Keeping nearly 30 year old bikes on the road takes a mix of ingenuity, patience, spare parts, and sometimes frustration.
I moved parts back over to the 86 Connie last night to get it ready to take to the pros at Poway Motorcycle the local independent shop that works on older bikes. One of the guys there used to ride the Ninja 1000s Connies were made out of, helped pioneer stick coils and is a flat out wizard. So I got everything together, turned the key, cracked the throttle and NOTHING. Grrrr. Check everything, tighten battery terminals (but idiot lights and running lights were already bright). Try again. NOTHING. Hmm, old battery with fresh distilled water in it, but just in case....get battery out of running C10, switch them out, try three. NOTHING. Bike is in neutral, but just in case, let's pull in the clutch lever this time. Slow turning over sounds, no fuel pickup. OK, different problem but had it before-carb bowls likely dried out while the bike sat for a month. Pull everything out of air box, few squirts of starting fluid. Bangy bangy motorcycle noises.
Well, it wasn't that good. This morning I come back from some early morning Bible Study and meetings to run the bike to the shop. Bike barely wants to run, even after more starting fluid. So I spray in some carb cleaner too and it still wants to cough and die. Repeat. Repeat again. Alternate starting fluid and carb cleaner, finally get bike to respond to throttle. Still won't start with clutch lever out, so that switch is likely dead and I'll be looking for a scavenged one in my parts pile tonight.
Good thing some mechanical therapy and frustration is a good change of pace from my normal work frustration, or this would drive me nuts!
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