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Thanks for all your great advice Copemech! Today was the bikes happiest day and the worse for my knee! I oiled the air filter and then replaced exhaust O rings. I pulled the fuel mix out 3 turns as you described and the bike ran great with no backfiring. No excess of smoke either for once, almost invisible. This could have been the ideal setting but i'm scared of seizing the bugger so I went another half turn to the rich side which made things a little worse and visible smoke. However I have obviously put the carb back on at the wrong angle and couldn't lift the choke. It started anyway no problem first kick, and it is warm, but this may suggest it is too rich as it doesn't require choke!? The second time in as many days that the kickstart has kicked back. Hitting an already brusied knee at the exact same point on the handlebars hurt! I now have a purple knee New technique needed lol

Thanks, I tested the fan with a car battery and it worked! I then put it back together and the fan worked on the bike too! Must have been a dodgy connection. I haven't oiled the air filter yet and the exhaust is leaking where two of the parts meet. I'll try and sort these before adjusting the fuel screw. Would a blowing exhaust cause the backfiring?

Seen as the bike isn't worth a great deal I may have to find alternative solutions to the fan and regulator problem! If both are indeed buggered as I fear they are! Is there other options for a voltage regulator? A fan motor will be easy enough to find and aftermarket attach lol.

I'm guessing the voltage regulator is knack'd causing the motor to burn out. I'm sure I was reading 50v DC! That can't be that high can it? Bike not back firing as much as I thought really. After listening to a lot of bikes on youtube, they are often quite pop sounding anyway. It is a bit more severe on mine though!

Hey guys, I'm back on my week off again after 4 weeks straight! I have had time to play with my bike again this week! I took the entire engine apart and inspected and rebuilt. I replaced all the bearings as they were cheap, other than the mains which appeared to have been replaced as the seller advertised! No gaskets had been replaced by the last owner just blodged with silicon! Some washers were missing between gears in the transmission. My noise was the ratchet on the kick start not fully disengaging! A bit of spring bending and it now does. It seems the previous owner had removed the flywheel by hammer and chisel I used a cheap

I'm sure there is but I find the best way to learn how to do something is by doing it yourself! And learning from any mistakes/problems you encounter. I've never had to pay someone to do anything on any of my cars but it took time and energy to learn and as Cope says there is much more of a resource on the internet for cars. I will likely see what is wrong immedately but things like play in the bearings/piston is something you'll only know after having a few bikes, armed with a little starting knowledge helps me eliminate potential problems. As I am interested in learning about any bike I ride, this cheap one is my best bet. I'll get round all its little niggles eventually.

Yeah all new including drive gear. All check it all out. My noise could well be just the fact its all together wrong!

Thanks guys I will delve further this weekend. I bloody hope it isn't the water pump. I have just rebuilt that with all new parts and they ain't cheap!!

Oh and can anyone comment on the noise I hear every fly rotation. A very soft clunk or click at the same point of rotation each time. This is with the cylinder and piston off so nothing to do with them. Is this just the kickstart?

Thanks, No I didn't detect up and down movement just rotational, which is the bearing within the con rod rocking slightly. It is surprisingly still on piston A. The engine seems to have very good compression as it is hard to kick but starts first kick. I was assuming this meant the rings and piston were ok, hmm. I think I will proceed to open the job lot to be honest as the previous owner seems like a right cowboy and I'd like to know what else has been bodged. When I lifted the cylinder off the last owner hadn't bothered replacing the gasket, even worse hadn't bothered to scrape off what remained when he opened it! So it had about a 1/3 of a gasket on! I fear the same will have been done throughout! Darn though, I was hoping this would be just bearings! Pistons are getting a little expensive for an old bike!

Me again, Guys, I have removed the engine today and I am going to begin replacing parts of it within reason. Is there anything unusual I should expect? I guess my first question is how much play would you expect to find in certain parts. I removed the cylinder for today and grabbed the piston. On both the little end and big end of the conrod there is no noticeable upwards/downward play, I assume this is where it really matters. However if you grab the piston in your hand and rotate clockwise/anticlockwise there is a little play that way at both sides of the conrod. Also with the engine removed if I rotate the fly then you get a small clunk every turn. Is this normal? Something to do with the kick start mechanism? I'll be opening it fully next weekend but an idea of what should and shouldn't be would be good lol. The engine had a high pitched, every stroke, rattle before hand. It sounded a bit like a bee or something like that!!

Thanks again, I am sure the backfiring has come from the fact I have a new plug in. The old plugs gap was 0.8mm and I have changed it to 0.5mm. I will need to adjust the timing and tinker with the mixture screw. I have since decided I may as well go the whole hog! I am going to strip the rest down too, whip the engine out and replace all bearings and such. I am interested to see how it all works/goes together and I don't have all the helmet/transport yet to ride it anyhow! I'm back to work Monday though for 4 (hour intense) weeks before my week off again! I'll keep you posted and again thanks for always responding so fast and helping the newbie I'll return the favour to others before long!!

