Okay so there really isn't a score in this adventure, but what blog doesn't have a stupid title like that.
So today is Tuesday March 2, 2010 and I had a breakthrough on the bike. Lets review where I have been since the last post (which ironically just went up but was written a while ago).
We got the bike home, truck returned and bought a charger all on Sunday. Got her a good home in the garage and went right to work trying to troubleshoot the bike without a manual and with quite the eclectic mix of tools. My deal is that I will try to get things done with the tools I have or can borrow and then buy only if I can use the tool a lot or really need it.
I got the battery all charged up and ready to roll. Tried to start it again out of excitement and got strong sounding turn over. The good news is, good battery and starter motor is working good. Decided to pull the plugs and see if I had spark, and this is where speed bump number 1 showed up, NO PLUG Wrench that fits! After some googling and scrounging I ended up finding an 18 mm wrench at autozone and lo and behold it BARELY fits the spark plug hole. In my spark plug quest I found the Honda shop in North Portland and made friends with the parts guys there. It is a little nagging to me thinking about parts. Since it's such an older bike I'm not sure I will find the parts I need and hopefully I can scrounge.
Alright back to the work at hand. I bought four plugs and ordered a new oil filter from the guys at the shop. Once I pulled the plugs from the bike I found them well used, so I changed them and put in the new ones (wayyyy easier said then done). Important lesson today was that motorcycles are smaller than cars, and it sucks sometimes with small clearances.
After the bike wouldn't start with the new plugs, I checked both plugs on the crankcase to see if they had good spark. Easy enough, the bad ones sucked, the good ones had great spark; I'm really glad I changed them all out.
So new plugs are in and she still won't start up. However the turn over produces better sounds now (small victories? Hahaha). Next thought on the tree is fuel. Time to get smelly with gas.
Found the fuel filter and checked flow on both sides of the filter. Crazy enough, the filter stops the flow of fuel. So now the new plan is to focus on a new fuel filter and tomorrow I will call Honda to see what they have in store.
Plan from here: order new fuel filter and pick up when I get up there for the oil filter. Considering draining the tank and running some sort of cleaner through the tank. The issue is, the previous owner sealed the tank walls because of a leak he had found. May look to the forums on that one. Once parts are in, change the oil and the fuel filter, the listen to her purr (optimistically).
Costs:
Previous Post: $404.00
New costs:
Manual $14.98
Tools: $55
Parts: $37.30
Plastic Cleaner: $5.00
Total Spent: $501.30
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Root. I would recommend NOT running the fuel that is in the tank through the new filter. I would recommend getting new fuel and maybe a fuel cleaner. I would guess that because the filter was plugged that the carbs might be plugged as well. Bottom line, older bikes require 3 things... spark - check, air - check, fuel - kind of.
ReplyDeleteOnce you have the tank cleaned out, don't be surprised if you need to work on the carb, adjust the jets, floats, and then get a carb kit. with any luck, flushing the tank, adding fresh fuel with a cleaner and letting it sit for a day or two and you'll be off and riding.