| XR80 back from the dead [message #763444] |
Mon, 05 June 2006 18:44 |
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My son and a couple of his friends were trying to get a reasonably dead
mid-80s vintage XR80 running this past weekend. One of the boys had
this thing buried in a shed or something and they decided to drag it
out and see it they could get it going. My son asked me over to his
buddy's house to help them with the project. It was partially
disassembled and wouldn't start when I got there. After a few seconds,
gas started spewing out of the carb and running on the floor. A quick
pull of the plug showed it fouled and oily. The air cleaner looked
like a burnt inner-tube fragment, and the front wheel would lock when
trying to roll it backwards. I popped off the carb bowl and it looked
like someone had used it as a coffee filter, and was complete with a
JB-weld repair where it rotted through sometime earlier. If nothing
else, the tires were in great shape. Piece of cake.
Funny, 'cause as rough as it was, it was apparent that the bike was
mechanically identical with our 16-year-younger XRs. Nothing looked
too horribly bad on the bike, but the boys didn't have a prayer of
success without some involved guidance. I had the boys bring the bike
to my house and ripped it apart in my garage to investigate. I sent
the owner home with a list of the few needed parts and supplies. The
next afternoon once the boys all showed up, I tore the thing down and
started cleaning it up, trying to teach the boys and having them schlep
tools. I douched out the carb and re-adjusted the float, then gave the
carb innards a squirt with magic bike spray (WD40), put in a new plug
and air filter, and gave it a boot - it started right up for a second
or two - not bad, considering there wasn't any gas. I always new you
could run a bike on WD40 - that stuff just does everything ;).
After replacing the gas tank, the bike started right up. A couple of
float adjustment tweaks solved the gasoline geyser, but the bike was
still running mucho rich and burning oil like a bug fogger. New engine
oil helped the burning considerably - the old stuff looked like black
tea coming out - must've been half gas. It still puffs blue under load
a bit, but it's not too bad for a 20y/o rat. I was able to clean up
the jetting adequately by dropping the needle. I pulled the front
wheel off and straightened out the drum brake - those things really
suck. A few other tweaks and adjustments here and there and everything
else was OK, at least functional and safe, so we strapped on the
plastic and the bike was back in action. My son fired up his XR and
the boys all took off toward the local powerlines to break their daily
quota of "no tresspassing" laws.
It wasn't riding for me (except for the required test wheelies/stoppies
around the yard), but at least I got to play with a bike and get all
greasy. I also got to make one of the neighborhood kids happy (this is
the kind of stuff that keeps my house from getting egged at Halloween
;).
Jay
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| Re: XR80 back from the dead [message #763458 ] |
Mon, 05 June 2006 20:55 |
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On 5 Jun 2006 09:44:06 -0700, "JayC" <jwc [at] sysmatrix.net> wrote:
>It wasn't riding for me (except for the required test wheelies/stoppies
>around the yard), but at least I got to play with a bike and get all
>greasy. I also got to make one of the neighborhood kids happy (this is
>the kind of stuff that keeps my house from getting egged at Halloween
>;).
Good going. Sounds like most of my weekends. And evenings.
It's got its own built-in rewards.
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