MGB GT fettling

[AMCrebel]

My last bike (in the early 80s!) was a Benelli 250 2c. It was about the size of a Jap 125, but went well and handled well. It had a direct headlight though so was useless in the dark and most of the lighting only worked when it felt like it. I loved it but knew I'd be dead if I kept on so sold it and bought my first car - a MK1 Escort Van.

[Scruffy Bodger]

My last bike (in the early 80s!) was a Benelli 250 2c. It was about the size of a Jap 125, but went well and handled well. It had a direct headlight though so was useless in the dark and most of the lighting only worked when it felt like it. I loved it but knew I'd be dead if I kept on so sold it and bought my first car - a MK1 Escort Van.

That's a great upgrade as far as I'm concerned. I learnt to drive in a Mk2 when I was 11, great fun sideways on a field

Duff lights and motorbikes don't sound like the best of recipes?

Hopefully this one is going at the weekend. Let's see what the SR125 he's bringing next is like. First thing I'm doing this time is buying a new plug for it. All these old bikes I've been messing with have fucked me about in one way or another due to the plugs working but not being quite right.

[Warren t claim]

I had an aprilia rs125 when I did my cbt. That did over a ton easily. Bastard got nicked when I was on holiday.

In my bike instructor days I had to collect an Aprilia RS50 from a dealers for the lad to use for his CBT on his 16th birthday. As the thing happily romped up to over 60mph even with my lardy arse on board I insisted that he did the road element of his CBT on one of our scooters.

[Scruffy Bodger]

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Another scruffy old bike... Clutch cable totally seized, no lights, ignition or horn, starter button doesnt work. 20 mins to get the fuel cap open without snapping the key off in it and an electric drill needed to get at the air filter FFS. Dregs of stained fuel in the bottom of the tank and nothing draining out the carb even with the fuel drain fully removed.

Off to a great start

[Scruffy Bodger]

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This is a new one on me. A clump is stuff in the carb. It feels sandy between your fingers. It comes off with a brush ok. Some sort of crystals from the fuel sitting or evaporating? I'm not holding out much hope on this one. The carb could probably do with an ultra sonic bath? Not got access to one.

There can't be much value in this bike so I don't want to put too much time into it.

[DodgeRover]

That should come clean enough to run, you could always try burning the crud off with a blow lamp as long as the passageways are clear it doesn't matter to much what it looks like.
Very very gently prod through the jets with tip cleaners that you would use for oxy acetylene or the tine from a wire brush.
With a test on it that's probably going to be £500 I would guestimate.

[Scruffy Bodger]

At mine at the mo so no access to gas etc on a bank holiday weekend.

Clutch is now free.
Lights and horn working. Found a blown fuse and a liberal dosing of contact cleaner on the switches and loads of wiggling got most of them working. The electric start button was a bit more stubborn, took it off, gave it a proper dose of cleaner and a poke and it now works.
We now have spark but will get a new plug before messing about more. The last 3 bikes I've played with the plugs have fucked me around and wasted my time, not up for that again.

I've had it firing on spray into the carb now the starter works off the button. The main trouble is the starter seems to be giving up the ghost? The bike battery was fucked so I've been using the V50 one on jump leads. After a couple of seconds it sounds like it's going tight. Rocking the bike back and forth in gear and the piston appears to be moving freely tho. It's a side casing off job by the looks of it to get at the starter so it may be a bump start job to start and sell? I've bypassed the solenoid and it still sounds the same.

The lad who owns it just wanted to get it running to sell. It's missing a front calliper, tanks dented, seats ripped, back brake is seized but it has got less than 16K miles on it.

[Hooli]

'52 plate is still new in my head, how can it be so battered?

The spare AJS engine I got last year for putting in that lass' bike I fixed had the carbs entirely full of fluffy white crystals that felt a bit like sugar/sand. No idea what it was, I just used the carbs off the old engine that didn't have it in them.

You have reminded me though, I've got the old engine in my garage to sell. I must get it advertised.

[Scruffy Bodger]

It's only nearly 20 years old lol I don't know its history but it's obviously been dumped outside for an extended length of time.

The sugar/sand stuff sounds just the same, I've got most of it out but I'm sure something of that ilk and tiny jets won't be a good mix.

It looks like the Varta battery is a dead duck. One cell was much drier than the rest and is is very visibly sulphated I've tried thumping it on the concrete repeatedly, charging, shorting it reverse polarity etc It's showing more signs of life than it did but not holding any proper amps. I was meant to be getting an Absaar charger with desulpahation facility as part of the deal but it seems to be lost in the APC parcel system somewhere.

[Scruffy Bodger]

I got this started and running just off the key, the starter seems to be improved after hitting it a lot? There's a short somewhere near the headlight causing the fuse to blow randomly, that took me a bit to find earlier.

It's still not sucking fuel thru the carb yet tho, I've only got it running off spray but it sounds sweet enough when running and revving on that. The new plug definitely seems to have helped things but it looks like a trip to the Blacksmiths is in order to shove 90psi up its orifices.