1988 project

[TomcatMJ]

Perhaps the internel fuelfilter is clogged or wrong reassembled by the PO? Had the reassemblyproblem last year with my 3BF, but the funny thing was that it ran without big problems for around 2 years until suddenly there was no more fuel but a starving motor when driving more than 50 mph ...so i had to run 500 km(=around 330 miles) with only 30-40 mph homewards as my cashlevel was very low after a bikerforums-meeting where i had the problem on the backtour...no way for entering and paying a service garage at this time and no tools in the bag for fixing the problem on the way

[saftie]

About the internal fuel filter: that would cause the leak of the original pump you mean?
Where would I find it?

The new one should be fine.

[TomcatMJ]

no,thats doesn't cause the pump to leak but leads to harder pumping as teh fuel only drips through the fueltap / petcock and a a lack of fuel while running the motor...on my 3bf the filter sits straight in the petcock,filterside upwards in the fuel (and the previous owner of my 3bf remounted it upside down, closed side above the filter-canvas showing to the inside of the petcock instead of away from it, so that it was a wonder that any had passed it anyways through the petcock)...
I just will have to check if i've got somewhere a photo for comparision of right and wrong mounted petcock-fuelfilters (guess i have such a photo but don't actually remember where i've stored it..)

Edit:Found the pic
2016-09-01-836 by tomcatmj, auf Flickr
right hand the wrong assembled petcok,the right pipe was mounted upside down, the proper assemblage was done on the left hand petcock,where you can see the filter sitting on top of the plastictube and not inside the petcock as happened during the previous owners reassembling experiments to the right hand petcock...

[saftie]

Oh ok, that fuel filter. I thought inside the fuel pump. Nope, fuel is flowing fine all the way to pump. However, I only put very little in the tank and only tested while bike was upright on center stands. When trying to ride, it was on the side stand with tank petcock opposite. So very possible no fuel actually ran in that situation.

Well, I'm gonna get more fuel, fill the tank at least half and try again.

[saftie]

Thanks for the pic. But in that case, fuel would still run on reserve setting, no?
And my filter is a bit different. It's just one plastic piece instead of two individual parts. Pretty much bullet proof.

[TomcatMJ]

Additional in my case the reserve filter was also clogged so that wasn't a usable option. I thought the problem was somewhere else as both didn't work well until i arrived at home,checked everything and finally pulled out the petcock for inspection as everything else was working as expected (who, normally, thinks about misassembled petcocks while having such surprising upcoming obscure problems where everything seemed to work well up to the moment when suddenly the problems results take place to happen?)...

[saftie]

True. That's why I usually take an entire bike apart to be sure all is in check. I have strange things on used bikes in the past.

[saftie]

So...
Added more fuel to tank, put everything back together but bike still starves to death.
Next, I am going to hook up bike to external tank, run it and see if fuel pump pumps out fuel.
The pump relay is new, pump does prime with ignition on.
Either there is something wrong with pump after all or it doesn't get power when bike is running.

[saftie]

With bike running, pump is not pumping out fuel.
So it's either pump or power.
Starting to read up on how to check for power flow to pump now.
Once that's confirmed, this would only leave pump. And I'd rather have a faulty pump then a wiring issue.
Or maybe i just hook up original pump to check.

Keep you posted

[saftie]

Hooked up original pump and had it hanging outside the bike. It runs, I could clearly hear and feel it, but it doesn't pump either. My test setup was with a water bottle.
After, I hooked up that pump directly to a battery again and it didn't pump either. It ran but no pump. Hmm.
Could I have two broken pumps? Wouldn't be surprised because the aftermarket one was cheap.
Or I am just missing something simple here. Grrrr. A bit annoying.
Maybe I just bypass the pump all in all for now and just go straight to carbs using gravity.

[saftie]

Got my replacement pump today and works like a charm. Good deal for 30 bucks on ebay.
Tomorrow morning is the test ride. First time I am taking her out. I'm excited.....

[saftie]

Went for a ride in the freezing cold. Bike ran great. Idle is a bit high (easy fix), but no backfiring and a very responsive to throttle. Overall I'm very happy.
Looks like I finally got her to the point where I can ride her. Wiring needs a cleanup but that's later. First thing is to take her to shop for seat upholstery.

[TomcatMJ]

[saftie]

Still need to look into front brake switch.
If it ends up being an issue with the wire somewhere, I'll probably just hack it and run the two wires towards the end of the bike, near the rear brake switch. I know those wires are good because rear brake triggers the light.

[saftie]

Fixed the front brake light situation by running the two wires all the way to the back and splicing them into the harness near the rear brake switch. Front did not get any power. Not sure why. Something to investigate later. For now everything is working, that's what matters. Only thing left is to hook up computer.
For that, I need to run a speedo sensor wire and wires to the spark plug wires for rpm.