Thank you as usual everyone.
Looks good to me
Color wise ..but one can see on the part outside that they have been sitting there for a while
And since spark plugs are cheap ( Where I but them ) 4 or 5 $ a piece and part of normal every year ( more or less ) pre season service.
I would replace those.
If I remember it correctly the procedure the experts use checking plugs is a little higher revving engine warm.
Shutting it off clutch in and let it roll to stop and then watch the plugs
Never done it myself. Need gloves and tools out on the road. More needed i suppose on more sensitive engines after tuning and re Jetting.
The carburetor are now not getting stuck and what i meant with getting a few miles on it ( besides the more important things mentioned before re -tightening and clean the tank.)
The need for tank cleaning perhaps now is over since you ride and things are getting better
Perhaps the previous owner have info . But it is a risk. Have you looked into the tank with a flashlight ?
Hey Jen, yeah, I bought new plugs the other day just to have on hand and since I figured there were going to be old. I checked in the tank with a light before I ran it or bought it; didn't see any rust. He didn't get rid of the gas that was in there though; he said it smelled fine and then added more. If I find time, I'm thinking I'm going to empty and remove gas tank and put in fresh just in case and i need to remove it to get to some other stuff anyway.
Is there a specific way to check for rust once it's empty except just poking in with a light the same way? Saw a touch of surface rust inside the cap-- I read apple cider vinegar can be good for rust?
@Raymond Agreed on the order of attention, except unfortunately the the idle is still sassy and I feel like I should address that first. I took it out today again for about 10min and started out fine--except it really didn't want full choke at any point, I can only go halfway otherwise the RPM shoots right up, and then I back off the choke as it warms/as RPMs go up until I'm at 1.2 no choke. Interestingly though, when I took it out today, and it got stuck around 2.5k-3RPM, if I slowly opened the clutch and feathered it a bit in the friction zone, no throttle, the RPM would drop back down as the gear engages--and I could pull clutch back in completely and it'd stay low. Ride to next stop sign, it'd be stuck up there again by then. Same trick would drop it back down.
Anyhow, overall, where I"m at right now is trying to learn as much as I can about carbs so I can address the idle issue properly.
Tried to pull the LH cover yesterday (figured I'd poke in there while waiting on solvent), but it looks like the tool I have doesn't work for it though it seems to fit nothing moves--someone said I need to get metric Allen key instead of inch one. Doing that tomorrow.
After or while I'm moving towards the idle issue solution I'm going to clean the engine and find the leak, retorque head bolts, and work through routine maintenance and start ordering things I know I need--like new tires--at which point I'll be starting a much more excited build/rebuild thread, and then we can talk about other fun things
Oh, pulled the air filter out yesterday too. Sponge is all yellowed, and rubber seal looks pretty worn--I'll post a pic tomorrow. I was going to clean with compressed air, but alas, I don't' have any at the moment.