Missives from the 6th Floor

« It's time to sell a car | Main | Aladdin's Palace »

May 1, 2005

Back in the saddle again...

After a few weeks of procrastination, and a few more weeks of packed weekend schedules, I've finally gotten Dawnise's bike back on the road. It didn't want to run at idle, and it stalled out at any sudden throttle. Turns out, it had a clogged pilot jet (thanks for the tip, Ed!) in one of the carbs.

What should have been a two hour job for an amateur like me (lift the tank, pull the airbox, free the carb assembly, turn it over, open the float bowls, and clean the pilot jets) turned into a four hour job when one of the float-bowl screws stripped. Off I trundled down to ACE Hardware to get some penetrating lubricant (I had a bottle of Kroil that my dad had given me when the movers made him leave it in CA and, guess what, the movers made me leave it in CA... drat) and a new philips screwdriver hoping that a virgin head would get more grip than any of my current tools.

That didn't work - so I decided to disconnect the enricher plungers so I could get the carb assembly out and work on it on a level surface. After stripped screw #2, I made a return trip to ACE and bought an extractor set (and replacement metric machine screws).

The extractors did the trick - I cleaned out both pilot jets (with old high E guitar strings - a great suggestion from my Dad), put it all back together, and it ran great.

But the tachometer wasn't working.

I found the connector that had been disconnected, removed the airbox one more time, reconnected it, and put the rest of the bike back together. I took it for a test ride down to the gas station, came back to the house and Dawnise suited up and, she on her bike and I on mine, we went out for a half-hour spin around the island. Just got back and put some food on the BBQ for dinner.

One less project on the list of to-do's.

Posted by dberger at May 1, 2005 6:41 PM

Comments

Posted by: Scott Snyder at May 2, 2005 10:04 AM