Dusty.B
Member
So I picked up an 05 ridgeback on eBay about a month ago now, it wasn’t running and it was missing quite a few parts, not to mention the bike was absolutely filthy and FULL of clay and dirt in EVERY crack and crevice. But it still had avon venom tires that looked brand new, and still had the ehc but it was unknown if any of the electronics worked, so I was hoping the bike had low miles and was just needing a new home/ owner to care for her, & I won the bid for 4500 as is just like it sat, & when I picked it up I learned that, the last owner bought it new, in his wife’s name, and then eventually times got rough, they split up, and the bike got repoed from the ex wife’s garage, with the bike taken apart for some sort of repair or upgrade, and all the parts for it were left behind except for the primary cover that was sitting next to the bike when it was repoed. Fast forward to now, so I get it like this, with a clean title, and start the process of restoring and scavenging parts to get it running and back to her former glory. Now I didn’t know at the time and no one mentioned this when I picked it up but it clearly sat outside UNCOVERED with the primary cover off, and the seat off, and collected an ass load of dirt every time it rained to the point that all the primary bolt holes were packed with dirt and the rain had splashed dirt into the entire primary assembly, chain, and clutch for who knows how long. Someone obviously gave it a good bath and washed the surface crud off and then sold it as is
This is the day I picked it up, it doesn’t look too bad from far away but gets worse as you get closer!
After washing it and cleaning the spider webs, dead roaches, bugs, oak tree leaves, Clay, dirt, muck, and everything else off the bike I made a list of what I knew was missing: the coil cover, coil, plug wires, key switch, backbone harness connector that goes from the coil and keys to the backbone, battery, air cleaner cover, filter, air cleaner backing plate, fuel line, fuel petcock, gas tank grommets and bolts, that was basically it for missing parts, after my first post looking for parts I was able to source a decent coil cover, and key switch from @MossBerg590 Thank you! It’s going to work for now, and I sourced a coil bracket mount from @SKOGDOG Thank you! I still haven’t put it on but it looks perfect,
I made my own tank grommets out of rubber bushings for an a/c compressor and some washers/bolts. It not the prettiest but cost me a big fat goose egg so I can’t complain. There like $35 each otherwise.
After getting the tank cleaned, putting an old pingel petcock on, fuel line down to the carb, I found my old breather and backing plate so I put that on, got the carb bowl dropped, it was filthy and full of varnish and buildup, I ended up completely cleaning the carb and jets and putting it back together, I got rid of the jst connector that connects the coil and key wires to the backbone harness and just hard wired and shrink wrapped it, I wired up the coil and key switch, put that back on, filled it with gas, perfect. Now moving on, I got a new battery and put that bad boy in, triple checked and made sure I had all the wires going to the correct batt. Terminal. Turned the key over and voila, everything lit up like it was brand new,well almost new, the headlight, speedo, one taillight, one front signal, the ehc had lights, I pressed the run button, the thunder heart lit up as well as the ehc again, so I knew everything was working. Turn the key back off, now I take the oil filter off, change the old oil, it was still clean and smelled new surprisingly, no metal bits or shavings. And now I’m done with the oil, then I put the primary cover on after cleaning the mess left behind, fill that up, made sure my clutch plates were nice and wet and the clutch was working properly, everything is good to go for now, the primary is a mess and needs to be replaced with my spare one from when I put the open belt on my first ridgeback, but for now this will do, time to start the bike finally!! The bike started on the first try basically, i made a video, it starts but runs a little rough like one cylinder is misfiring, I adjusted the idle a little bit to try and get it to idle and not shut off. Now let’s see if I can attach this YouTube vid, ok in the video this is the first start, right away I noticed one cylinder is misfiring and I start messing with the wires and coil thinking it was a connection issue. Lmao please excuse my dad he’s very excited to hear that motor for up! I do know it’s charging at least since I tested with my bolt meter and got 14 bolts on rev. Now I’ve done all kinds of shit to try and fix this misfire issue and I came across this post and I’ve literally gone through allll of this stuff already and he was having the same issue I am. I’ve checked the push rod adjustemt, tried different coils, wires, plugs, everything, I’m stuck right now.
http://www.bigdogbiker.com/threads/rear-cylinder-not-cooperating.47014/
2/24 Update: yesterday The tank got pulled off and did a continuity test on all the ignition and coil wires to try and find a short somewhere. No luck of course, my next course of action is to swap the thunder heart, crank sensor, and coil setup from my other ridgeback and see if it changes the misfiring issue any, I’m running out of issues to troubleshoot. I still need to check compression and leak down on the rear cylinder which will be next if the ignition swap doesn’t help, I just don’t feel like it’s a cylinder issue as the bike runs, feels and sounds perfect when you ride it and shift through gears, it backfired while decelerating but these shorty pipes with no baffle will cause that so idk, it just doesn’t want to idle because it’s missing and the rear cylinder doesn’t fire half the time when it’s at idle. I will try and get a video tonight after work of the way it sounds.
