Not Again, Dude...

[Emerikol]

So my wife has threatened to divorce me, shut off the internet and start going to work on important parts of my body with very blunt heavy objects (although not necessarily all in that order) if she catches me on Craigslist for at least the next four months... This beauty followed me home yesterday. It was just too good of a deal to pass up. $650 and I have a clean and clear Arizona title. It didn't run when I got it, and I got it to at least run well enough to ride it around the block. The rear cylinder is only firing for about two or three cycles every 4 seconds or so. After some quick searching on the interwebs, the general consensus is that it's the ignition pickup coil. I have a new stator and pickup assembly on the way, along with a new case gasket and a new voltage regulator. All for $80. Amazon is a great thing. I'll keep everyone posted as to how this one comes along. And for everyone keeping score at home, this makes motorcycle #6 for me. To be fair, it only makes the 4th that's rideable. The other two are either in very tiny pieces off the frame (scrambler) or the victim of a locked up engine (CB450).

http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1555296283

[wheelbender6]

Good looking bike. is it a 650?

[Emerikol]

Yes, it is indeed a 650. After poking around a ton of the V-Star forums, it seems like the 650's are notorious for blowing the pickup coils. One day it rides just fine, next day it won't fire up or will only fire on one cylinder.

[Megadan]

Those are my favorite kind of bikes to flip. Buy for $650, spend a couple hundred making it road worthy, sell for a couple thousand. I suspect you didn't buy it for that purpose, but just tell your wife it could have a 300% return on investment and she might calm down a bit lol.

[cheesy]

Good score.

I do believe that I mentioned that it is easy to hide another bike from the missus in the garage, but I meant bicycle.

[Emerikol]

Dan, That was the original plan. Buy it for $650, spend a weekend setting it back to rights and cleaning/polishing/etc, then turn it loose for the $1,800 or so it's actually worth. (Maybe a touch more since it has aftermarket Cobra pipes) Once I got it home and started tinkering, it's kind of growing on both of us. She likes that she can put her feet on the ground from the front seat (that potentially means she'll be able to ride it), and that the back seat has a comfy backrest. All in all, I think this one might stay in the stable after all. For the price, it's tough to beat.

Cheesy, The house is almost done, and I have an absolutely cavernous (relatively speaking for houses out here in Arizona) 3-car garage. There's also a storage area that could have been another bedroom had we selected the option on the floorplan. Once we get into the new place, hiding anther bike might not be that much trouble. Maybe. Shucks, who am I kidding, the toddler is going to rat me out first chance he gets. He's undoubtedly going to want to show Mommy the shiny new toy Daddy brought home and let him sit on. Oh well, guess there are going to be more than a few of those conversations in my future...

[JerryHawk250]

Nice Score! Why can't I run across a deal like that? Well I do but always sold by the time I find them.

[kirbo7106]

Hey Emerikol,
When you go to buy furniture for your house, don’t go cheap on the couch! More motorcycles might require some “Couch Camping”!

But it will probably be worth it!

[cbrfxr67]

sweeeet! I try to stay off there cause I'd do the same!

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by kirbo7106

Hey Emerikol,
When you go to buy furniture for your house, don’t go cheap on the couch! More motorcycles might require some “Couch Camping”!

But it will probably be worth it!

Kirb, no worries there, we have a really nice sectional! I seriously think this is going to have to be the last one for a while, though (nevermind I said the EXACT same thing about the Scrambler, and again about the CB450). Not only do I seriously have nowhere to put it, but it's really starting to get hectic out here with the move into the new house coming up.

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Nice Score! Why can't I run across a deal like that? Well I do but always sold by the time I find them.

Jerry, the deals are out there all the time. I just hop on craigslist and set the max price filter. I usually set it for $1,500 and see what stones turn over. A lot of them are people selling scrap metal for a gold mine, usually with wording like "No lowballers, I know what I've got..." I suppose you just have to take your chances and check in often. Thanks for the happy thoughts!

[Megadan]

Yeah, I tend to breeze right past the "I know what I've got" postings. It may be a decently solid bike, but they tend to be too rigid with their too highly priced bike to get any sort of deal. The funny part is, they also tend to stay listed for several months, with only the smallest drop in price.

[ben2go]

I wish you'd talk to me first. I've worked on a bunch of Vstar 650s and I currently own one. Those stators and pickups are crap usually. Do it once or do again. The best are from https://ricksmotorsportelectrics.com/ and give a bit more output. The OE stuff could barely run the bike.



If you have to go into the carbs, there are two little O-rings in there under the jet standoff tubes. Remove them if they haven't turned into a tar-like substance and don't replace them. They cause all kinds of running issues by restricting the fuel flow.

[Emerikol]

Thanks for the advice, Ben. I ordered a Caltric kit from Amazon. Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for the advice on the carb o-rings, too. I'm going to pull the carbs back out when the parts come in later today and do the valves while I have the rest of the bike apart. I thought it might be carbs to start with, so I cleaned them up first thing. When I didn't get any improvement, I consulted the interwebs and discovered the issue with the pickup coil. Apparently that's a really big failure point on these bikes. I think I may just order an extra side cover gasket and pickup coil to toss in the saddlebags, just in case I ever get stranded out on the road somewhere. Really looking the bike over carefully, it seems that this has been an ongoing problem for a while. The exhaust pipe for the rear cylinder is really heavily blued about 2/3'rds of the way back. That indicates a lot of heat, which means the cylinder wasn't firing properly, and the combustion was happening out in the pipe and not in the chamber. It was ridden like that for a while to do that kind of, not really damage, but to leave those kinds of marks on the pipe. In any event, I hope to have the bike up and running by the weekend.

[Megadan]

The Rick's Motorsports stuff is expensive, but well worth the extra money. It is probably the best aftermarket charging system stuff on the market. I have used their reg recs on more than one bike, and I upgraded my stator on my GL1000 with one of their units after a different brand I used failed after about a year. 5 years of service before I sold it and not a single problem.

[ben2go]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

Thanks for the advice, Ben. I ordered a Caltric kit from Amazon. Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for the advice on the carb o-rings, too. I'm going to pull the carbs back out when the parts come in later today and do the valves while I have the rest of the bike apart. I thought it might be carbs to start with, so I cleaned them up first thing. When I didn't get any improvement, I consulted the interwebs and discovered the issue with the pickup coil. Apparently that's a really big failure point on these bikes. I think I may just order an extra side cover gasket and pickup coil to toss in the saddlebags, just in case I ever get stranded out on the road somewhere. Really looking the bike over carefully, it seems that this has been an ongoing problem for a while. The exhaust pipe for the rear cylinder is really heavily blued about 2/3'rds of the way back. That indicates a lot of heat, which means the cylinder wasn't firing properly, and the combustion was happening out in the pipe and not in the chamber. It was ridden like that for a while to do that kind of, not really damage, but to leave those kinds of marks on the pipe. In any event, I hope to have the bike up and running by the weekend.

Check the valves while you're at it. They can tighten up and cause bluing on the pipes. Also, the jetting could be off. If you need a shop manual, I have one in PDF format I could send you. PM me your email.