So after discovery the awesome that is Craigslist, I kind of went on a selling spree. One item in particular that I was hoping to fetch a solid price for was my 2005 15" MacBook Pro. Expecting about $400, I posted it for $600, just because that's what makes Craigslist awesome. I find a buyer who's willing pay $500, which was just fine by me. That very same day, I come across a listing for a 1971 CB750 for $600. Long story short, I fell in love with it, talked the guy down to $500 since the bike wasn't running, and popped it on a buddy's trailer. So a 5 year old laptop that was on it's last leg for a 39 year old motorcycle that needed a little TLC? Solid trade in my opinion.
So having no mechanical experience whatsoever, I was really banking on the bike not running because of something easy, with "easy" meaning old gas/oil, fouled spark plugs, or clogged carbs. So starting with the easiest of the easy, I removed and drained the gas tank.
I should of snagged a picture of the gas that was coming out of the tank, it was almost a reddish color, which is clearly not the color gas is meant to be. I'm hoping that there isn't any issue with rust inside the fuel tank, which would explain the reddish hue of the old gas. I then emptied the old oil and put 2 fresh quarts into the tank. Next up was the carbs, now this is the extreme limit of my mechanical knowledge. I know the mix gas and air and feed that into the engine, and that's really about it. So I went ahead and just popped them off.
When I removed the cap to the float chamber, a rush of red gas came pouring out. I was feeling pretty confident that this was a primary factor of the bike not starting. Armed with trusty carb and throttle cleaner, I sprayed the shit out of those carbs, and that was really about it. I didn't want to fully disassemble them, considering I would most likely not be able to put them back together. I let them dry, and then mounted them back onto the bike. I also changed out the spark plugs, which didn't make for exciting photography, so no pictures of that.I had everything reassembled, and it started right up!! Now it wasn't all roses. It was running pretty rough, wouldn't stay running without throttle, and periodically had what sounded like small backfires (timing issue). So fast forward another week and another carb cleaning, I've got it running smoothly (at least I think it's smooth), and took it for a quick once around the block. Once I get it tuned up a bit more, I'll work on putting a video up. Speaking of videos, I still need to get one of the moped up, which needless to say will take a backseat to the CB750, but it will still get some love from time to time.
Oh and I completely forgot to mention the hilarious seat the guy I bought it from put on the bike. It's pretty much a piece of metal thats been upholstered and is held on by velcro! Hilarious I know...
