Resurrecting a carbed bike that sat for years without gas, need advice

[juha_teuvonnen]

I bought a bike. It was stored for a very long time in a warm garage. The bike was stored dry, no gas in tank. I took a quick look inside the tank and it appears not rusted. I am thinking that various rubber pieces (seals, o-rings and etc.) are suspect at this point.

Should I take apart the carbs, or try to fill the tank and attempt a start? Any tips on how do I inspect the tank for hidden rust would be appreciated.

I am also thinking that changing fork oil, coolant, engine oil and bleeding brakes would be prudent. Once I get the bike to run I am replacing tires and installing braided brake lines. Anything else I should look into?

[Rambunctous]

I think I would give it a little gas and try it. You can always go from there. Check the oil level first. How about a picture???

[OreoGaborio]

How long are we talking?

I'd change the oil, throw a quart of fuel in & see what happens.

May need a battery as well.

[LuvDog]

Check the oil and maybe coolant and give it gas.

Are we talking a few years or a decade?

[aldend123]

Fill it up, change/check oil. Spray some starter fluid, and crank it. If it sounds like it's about to catch, but fails several times, and you smell gas, let it sit for a bit (5-10 minutes). Don't run the starter to long either, it can overheat.

If that doesn't work, check that the float bowls have fuel by draining one. If they aren't getting gas, check the petcock. If that's flowing, hit the carb body with a hammer to possibly dislodge a stuck float. If they still won't get fuel, and you're lazy, let it sit over night with the fuel in it and hope it frees the stuck float. Hit with hammer again in the morning Still nothing? Time to disassemble.

Give the brakes some good pumps before any test rides. Your ToDo list is good once you get it running. I'd probably check for rubber bushings anywhere that may have degraded. Lube any pivots,bearings, and bushings before and after a test ride in case they had rusted up.

[Stromper]

Qt of gas with 3 oz of seafoam and put petcock on reserve

Supposedly new old Indian trick is to warm the whole thing sun and blanket

Jump it from your car

[juha_teuvonnen]

The bike is a 2007 Hyosung GT650 with 60 miles on the odometer. Per the previous owner it was ridden once, from the dealership to the garage. I have the certificate from the manufacturer, signed over to the previous owner, it has never been registered. I am guessing that it sat for ~8 years.

[MHenry600]

I'm in a similar situation with a 1993 shadow 1100 I just got. It sat for about 10 years from what I'm told, and I was planning to tear the carbs out. After reading some of the thoughts here, maybe I'll just give it a try and see what happens. I'm going to change the oil first at least though.

[Stromper]

Once you get that running You probably will do the same

[Degsy]

The bike is a 2007 Hyosung GT650 with 60 miles on the odometer. Per the previous owner it was ridden once, from the dealership to the garage. I have the certificate from the manufacturer, signed over to the previous owner, it has never been registered. I am guessing that it sat for ~8 years.

I have worked on those a little. Bank on needing a new petcock. They are great little bikes. You'll probably not get it started without cleaning the pilot jets. They are tiny. Also,the air filter is probably a mouse nest. Check those basics and remove and rinse tank with a little wd40 and gasoline and then try her. Removing the plugs and spraying a little wd40 into each cylinder is a good idea also in case the rings are stuck.

I wouldn't recommend starting fluid.

I wouldn't bother changing the oil until I knew it will run.

[juha_teuvonnen]

I have worked on those a little. Bank on needing a new petcock. They are great little bikes. You'll probably not get it started without cleaning the pilot jets. They are tiny. Also,the air filter is probably a mouse nest. Check those basics and remove and rinse tank with a little wd40 and gasoline and then try her. Removing the plugs and spraying a little wd40 into each cylinder is a good idea also in case the rings are stuck.

I wouldn't recommend starting fluid.

I wouldn't bother changing the oil until I knew it will run.

Thank you very much for your sage advice, I do appreciate it. Good catch on the air filter, I totally forgot about it, and I should know better. I decided to remove tank and petcock to clean and inspect prior to trying to start the bike. I will get the plugs out and may be check compression. If the petcock is hosed, I can gravity feed the carbs to see if the bike starts. I can't find a manual way of operating petcock. Is it operated by vacuum only, or am I missing something? I am not too familiar with gt650, never had one before. All of my carved bikes had a petcock that could be manually put into ON/OFF/RESERVE positions.

If the rings are stuck, soaking with WD40, then a kettle of hot Marvel mystery oil poured into the cylinders did the trick for me last time. If I get the bike to run, I am contemplating GSXR internals for the 41 mm USD forks. Rumor has it, the rear shocks that fit SV650 will fit this bike as well. I also upgrading front calipers to F4i if/when I get it to run, also EBC pads and braided lines.

