Update:
Lots has been happening in the Ram Jam garage. I've been soaking the tank in vinegar. Here it is before treatment.. doesn't look that bad but lots of rust flake has been coming out of it with each filtering.
Filtering every three days or so:
New tires! Shinko 230's. