help with a 2000 sv650s sitting for 6 years | GTAMotorcycle.com

help with a 2000 sv650s sitting for 6 years

Domon

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Hey guys, I friend of mine that moved to Vancouver gave me his old 2000 sv650s that has been sitting for 6 years. I haven't tried to start it and it was working just fine when put away. The bike wasn't treated with any additives for such a long storage period. Any suggestions on what i need to do to maybe start the bike without crapping out the motor.
 
Stored indoors or outdoors, heated or full of condensation?
Anything with carburetors, those will absolutely need to be serviced, the good news is that if the rubber bits are not rotted, then all of the problems will be in the bottom half of the carburetor. Undoubtedly you will be looking at a new battery and your tires will be slippery like rock even if they appear to have lots of tread. Forks will absolutely need a complete dismantle and service, nobody services those enough. Any rust inside the fuel tank, did it have an inline fuel filter, you are going to want to add one either way.
...pictures? maybe we can spot more problem areas.
 
I'll post pics soon. it was stored inside 3 years and outside under a carpark the other 3. Tires, forks and rear shock I'm going to change. I haven't looked inside gas tank yet. Would the engine be seized you guys think?
 
I'll post pics soon. it was stored inside 3 years and outside under a carpark the other 3. Tires, forks and rear shock I'm going to change. I haven't looked inside gas tank yet. Would the engine be seized you guys think?

I'm certainly not the resident expert but until they chime in... I don't believe there is any reason for the engine to be seized if it was in proper working order when it was put away. My SV sat for a few years (maybe 4-5) before I put it on the road and the carbs would leak fuel when I started it. A quick carb rebuild and that problem was solved. After that was a new battery, tires, and speedometer (the old one had some electrical issues IIRC) and on the road she went. I haven't had any issues since and overall she is in excellent condition.

Do you know if the bike has been started at all in the last 6 years?

Do the clutch, brake, and throttle cables move freely?

When you turn the key (with working battery in the bike) do the lights/instrument panel function properly?

There is a good chance you may need/want to get a new chain and sprockets.
 
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no, it hasn't. how much you think it would cost to rebuild the carbs. I basically took the bike to learn on it. want to learn to change tires work on engine and forks, learn to removed rear shock. I just dont want to do this stuff on my 05 cbr600rr because i know i wont have time to put it back together for trackdays. I also want to turn the sv in a track bike.
 
I would change the oil before starting it and again after 1000 km or so. Whatever is in it may have a lot of water.
 
no, it hasn't. how much you think it would cost to rebuild the carbs. I basically took the bike to learn on it. want to learn to change tires work on engine and forks, learn to removed rear shock. I just dont want to do this stuff on my 05 cbr600rr because i know i wont have time to put it back together for trackdays. I also want to turn the sv in a track bike.

Parts to rebuild the carbs are around $50-$75 IIRC. If you can do it yourself you will save a few hundred bucks on labour. It's not the most difficult job but a clean organized workspace is a must. I ended up sending mine out because I just didn't have an appropriate place to do it myself and I wanted it on the road ASAP.
 
Cost! :| if you aren't up to learning how to clean a carburetor, you should only buy fuel injected motorcycles. Carburetor cleaning is required way too frequently with the crap they pass off as being gasoline now-a-days, it's practically an annual maintenance service requirement for people living in seasonal weather areas, you might even need to do it more then once get it right. imho your best carburetor parts are the ones that came original, clean them really good and see if it will run with the original parts before running out and purchasing any replacement stuff.

The part about it being stored in the cold for 3 years is a problem; everything inside there has been subjected to condensation. Condensation is water and water promotes rust. Start by draining the fork oil into a clear glass container, see how much water comes out, the water will settle to the bottom. Do the same with the engine oil, if the oil is stirred up any water in there will not be separated from the oil but dispersed oil will impart a cream colour, kinda like coffee with milk in it. Hold your glass of oil up to sunlight and see if it sparkles, like little tiny bits of metal in there :/ that is a bad thing and indicates advanced wear of metal parts. Expect to need fork slide bushings in addition to the seals, there are usually 2 bushings per leg, one top and one bottom, in decent quality forks. The bushings are teflon coated and the teflon is often worn off if the oil hasn't been changed very frequently. If the fork bushings are worn even a little, you will never be able to keep seals in it. Avoid the temptation to go with heavy fork oil, start with 10 weight, light fork oil will make for lively suspension action, heavy fork oil makes for lazy suspension :| unless you really want lazy front forks.

Any iron/steel parts inside your engine or forks or transmission or steering head bearings etc that have seen water and not oil will potentially have some rust on them. I have no idea if your barrels are steel sleeved or nikasil coated aluminum bore, it would help to find that out. Your piston rings and wrist pins etc are definitely steel, but fortunately they are usually made from alloyed steel and might not be too adversely affected. Here's a tip for you; Shell Rotella T oil the dino type Not the synthetic version, use that for your first oil change, that will clean out a lot of places that you probably don't want to dismantle to service.

Replace your wheel bearings, they are cheap and usually easy available at any decent local bearing supply. No way they don't have some rust in them now. Inspect your swingarm bushings or bearings, grease or replace or even upgrade as appropriate.

Once you get the thing running with your clean carbs, you might need to balance the carbs, that is a little tricky as you need to buy or build some apparatus to do that. Carburetor balancing and valve adjustment might be something worth seeking some professional help.

Oil everything, even use oil as your cleaning fluid! It's like cleaning a gun. Everything needs to be spotless clean and well oiled or it will jam or even blow up in your face.

... hope this helps some.
 
if the pistons have not moved in the cylinders for 6 years
with half that time parked out doors
yes, I would expect the engine to not be happy about being made to rotate
bottom end might be okay, but I'd be surprised if you didn't have ring seizure

could try drizzling some oil into the cyls though spark plug holes and turning engine by hand

best way to be sure, is to take the heads off before spinning it up, see what you see
 
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Potentially lots of rust and corrosion in a standing 6 year engine. Inspect inspect inspect....might be better to get a crashed SV and use it's good engine in your good frame.
 
I wish that Photobucket still worked, I would point you to my rebuilds and it would give you a good idea on what to do, how to do it, and you would see before and after results.

It's not as bad as you would think, best word of advise is take your time, and once you start taking things apart take lots of pictures to document everything.

here are a few pictures of carbs I did, and no I had never done carbs before, but I took my time, and they came out perfect, well as close to perfect as I could get.

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Mostly agree with all others, if it was left with untreated fuel in the carbs, they'll almost certainly need to be pulled and rebuilt - there will probably be varnish and crud buildup.

Before even trying to roll over the engine, pull the plugs and spray in a lubricating oil. Something from a spray bomb (that will mist in and coat the cylinder walls, not just land on top of the piston and roll off to the rings) would be ideal. Engine fogging spray is a great choice as it's really designed for this exact job - would have been ideal if it was put in *before* the bike was put into storage, but at this point it's still a good idea to preemptively get some lubrication on the cylinder walls and the rings BEFORE you start rolling it over. I've no reason to believe that unless water got into the engine that it shouldn't be OK, however, but preemptive lubrication is always a wise idea.

Yes, when it does finally start it'll smoke like a pig for a bit because of the fogging spray (and probably foul a set of plugs, so have some spares) but it beats scoring a cylinder.

Get all the old fuel out before doing anything as well. If you can pull the tank you can then flush it a few times and see if any crud comes back out when you drain it again - flip it upside down to get the fuel and crud to come back out the filler, otherwise crud could clog up the lines/petcock.

Tires for sure, they'll likely be hard and probably weather cracked if it was stored outside.

What's your reasoning for messing with the forks and shocks? Unless the forks show visible corrosion, check the seals, and if they're not leaking, don't fix what's not broken.
 
The XR250R carb. This was from 3 years in an unheated garage. He was also kind enough to leave petcock in the on position.

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What's your reasoning for messing with the forks and shocks? Unless the forks show visible corrosion, check the seals, and if they're not leaking, don't fix what's not broken.

oh oh, there is somebody who doesn't service their forks enough :| would you shoot a gun without cleaning it until the bullets don't come out the end?

You know why your old fork oil looks aluminum colour? That's your lower fork legs turning from round holes into oval holes.
You know why your fork seals leak? because fork seals just hold the oil in and they can't tolerate Any misalignment in the stanchion tube travel.
See all that horror frost on the outside of your engine casings in winter, it looks just like that on the inside too.
See that dark stain on the bottom end of the fork stanchions, that's the high water mark.
 
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the bike went from my best friend to his brother who crashed it and then proceeded to lose the key and registration in a move out west. Hence the bike being store at his parents garage and then his brothers outside and now its in my garage. lol

1. I ordered a new lock set, papers i don't care to much about right now but if and when he comes to Toronto i'll see if he can spare sometime and go with me to service ontario.

2. As to private pilot- I want to track the bike and make a vtwin track bike. since i got the bike for nothing, i can put some money into it and see what happens. maybe some gsxr forks and a zx rear shock i heard work well on the 1st gen sv650s

3. as to trails comment, i do plan on cleaning and the carbs out myself, im just not sure about tuning as someone above said i need special tools for that. I also want to learn how to remove wheel bearing and replace.

4. I want this bike to be a tool for me to learn more about how a motorcycle works and how to repair. I also trying to find the service manual online.

5. I really appreciate everyone's comments and i will post pictures and tear downs of what i take off and how it looks before and after.
 
one other thing that may help OP, to decide if you need an engine tear down
you can get a flexible bore scope camera for your phone for around $10
could snake that down the spark plug hole and look for rust

if the cylinder walls look clean then PP's suggestion of engine fog spray is a good one
prior to attempting a start, of course after the fuel system concerns have been addressed
but I'd still l turn it over by hand with the plugs out before firing it

if the walls look rusty, I wouldn't try to turn it over, nothing good came come from that
 

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