fix my motorcycle

So I tried to kickstart it Sunday with absolutely no luck.

New oil, new plugs and gas.

I think one leg is now shorter than the other.

Sweetness. new seat, charged up the battery. now to get the damn license, on May 12th is the day

Now it’s off to a motorcycle mechanic who works out of his garage in south Seattle. He’s going to pull all of the guts out of the engine and transplant them into the new crankcase. I’m hoping this costs less than $400 for labor.

GS 550

I went riding with Ivan, Dan & Joe 2 weekends ago and managed to take a small spill. I was fully padded, booted and helmeted up – we were riding off road on a logging trail. It was such a small spill that I figured nothing was wrong, but Dan immediately noticed my engine spurting oil. Well, it turns out that a rock likley got tossed up on the crankcase (probably with the force of the chain) and nicked the crankcase where the drive shaft seal sits. So, there’s no way to weld and repair it – or so everyone who has seen it tells me.

This means I have to buy a new crankcase from Suzuki (about $500) and either install it with Ivan (potentially a multi-week effort) or pay a professional for 12 to 16 hours of labor to transplant the guts from my existing crankcase to the new one. That will be expensive! At this point I have to decide if Ivan and I can pull this off together. Now that I’m over the initial shock of such a small event resulting in such a costly repair I’m thinking that taking time to pull it apart ourselves and replace the crankcase could be a good learning experience and a way to remove $600-$1,000 in labor costs. Ivan has done this a few times back in Slovakia and I feel like I could benefit from a deeper understanding of how the guts of the engine works.

For reference: 2002 Suzuki DRZ400E.

I forget that I’ve had this listed, I’ve actually had to fix the bike about 3 times over for various problems, but its done, just finished replace my regulator! yay!

Hi folks, I’m looking for some quick suggestions. I just got a Honda CB550 ‘78. Listen, I’m poor, it was free, and I am not ‘mechanically inclined.’ I want to make it work. Here’s the senario. It’s been garaged for 20 years, it’s rusty but only the pipes are pitted. There IS old gas in it. I just want to see if this thing will run before I put much investment in it. This is my plan of action:
1. empty tank, carbs, and lines, flush and refill w/ fresh gas
2. change oil
3. attach a battery and kickstart this beast to kingdom come.

Any suggestions? AND DON’T SAY TRASH IT. I’m bringing it back to life, baby.

OK, I finally figured it out, the whole bottom of my tank is covered in red sediment and my fuel filter is torn up. Oh well at least I figured it out!

I bought this bike used 1994 CBR 600 F2 and fixed it with a neighbor before (carb clean, intake clean, tank clean… you get the idea), but after riding it for almost a month it wouldn’t run this morning. It will start and warm up to the correct idle speed, but giving almost any throttle will kill it. Hm… I’m afraid that I’ll have to mess with the carbs since even after I cleaned them there was bound to be some stuff in it. I’m thinking what ever was in it got burned up now and the mixture is now too rich.

Option 1, $180×2 for new carburettor diaphragms
Option 2, $95×2 and a long wait to send my ones to UK and back plus an extra 10% and about $40 shipping so that’s about $250, and the long wait,
Option 3, $145 dollars each for new ones from UK plus a week wait 10% currency convert and shipping..
Option 4 $185 for two complete second hand carburettors, the whole things not just the diaphragms, but what sort of condition are the diaphragms in

so much money !!!