Trying to get it started...

Well, last update I was trying to get the bike started after it had been sitting in some dudes shed for over 4 years. After spending many hours reading up on some various trouble shooting techniques I started with the most obvious. I first flushed out the gas tank of any old gas and put some fresh stuff in. The old stuff was smelling rank. I cleaned the spark plugs and checked the gaps. I also cleaned out the air boxes, which were freakin disgusting and full of crap. They were also discoloured, ripped and full of holes. So much for making sure nothing gets through.

I checked all the fuses and found 2 that where blown, so I replaced those. I wanted to start with a known fully charged battery, so my friend Steve brought over a good car battery that we hooked right up to the bike. So with all that we gave it a try and guess what? It didn't start. So I decided to check all the wires and connections seeing as how the old owner said he thought it was a short or something. I checked most of the connections to make sure they were good and checked the wires for damage. I also cleaned out all the cobwebs, literally, i cleaned out the cobwebs.....
Well, after checking and cleaning most of the connections and inspecting the wires I found the two likely problems. The first was the front left turn signal that was broken and hanging down had some of the wires insulation broken and the bare wires where shorting out I think. I used some electrical tape to fix up the wires on that. The other problem appeared to be a wire I found that was partly stripped and had some duct tape on it like someone had tried to fix it before? I guess he was all out of electrical tape. It's the two blue wires coming down the side of the bike with duct tape on it and then going under the bike in this picture...

I wrote down the colours of the wires and visually followed it down under the bike to where it went, which appeared to be under the kick stand. I then did some quick interweb investigation. Turns out it was the kick stand safety switch and relay which prevents the bike from running, by disabling the starter and the TCI ignition system if the kick stand is not down, unless the clutch is pulled in, or something like that? I guess these kick stand switches, being under the bike for the last 26 years, get corroded and covered in grease and crap. It had a wire coming from the relay to the kickstand switch, and then a wire back up to the relay. I just cut them both and joined the two wires that were coming out of the relay and taped it up, therefore bypassing the kickstand switch. All these safety relays and crap will be coming off the bike down the road anyway. Well, after that we tried starting it, and the motor was turning over now but wouldn't start up. We kept trying and trying and after about 5 minutes it finally caught and it started! Ahhaaa, it ran pretty rough for a bit, but it was running and it was awesome! Later in the day I went and picked up a new battery, charged it up and threw it in. Then I drove it around the yard a bit and around the driveway. Thanks to my friend Steve who spent the day helping me trouble shoot and getting the bike started. Now that I know it runs it's time to start stripping it apart.