Run Ivy Run: She's Alive!!!

Got the barn find S90 on June 17, 2011.  It's been 2050 days since then!!

And the bottom end and exhaust run for the very first time in maybe 20 years or more!

Hit the garage early with just a few minor odd jobs to finish:

• Set the battery to charge
• Set the air and throttle screw to starting positions
• Added a fuel line for the carb overflow
• Setup the oil pan and cardboard mats
• Added oil
• Duct taped the carb to the air filter

Everything went smoothly until it came time to hook up the battery.  I realized that I'd only ever hooked the battery up to the bike directly; I'd never done it using the switch.  Went round in circles a bit until I realized that I just had to do it exactly as I'd always done it on Astrid (and as the wires were labeled).

• connect battery negative directly to the frame
• connect the switch negative directly to the frame
• connect the switch positive directly to the battery positive
• connect the coil to the "red/blue" switch wire

Then... first couple kicks, nothing.  As expected.  But third kick - she coughs!  Wow.  Had to pause even for that.

But then subsequent kicks, nothing, nothing, nothing.  Totally dry.

On a whim, opened the choke back up.  Contact!!  She fires up.

So she must be running very rich, then.  It was cold, too - 50 degrees or so, and she still didn't like the choke.

After that, I spent the next hour playing with air and throttle screw settings as she was having trouble holding idle.  By the end she was holding a "gritty" idle with these screw settings:

• air = 2 1/4 
• throttle = 3 1/2

There was a point where she just wouldn't hold idle anymore no matter what I did with the screws.  The battery was down to 6.0 volts.  So I recharged it back to 6.3 and then she was able to run again.

She started easily with just a bit of throttle open, but that's exactly as expected given it's Astrid's old head.  If the issues are all carb related, I wonder if I should give the aftermarket carb another try now that I have the angled K&N filter which should be able to clear the frame.  That carb still puts the fuel line on the wrong side, though.

Also, did get a few oil leaks from the top end, though I guess that's also expected from when it ran on Astrid.  But nothing from the bottom end, which is good news.


Oil Notes:

• started adding 150mL at a time
• at 450mL, the dipstick was reading full (this was on a cold engine before it ever ran)
• after running, dipstick showed empty
• added another 150mL to bring it up to 600mL total
• will need to recheck frequently and also do an oil change soon