Proud Father

OK slightly misleading subject but i have just purchased a 75 MK3 commando with 800 mile on the clock. Currently sitting beside the T160 and i am thinking of moving into the garage . Cant wipe the smile off my face

Anyhow, a general question. How should you treat a bike that hasn't been run since 1976 in California. All fluids hve been changed and the original Avons will have to be replaced although they dont look too bad. Starts second kick but there is a fair amount of smoke which i am hoping is the oil put down the barrel during storage. Fingers crossed.

Left hand head pipe has no discoluration but the right is blue. right hand exhuast clamp only goes in about 3 threads and then no further so there is a problem there.

I plan to go through an intial running in period again to see how things go and pray that the internals are not as rusty as my typing.

Any thoughts ?

Scott

Hi Scott
I resurrected my '72 after sitting for 25 years. What I found was that nearly every piece of rubber on the entire bike required replacing, including the isolastics. The iso's were done in by the bike sitting on the centerstand for that long. Check the gap between the primary cover and the lefthand Z-plate, if it is running very close or rubbing (like mine was), the iso's will probably need replacement. That said, replace the obvious stuff and ride it for a bit, and see if anything else crops up.

Your smoking problem could be intake valve seals, which have dried out due to sitting. My uncle picked up a Mk 3 that sat for a while and we ended up putting valve seals in it. My '72's seals leak a bit, but it's only really noticeable when the bike has been idling for a while, sitting on the side stand. A friend of mine was actually able to change the valve seals without pulling the head. He pulled the rocker spindles and rockers, pressurized the cylinder with compressed air, and made a tool to compress the valve spring and pull the keepers.

It is adviseable to do a compression test and a cylinder leak down test to see if you can find the culprit.

Good luck,

Derek