I’m working on making the rest of this post right now as I’m stuck and need some advice, hang with me guys
This is the day I picked it up, it doesn’t look too bad from far away but gets worse as you get closer!
After washing it and cleaning the spider webs, dead roaches, bugs, oak tree leaves, Clay, dirt, muck, and everything else off the bike I made a list of what I knew was missing: the coil cover, coil, plug wires, key switch, backbone harness connector that goes from the coil and keys to the backbone, battery, air cleaner cover, filter, air cleaner backing plate, fuel line, fuel petcock, gas tank grommets and bolts, that was basically it for missing parts, after my first post looking for parts I was able to source a decent coil cover, and key switch from @MossBerg590 Thank you! It’s going to work for now, and I sourced a coil bracket mount from @SKOGDOG Thank you! I still haven’t put it on but it looks perfect,
I made my own tank grommets out of rubber bushings for an a/c compressor and some washers/bolts. It not the prettiest but cost me a big fat goose egg so I can’t complain. There like $35 each otherwise.
After getting the tank cleaned, putting an old pingel petcock on, fuel line down to the carb, I found my old breather and backing plate so I put that on, got the carb bowl dropped, it was filthy and full of varnish and buildup, I ended up completely cleaning the carb and jets and putting it back together, I got rid of the jst connector that connects the coil and key wires to the backbone harness and just hard wired and shrink wrapped it, I wired up the coil and key switch, put that back on, filled it with gas, perfect. Now moving on, I got a new battery and put that bad boy in, triple checked and made sure I had all the wires going to the correct batt. Terminal. Turned the key over and voila, everything lit up like it was brand new,well almost new, the headlight, speedo, one taillight, one front signal, the ehc had lights, I pressed the run button, the thunder heart lit up as well as the ehc again, so I knew everything was working. Turn the key back off, now I take the oil filter off, change the old oil, it was still clean and smelled new surprisingly, no metal bits or shavings. And now I’m done with the oil, then I put the primary cover on after cleaning the mess left behind, fill that up, made sure my clutch plates were nice and wet and the clutch was working properly, everything is good to go for now, the primary is a mess and needs to be replaced with my spare one from when I put the open belt on my first ridgeback, but for now this will do, time to start the bike finally!! The bike started on the first try basically, i made a video, it starts but runs a little rough like one cylinder is misfiring, I adjusted the idle a little bit to try and get it to idle and not shut off. Now let’s see if I can attach this YouTube vid, ok in the video this is the first start, right away I noticed one cylinder is misfiring and I start messing with the wires and coil thinking it was a connection issue. Lmao please excuse my dad he’s very excited to hear that motor for up! I do know it’s charging at least since I tested with my bolt meter and got 14 bolts on rev. Now I’ve done all kinds of shit to try and fix this misfire issue and I came across this post and I’ve literally gone through allll of this stuff already and he was having the same issue I am. I’ve checked the push rod adjustemt, tried different coils, wires, plugs, everything, I’m stuck right now.
http://www.bigdogbiker.com/threads/rear-cylinder-not-cooperating.47014/
2/24 Update: yesterday The tank got pulled off and did a continuity test on all the ignition and coil wires to try and find a short somewhere. No luck of course, my next course of action is to swap the thunder heart, crank sensor, and coil setup from my other ridgeback and see if it changes the misfiring issue any, I’m running out of issues to troubleshoot. I still need to check compression and leak down on the rear cylinder which will be next if the ignition swap doesn’t help, I just don’t feel like it’s a cylinder issue as the bike runs, feels and sounds perfect when you ride it and shift through gears, it backfired while decelerating but these shorty pipes with no baffle will cause that so idk, it just doesn’t want to idle because it’s missing and the rear cylinder doesn’t fire half the time when it’s at idle. I will try and get a video tonight after work of the way it sounds.
I’m working on making the rest of this post right now as I’m stuck and need some advice, hang with me guys
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