Hey guys. Been a while. A lot has happened since...
After a difficult time starting on a particularly cold morning, got it going but noticed the gargling backfire was worse than usual. Cranked up the choke. After a few hundred metres, pulling up to a traffic light, noticed the revs dropping and the gargling g continued. Upped the choke. On the dual carriage, plodding at about 70 to warm it up. Traffic ahead, rolling off the throttle and when at about 2-3k revs, it shuts down completely. Would not start up again while still coasting. So I coast off the side off the curb (lucky was by a stretch of curb with a parallel road rather than just a wall). Trying to start with no such luck. This time not even a hiss, click, fizz, bang, crackle or pop...nada. Other electrics showing signs of life though with the lights, hi beams, indicators, horn as well I think. Just no ignition. Left it there and took the bus to work. Friend picked it up with his van in the eve. By the tine get to mine, van stank of petrol. Could see petrol on the right side of the engine, looks line came form front carb.
Figured it was a blocked carb so I stripped them off the bike and cleaned them myself, getting all the jets, float needle and seats etc...the whole shebang. Also, as someone had suggested, took off the starter motor and replaced the brushes. When the weather picked up, got to work...connected the carbs back up, checked and lubed the throttle and choke cables as you guys suggested, inspected the electrics as much as was easily accessible, reinstated the starter motor, charged the battery. Started right away. But then it didn’t, so replaced the starter solenoid, same story. Then done what I should have checked first, the clutch starter switch, cleaned it and that seemed to have done the trick. Started perfectly and ran flawlessly...no leaks. Gave it a thorough clean, cleaned and lubed the chain, changed the oil. Next day was ecstatic to be riding to work again.
In the morning had a tiny hitch when starting but nothing major and started pretty much right away. Got to work. 8 hours later thought, the difficult starting began again. A minute of struggling, got it going. Next morning much worse. Took 5 minutes to get it turning over (see vids at below link). Basically same problem began. Oh and some petrol and oil comes out of then left side hole in the engine (rear plug drain hole??) when starting only. Got worse after work. The following night I decided to take off the battery to charge it in case the problem was with the rectifier (nope. Battery was fully charged). There was a strong smell of petrol and having a look (the first two vids at the link) I could see the petrol stains on the left side of the engine and some deeper inside.
So basically am now even more lost than ever. The difficulty starting seems to be inherently linked to the petrol leak. But why it started leaking again is beyond me. Only took two trips for it to come back. What could it be??
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0BJ0DiRHGNU4RA (the videos are in reverse chronological order)
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