Help, restoring a bike

So what went wrong when you tried to clean/rebuild your carbs? I'm not familiar with a SV650 but I've clean carbs on several bikes and it's not that involved or difficult. Lot of videos on youtube on how to clean carbs, likely some on doing it on your specific motorbike. It's hard to offer advice because you haven't said what is wrong. Did you clean the carbs and the bike still doesn't run? Did you have trouble removing the carbs off the bike? What's the issue?

Do you have service manual for your bike? If you don't, that would be a good first step.

Gearbox Paul said:

So what went wrong when you tried to clean/rebuild your carbs? I'm not familiar with a SV650 but I've clean carbs on several bikes and it's not that involved or difficult. Lot of videos on youtube on how to clean carbs, likely some on doing it on your specific motorbike. It's hard to offer advice because you haven't said what is wrong. Did you clean the carbs and the bike still doesn't run? Did you have trouble removing the carbs off the bike? What's the issue?

Do you have service manual for your bike? If you don't, that would be a good first step.

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Great questions. I cleaned the carbs (ultrasonic bath) and made sure all the orifices are clean by confirming that carb cleaner comes through pretty well. I reassembled everything yesterday and tried to fire it up and it won't. When I did it last year, it would fire up with the starting fluid at least -- although it wouldn't run without the starter fluid. I pulled one of the plugs and the spark is not great, so I'll replace that.

I do have the service manual and I've been following that and the multitude of YouTube videos. Looking to get a second pair of eyes on this.. I'm wondering if Im missing something obvious.

OK. So when is the last time the bike ran properly? And what was done to it since that time? Did the bike just sit around with old fuel for months/years?

Gearbox Paul said:

OK. So when is the last time the bike ran properly? And what was done to it since that time? Did the bike just sit around with old fuel for months/years?

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I believe the bike ran properly pre-covid. I changed the oil, cleaned the carbs, and by passed the fuel tank 'cause I believe it's full of rust/gummed up old gas.

At the risk of stating to obvious, you have fueling problem. The fuel tank needs to be completely flushed, the fuel filter cleaned, petcock as well. What doesn't add up is that the bike should fire up by spraying starter fluid (assuming you aren't flooding it out when you do this). Are you sure you have spark? Could be as simple as side stand switch failure so something that kills the ignition.

Gearbox Paul said:

At the risk of stating to obvious, you have fueling problem. The fuel tank needs to be completely flushed, the fuel filter cleaned, petcock as well. What doesn't add up is that the bike should fire up by spraying starter fluid (assuming you aren't flooding it out when you do this). Are you sure you have spark? Could be as simple as side stand switch failure so something that kills the ignition.

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All perfectly reasonable questions.

I'm bypassing the fuel tank/fuel valve -- I've got a gravity fed aux tank, so it's possible that I'm flooding the engine. Though I thought the floats are supposed to take care of that.

I confirmed that the spark plug fires but it was incosistent and kinda weak. So I'm going to replace it. The starter fluid was on it's last legs as well so it wasn't spraying that well either.

jibeta281 said:

There is a difference between vintage and old. That bike is just old. That doesn't mean you can't turn it into a nice daily rider, it's just that it won't be worth the trouble to try to chase down original parts. Try not to spend more than $150-200 total on the project, excluding tires.

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It all depends on what the OP paid for the bike. If he paid very little for it, then it's perfectly justified to spend money to bring it back to life. I just purchased a 1998 GSXR 750 that is not running and needs work. I'll spend $500 on the bike, maybe more, and (hopefully) get it running and safe. If so, that GSXR will be worth about $3500. A properly running 2001 SV 650 should be worth about the same. And it will likely need more than $150-200 to get it running properly and all issues fixed - which is perfectly fine.