New Old Sportster MotorcycleOK you just bought a old motorcycle : Sportster, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki or whatever for a great price and the person you bought it from swears that: It has hardly been ridden It has been meticulously maintained it was just rebuilt 1500 miles ago It has just set in the garage, basement, shed, barn or wherever for "a while" Sound Familiar?
I have brought more than my share of old motorcycles home and learned that you can save yourself a lot of aggravation by taking a few simple steps and spending a few bucks up front before you roar off on your new 1986 Belchfire 1300. I wrote this guide primarily for old Harley Sportster motorcycles but it applies to most bikes. Just insert carbs where I put carb and if you have fuel injection make sure that your filter is not in the pressurized side of the fuel pump.
Here goes:
1. Buy a service manual.
2.Throw away the gas. Drain the tank, look for rust and crap in the fuel. Look at the last cup or so of fuel, is it full of rust, does it have water in it? If so take the tank off and clean it.
3.Drain the carb, look at the fuel that comes out of the carb, does it have rust or water in it? If so try running a little Methanol through it followed by clean gas. If the carb is flooding tap on it with a screw driver handle. If the float still sticks clean the carb. You may need to rebuild it. Put a cheap in-line filter on the bike this will trap some of the crud you didn't think was in the tank.
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