[Degsy]

all good ideas..

The petcock to tank connection uses an o ring like a carb bottom gasket. They put the petcock on the tanks with paint under them and the seal doesn't work after a while of sitting. It's a vacuum petcock so you'll need to sucked lightly on the vacuum line to the petcock (sounds a bit porno) with the valve open in order to get gas to flow.

Marvel mystery oil is amazing stuff. Used by many to ensure rings let go of the cylinder wall. That bike won't rock your world but it's almost exactly an sv650 motor so it should hold up pretty well.

[juha_teuvonnen]

all good ideas..

The petcock to tank connection uses an o ring like a carb bottom gasket. They put the petcock on the tanks with paint under them and the seal doesn't work after a while of sitting. It's a vacuum petcock so you'll need to sucked lightly on the vacuum line to the petcock (sounds a bit porno) with the valve open in order to get gas to flow.

I was planning to gravity feed the carbs for testing and then check the fuel pump and petcock by elimination. When I got the airbox off I discovered that some of the bolts on the carb rack were missing. So was one of the radiator bolts. Someone scrubbed off the paint on the tank under the petcock. Looks like someone who didn't know what he was doing screwed with the bike before me. I removed the fuel level sending unit and it was covered with rust-like flakey substance. I am still planning to try firing her up via gravity feed, but I am virtually certain that I will need to take carbs off and go through them at this point.

Marvel mystery oil is amazing stuff. Used by many to ensure rings let go of the cylinder wall. That bike won't rock your world but it's almost exactly an sv650 motor so it should hold up pretty well.

It's similar to SV in many ways, but there are some important differences. The frame is heavy as all hell, and no one seems to know much about these bikes and their quirks. I found some posts on korider about cam chain tensioners being problematic, but no one seems to know what year they were redesigned, and what the new and old part numbers were. It's quite the opposite of SV which is very well known. It seems to me that the manufacturer's post-sale support is poor and aftermarket has largely given up on this bike. I should be able to get it sorted anyway, but it will take a little more time than I initially thought.

[MHenry600]

fwiw, after I looked at a couple of things, I decided to pull the carbs off from my project. It's a good thing I did. Both pilot jets were blocked solid and took a good push to get the crud out. The needle jets were stuck to their seats with old varnish gas, too. This thing would have never run right with trying to put fuel additive through it.

All cleaned up and ready to go back in. Just need to tidy up a few other items before turning it over.

[aldend123]

When I got the airbox off I discovered that some of the bolts on the carb rack were missing. So was one of the radiator bolts. Someone scrubbed off the paint on the tank under the petcock. Looks like someone who didn't know what he was doing screwed with the bike before me.

That's interesting for a bike with 60 miles on it that was ridden once from the dealership and parked, never registered, and bought from the original owner.

[juha_teuvonnen]

That's interesting for a bike with 60 miles on it that was ridden once from the dealership and parked, never registered, and bought from the original owner.

It looks like someone attempted to resurrect it before, and the person who tried it didn't know what he was doing. The cluster does not illuminate when I turn the ignition on, not sure if it's malfunctioning (common problem on Hyosung GT650) or it will illuminate once the engine is running. The bike wasn't registered, comes with certificate of origin rather than title, so I doubt that it was ridden much.

The bike only cost me a grand to buy, i view it as a raw ingredient for my project. I am planning convert it to naked configuration, upgrade the suspension, address common problems, etc.

[xsiliconkid]

all good ideas..

The petcock to tank connection uses an o ring like a carb bottom gasket. They put the petcock on the tanks with paint under them and the seal doesn't work after a while of sitting. It's a vacuum petcock so you'll need to sucked lightly on the vacuum line to the petcock (sounds a bit porno) with the valve open in order to get gas to flow.

Marvel mystery oil is amazing stuff. Used by many to ensure rings let go of the cylinder wall. That bike won't rock your world but it's almost exactly an sv650 motor so it should hold up pretty well.

+1.
I have resurrected a number of old bikes.
- Take the tank off - flush it with fresh gas. Look for rust flakes coming out the filler when dumping…Keep flushing until no rust.
- If carb remove and clean the gunk out of the float bowls
- Marvel mystery oil down the spark plug hole… just incase the rings are stuck (about 1oz per cylinder).
- Let it sit overnight.
- Put it in gear and turn the motor over a couple of times by turning the rear wheel (without the sparkplugs)
- Change all fluids....
- Crank it over.