Bike won't start! The cheap and easy fix (VIDEO)

[WingAdmin]

I made this video because this is one of those questions that keeps coming up in the forums over and over again, year after year:



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[DarthJ]

Been meaning to ask, do you just put the seafoam in or do you need to drain a little oil to make room? (Yes, you convinced me to de-sludge my 93)

[mnmailman]

Good video. Fwiw, another very common problem on this topic is worn brushes. If I had a dime for every person who said their starter was shot, bike wouldn't start, etc., and only needed new brushes.......I'd have a lot of dimes.

[Wingsconsin]

Should one worry about UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES ...
By this I mean that as I understand some of these older Wings that very sludge you are speaking about;
---- Is ALSO keeping a leak from happening (or at lest showing up)
I experienced this on my 1985 GL1200 Aspencade-
It had a problem in the oiler cup due to sludge buildup -
The SEAFOAM trick did the trick -- somewhat - I still had to open the valve cover and manually clear the sludge buildup from the squirt hole (a GL1200 thing)
BUT after I did this I had a couple of small leaks show up that had not been there (or shown themselves) before -
I compounded this problem by switching to fully synthetic oil which had better flow properties*
A few new gaskets did the trick and solved the issue -

It DID work and the engine was cleaner in my opinion -- But opinions vary

Just a contrarian view - or perhaps another thing to consider ?




*"At both low and high temperatures, synthetic oils enjoy better viscosity and stability than conventional oil or synthetic blends. ...
As more cars are built with smaller engines and turbochargers, synthetic oils flow quicker to critical parts, creating the proper lubrication your engine needs"
-->> https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a ... ne%20needs.

[maniscar]

Thanks for the video. Just curious, would this apply to the new DCT Gold Wings too? If yes, at what mileage would you suggest?

Thanks again!

Rich

[Dubdenny]

All I want to know is where I can get one of those "adjustable wrench parts diagram" T-shirts!

[FM-USA]

I didn't know that Naptha was SeaFoam's main ingredient.
Now I know why dad had a couple gallons of it in the garage. All I ever seen him use it for was stain removal in cloth and oil based paint thinner.

.

.

[WingAdmin]

All I want to know is where I can get one of those "adjustable wrench parts diagram" T-shirts!

Ask and ye shall....

https://www.amazon.com/Crescent-Adjusta ... ref=sr_1_1

[CrazyCatman]

I am one of those with this problem (came after this winter):
Wednesday last week I took the bike for a spin after work: no issues at all.
Thursday morning I couldn't start the bike so took the Yaris to work instead.
One afternoon after work (Friday or sometime this week, I don't remember) it fires up well: so there is definitely some gunk there which gets thicker when it is cold. And both yesterday and today I have been riding so so far it's only periodic

We don't have Seafoam here, so I need to find an alternative, and we have some options for "Cleaning oil"s, "Flushing oil"s and "motor cleaner" (not to be confused with the spray to release gunk on the engine while washing down the car/bike) - but none really available off the shelf it seems (other than in 5 liter jugs) and I read about someone using diesel in the oil to clean it:
Around 2/3 of the oil capacity: let it run for a while and drain... The running time seems to differ: one say 10 minutes and some say 30 seconds maximum.

Anyone who have experience with the diesel flush? Go/no-go?
Those "reviews" I read seem to have good experience work both car and bike engines (one talked about karosine).

I've got a K&N oil filter and some Castrol 20W50 (although I should probably use 10w40 up here - picked the wrong one by accident) ready and waiting but really want the gunk out! (And really don't feel like having to remove and clean the starter if the cleaning agent is enough!)

[DenverWinger]

If you've ever gotten Automatic Transmission fluid on your hands when your paws were all greasy and gunky from working on a car you'll notice the ATF is almost as good as hand cleaner in cutting thru the gunk.

Try draining a couple liters of oil and replace with ATF. ATF is a 15w lubricant with excellent cleaning properties. Maybe even overfill the crankcase by a liter. Drive around an EASY 150 Kms and see what that does to un-gunk your starter clutch.

If you overfill the crankcase expect it to smoke some out the exhaust, and maybe spit some oil out of unexpected places, but that won't hurt anything. And overfilling is likely to help getting more oil into the starter clutch area which is usually oil-starved.

[Wingsconsin]

BEWARE - I will repost this here ---
Frequent Oil changes are a really good option -

Should one worry about UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES ... ????
By this I mean that as I understand some of these older Wings that very sludge you are speaking about;
---- Is ALSO keeping a leak from happening (or at least showing up)

I experienced this on my 1985 GL1200 Aspencade-
It had a problem in the oiler cup due to sludge buildup -
The SEAFOAM trick did the trick -- somewhat - I still had to open the valve cover and manually clear the sludge buildup from the squirt hole (a GL1200 thing)
BUT after I did this I had a couple of small leaks show up that had not been there (or shown themselves) before -
I compounded this problem by switching to fully synthetic oil which had better flow properties*
A few new gaskets did the trick and solved the issue -

It DID work and the engine was cleaner in my opinion -- But opinions vary

Just a contrarian view - or perhaps another thing to consider ?




*"At both low and high temperatures, synthetic oils enjoy better viscosity and stability than conventional oil or synthetic blends. ...
As more cars are built with smaller engines and turbochargers, synthetic oils flow quicker to critical parts, creating the proper lubrication your engine needs"
-->> https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a ... ne%20needs.