I budgeted for

Should be a budget for a decent bike that mate. Best posting a seperate thread asking those questions. A which model would you get one! You will of course get biased views from everyone! Just take note of the bike they ride when they suggest one My Sherco isn't good lol. But I knew that when I got it, it needs more work than I first guessed but I am happy to do it! It looks fairly new and will feel new when I get the time to finish rebuilding it! You could have good and bad luck with any bike I guess. Best to go ride a few ideally mate and see which feels/looks good to you. A decent trade place should let you have a bash. Just learn to ride one before you buy. Any places you can hire and ride near you? There is a place called Bumpy near me, I used to live on the same road. I now live only 15 mins away. They let you have a go for

Hi mate, See here for a guide. Waynes Corner I believe you should put less oil in when you are just changing as you never get the full amount out, where as rebuilding them they will be dry.

Right I have made progress today but still the project will continue! The water pump shaft replacement has fixed the leak into the tranny. However I then put it together and tried to fire her up for the first time since I took it! Unfortunately it wouldn't start and instead brought water from the radiator into the cylinder and finally out of the exhaust! Next job was O ring on the cylinder head! That has fixed the water leak problem entirely! Now the bike is starting first kick, pretty easily. I have quite a bit of backfire type popping noises, every second or so. Seems to be running a little rough and a bee like shake/rattle sound for the engine. I would like to sort the rough running but don't know whether to cope with the rattle for the time being or investigate. The bike was actually advertised with the rattle so he was honest with one part at least! He thought it was the little end but I wouldn't know. Seems to ride fine now apart from vibration probably from the aggressive exhaust popping! I'm enjoying my project though and getting there slowly!

Thanks, I think I have covered most of the list by now! But I think I am done for spending on it for one month! I'll be murdered by the other half if I spend much more lol. It almost seems like a full time job when you list it like that

I'm sure you will be more than happy with it! I wouldn't have dared spend so much on my first as my skills will mean me dropping it a lot! I am having a few issues with mine but hope to have my first ride tomorrow. I tried to keep my brand options open so I had more choice!

Hey Andy, Yeah the seller knew about these problems I'm sure and likely why it was sold. However I am still happy as the job was simple enough and can happen to, and will, to any bike you get at some point. I opened her up today and the shaft and associated gear had a decent amount of play and felt loose to turn. I got all the parts today and I have put it back together. It feels a lot different when you rotate the water pump now. A little more difficult to turn and much more solid. The old shaft had several gouges too, although the actual seal didn't look so bad! I am still needing to replace fork oil and bleed all hydraulics. I'll then spend a bit of time actually on it tomorrow! Albeit just in the garden, more than likely finding new problems! Thanks 1oldbanjo, it does make sense yeah. But I was just sure something was up with this as the seller replaced it with an older GasGas of similiar value. And I thought any new parts won't hurt anything but the bank balance! To be honest I enjoy tinkering with it, much better than cars as they are so light!

Cheers Tony, Nobody seems to think it could be anything but this, which is good! Yeah I'm having quite a fight with the bolt! I thought it was the drain one but it isn't, its the lower securing one and its on stupidly tight and rounded. I have tried the slot approach and got a good bit of force on it but still it didn't budge! I may try filing some flats on it and try a spanner and then i'll drill if that doesn't work! Bloody thing!

Thanks guys. Its a choice of running it as the test and just opening her up! I was going to look at the impeller yesterday but the coolant drain plug is rounded! I will have to angle grind a slot into it to get it out! I have emailed MRS anyway and will prob buy it all if not too steep and do it anyway! It can't hurt. I will be running out of time before back to work but I will keep you guys posted, thanks very much for your help

A valid point. However the seller claims to have had the main bearings changed 2 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure the seller is less than fully honest but whether he has or not who knows. It is without doubt my first port of call. I just wondered if any internal engine problems could be to blame! I just need to source the parts, ideally locally, but hopefully fairly cheap! Worth doing if its the problem or not anyway I guess. Many thanks Shercoman for your help thus far

Cheers mate, I will replace the shaft, seal and bearings if I find a decent place to get them. I just wondered if there was any other cause for it!? Just seems a bit severe but like I said I have no experience with bikes lol.

The picture! It just looks like sludge! I've never pulled out anyhting like it in a car! Seems quite major for a small seal leak

Thanks for the speedy response. It is milky! I never understand the term when I read other posts. It is milky in texture but dark grey in colour. It no longer looks like oil! More like a tin of grey emulsion paint. Hmmmm, I don't think its right. I'll get a picture of it, give me 10 mins!! Is there more serious problems it could be with this amount of coolant missing? No visible leaks. Pictures to follow