Doh! Check for the simple things first!

[Tony Smith]

My Bike has been getting harder to start by small increments. Thinking back that nonsense started after we went to the Lion's den and the poor thing got left outside on a night when more than 25" of rain fell.
 
Given that it was running well once it did start my initial thought was that a bit of water was lodged in one or both carbs, I figured a good long run would sort that out and decided to live with it (logic failure of course but I just wasn't in the mood).
 
Two weekends ago we went away to Cardwell, a run of a little over 200km each way, blasted thing was so hard to start that eventually i gave it a spray of "Start Ya Bastard" (ether and other nice things in an aerosol can) and away it went. I slipped the can of SYB into the pannier and off we went.

Funnily enough before we left Cairns my blinkers failed, I simply made a mental note to give hand signals and pressed on - another piece of maintenance able to be rescheduled.

Mid last week I decided to fix the blinkers and to have a look at the timing, just in case. I did a break/make on all the terminal blocks for the indicators and the blinker unit just buzzed like an angry hornet with no blinkers. At this stage I left the hand control alone as I pulled them completely apart and cleaned them only a year or so back so I was moderately sure they were not the problem. But after the full make/break and fitting a new blinker unit, all I got for my trouble was an annoying buzz, albeit at a different frequency. So I gently pried the blinker switch apart enough to fire contact cleaner into it - no effect whatsoever.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place and had a look at the fuse (I still have not got around to ugrading my fuse box) and after cleaning the corrosion off both the fuse and the holder the blinkers worked a treat.


quite annoyed with myself for breaching BMW electrical fault-finding 101 I decided that I had had enough of motorcycles and needed a little sulk.


Yesterday we went for a ride away for lunch, the blasted thing started easily, in fact I say before it had done two rotations. It also started perfectly to come home and again a few minutes ago.

Doh!

[nhmaf]

It can always be a good reminder to all of us to check the simple things first!

[Barry]

The mention of "Start Ya Bastard" never fails to make me smile.

We are much too PC to have something like that here. Here's hoping OZ is never infected.

[Tony Smith]

The mention of "Start Ya Bastard" never fails to make me smile.

We are much too PC to have something like that here. Here's hoping OZ is never infected.

The first time I ever bought the stuff I stood in the aisle and compared the ingredients of SYB and two other competitors, both of which were significantly cheaper, nevertheless I bought SYB and have continued to do so for years.


That is what you call a highly effective marketing strategy!

[Tony Smith]

To which I'll add, the most usual use of SYB around my place is to start a somewhat recalcitrant mower. Poor thing has got no compression and I really should re-ring it, but you need a $45 special tool to undo the single sided crank pin, so it lives on with bugger all compression.

Anyway, courtesy of house guests occupying the room where my panniers are stored I couldn't access SYB when I mowed the lawn yesterday, I found that dribbling about a tablespoon of acetone onto the aircleaner smartened it up a treat.

[raven]

I'm gonna get a can!

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i329/ravengta/3c15b22a6780d31f62fccc09eeaf0551_zpsbyhtdgmz.jpg

[montmil]

I'm gonna get a can!

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i329/ravengta/3c15b22a6780d31f62fccc09eeaf0551_zpsbyhtdgmz.jpg

That'll get MY motor running!

[wilcom]

I found that dribbling about a tablespoon of acetone onto the aircleaner smartened it up a treat.  

"Start Ya Bastard"......... That's hilarious! Never seen it here State side.

Your wives probably have cleaning supplies that will blow up. Always look for flammable on the label, extremely flammable is the best. If it will blow up in your face it will blow up in your cylinder!!

When I'm out of everything else,  WD40 will crank a balky motor. Not sure if it has enough BOOM to light up a no compression Lawn mower though...... It has fired off a 302 ford motor many times.

[Bob_Roller]

I've used carb cleaner, if I don't have starting fluid .

Works on the airheads at least .

Have not had much use for starting fluid in my auto and motorcycle experience .

Only time I've used it, was about 14 years ago, when the '81 R65 had a failing coil that I didn't correctly diagnose, due to a not too accurate multimeter .

[Tony Smith]

That'll get MY motor running!

For those who are wondering WTF at this point.

Here is a genuine photo of a can of SYB.

[montmil]

That'll get MY motor running!

For those who are wondering WTF at this point.

Here is a genuine photo of a can of SYB.

Rats! Here I was thinking it was some sorta Aussie-style of hand crankin'.[ch128584]

[Tony Smith]

Just for Monte, another piece of Aussie marketing strategy - if you own an older car with a "tired" engine", this is the oil for you. Flies off the shelf apparently, even though it costs $AU6.00 more than when it is labelled as Shell helix.

[montmil]

Had an old Chevrolet Corvair Monza convertible that used so much oil I was buying recycled/re-refined oil. Looked kinda sparkly when dumping in another quart or two.

[Tony Smith]

Had an old Chevrolet Corvair Monza convertible that used so much oil I was buying recycled/re-refined oil. Looked kinda sparkly when dumping in another quart or two.

When I was a kid I had an old Holden (GM off-shoot in Australia, actually in the process of ceasing production at present) that I seized when it popped a radiator hose off.  I couldn't afford to fix it properly so I had to live with its amazing oil consumption and clouds of blue smoke that it generated (It still had compression to my great surprise, but the oil control scrapers were totally shot). It used so much oil that I used to hit up my local garage for 2nd hand oil and feed that through it.

After a few months the local Policeman's sense of humour had reached its limit and the car was ordered off the road. I was still short of money but was able to round up $7.50 for a gasket set and $12.00 for a set of rings. A couple of hours careful work with a hand scraper cleaned up the bores and back together it went - oil consumption reduced to around 1/2 pint per 500 miles which I called a result.

[montmil]

Had an old Chevrolet Corvair Monza convertible that used so much oil I was buying recycled/re-refined oil. Looked kinda sparkly when dumping in another quart or two.

When I was a kid I had an old Holden (GM off-shoot in Australia, actually in the process of ceasing production at present) that I seized when it popped a radiator hose off.

No radiator or hoses on the Corvair. It was an air-cooled, flat six Boxer. Popular engine to convert for aircraft usage. Just a bigger V-Dub.