Despite the small spill the battery had re-charged and was ready for testing. Upon further thought earlier in the day I decided that all the sparking unnerved me so I decided to wire a proper switch to jumper the solenoid.
Basically just a momentary push button switch with some 10 gauge wire and connectors attached. Doing this made me feel better about the whole affair and now I can proceed with engine testing while running down the original electrical fault if I like too. Below is a video I took of the test...
After that I disassembled the left carb, much like the right one there was no clogging of the jets, just some varnish on certain parts, however I will complete a thorough cleaning as with the right carb. Also with the help of some people on CafeRacer.net (specifically Hillsy on the forum there) I learned that the mystery hose connections were breather ports for the carb bowls and that they just needed to have new hose put on and routed down by the swingarm where the float bowl overflow tubes go to.
I am starting a run of 12 hour shifts for the next three days so we'll see if I can get anything done before the weekend. Either way stay tuned for more!
Great videos. .It will be nice if you put them into a series.. Not only are you good with repairs, you make an excelllent blog and video.
ReplyDeleteJody
Hey dude, that was cool. My friend did the exact same thing on his 79 425gse just the other day. Got a question for you, what led you to put the button on? Was your switch broken? We did a resistance test on my friends original starter switch and it looked like it was working and then we replaced his solonoid but no dice getting the starter to turn. So I tried bypassing the solonoid with some wire and lo and behold the starter cranked over. My friend then installed his toggle switch just like you did. We are having a problem with the alternator not working well enough to charge the battery so we need to do some tests to see of that's the problem. One wierd thing though is that the original starter button works if the bike is running, but it doesnt work when the bike is off. Any experience with something like that?
ReplyDeleteI just got the bike less than a month ago, it wasn't running so I really was just looking for a way to bench test the starter since the thumb switch wasn't working, and that is where the jumper switch came into play. Since I haven't had the bike running and basically took the carbs off right away to clean them I don't have any experience with the characteristics of how the charging system works. It is good to know someone else with the same bike keep me posted on your progress and maybe we can bounce things off each other as we both try and get our 30+ year old bikes running.
ReplyDeleteSure thing dude! Check out our blog at bottobot.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWe might get into it this weekend and if we do we will posting a video about our progress. Will let you know for sure. If you run into any problems let me know as my friend and I are getting really familiar with this bike.
That is my plan too, I will go check out your blog as well. Today is the end of my work week so hopefully I can test the spark on mine and get the fuel system tip top and try a test fire.
ReplyDelete