller]

Do you know if anything has been done to the bike maintainence wise, before you got it ?

Sounds like the carbs may need a thorough cleaning .

What color is the spark at the plugs ?

White/blue, or reddish/orange color ?

Living in a salt water coastal area, is the environment there pretty much high humidity all year round ?

This may or may not be your problem, but do you have a black and gray ignition coil ?

It's a known problem area on these bikes, the case cracks and causes problems in damp conditions .

[bangpaul]

Thanks wirespokes. I can't believe I didn't even think of the choke. I suppose I just assumed it wouldn't be in this warm weather. It did help a bit, but I had to use full choke, and I've never had to do that before, and it still struggled quite a bit at first.

Bob Roller, the bike was pretty well maintained by the previous owner who was a mechanic and used it as his daily ride for over 25 years. Although I am only a few k's from the beach, the climate here is desert-dry.

I think the carbs do need a thorough cleaning, if not a rebuild kit from Bing. Does anyone have any advice about which kit to get? And being a novice, should I get the DVD as well?

[tvrla]

The manuals give a pretty good description of how the carbs work. They're actually quite simple. If you don't have a manual, why not???

I'm sure SnowBum has a diagram up on his site, or perhaps there's one here. Do a little searching.

Normally the only things needing replaced on the Bing CV carbs are the o-rings. They're on the air mixture screw, low speed jet and main jet.

Otherwise, jets don't wear out from fuel passing through them. The needle jet and jet needle do wear since they rub on each other, but they'll last forty or sixty thousand miles easily. Diaphrams last a very long time and I never worry about them.

So there's really nothing to replace except maybe the choke body gasket, but it's something you can easily make yourself rather than buying an expensive kit - all of these parts must be gold impregnated considering the asking prices. It's nuts!

The big thing is to make sure it's all clean. Run them through an ultrasonic bath - that's the best way. And make sure the area behind the atomiser is clean. The choke bodys tend to loosen up and the gasket sucks in causing an air leak.

But usually all they need is cleaning and possibly new o-rings.