Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Getting it Running

I started with the easy stuff first.

Gas Tank

The gas tank was empty and had chunks muddy crap in it, so I washed it out with detergent and water.

Also I gave the fuel petcock a good cleaning to make sure it was not clogged.

The inside of the tank was in good shape so I let it dry and put it back on the bike and filled it with some fresh gas.

Spark


I took the spark plug out and grounded it to the engine and turned it over and saw that there was no spark at all.

This made me suspect the points were bad or not properly adjusted.  I took the flywheel cover off and turned the flywheel and noticed the points were not even moving, they were actually adjusted too far up and were not contacting the lobe on the flywheel.

I really wanted to remove the flywheel, but didnt have a puller so I did my best to work through the small slots.  I rolled a sandpaper joint and flattened it and opened the points with a flathead and sanded the contact points to clean them out, then blew them clean with compressed air.

Then I loosened the phillips scew that holds the points in place and moved them down and just played with the positioning until they would open .014" measured with my feeler gauge.  After adjusting the points I did a spark test again, accidentally touched the plug as i turned the engine and it actually shocked me.  I got a nice strong blue spark.

Here is a great (3 part) series of videos I found (not by me) on how to replace points and the condenser and how to adjust the points...



Carb

I gave it a kick after adjusting the points but it didnt start, so I moved on to the carb.

I took the carb out and cleaned it with carb cleaner and compressed air.  I took it all apart and made sure to clear up all the passage ways. 

Valve timing

I did some research on how to set the proper valve timing.  This is new to me since my Kawasaki 2 stroke does not have valves.  I found a great video on how to do this and I set the timing properly.


It's alive!

After cleaning the carb and adjusting the valves I kicked it over a few times, and it finally started after 5 or 6 kicks.

A cloud of smoke flew out of the exhaust, it was definitely the first time in a LONG time the engine was running.  Getting it started is always a great moment. 

It was running at a very high RPM since I had messed with the air mixture screws, so I adjusted them to the point where the bike sounded normal.

Put the bike in gear and went for a spin.  It jerks really hard when shifting, but it works.

The problem I have is gas is pouring out of the carb overflow.  I think I have a float or float valve problem, so I will check that out and hopefully fix it without having to get a carb kit. 



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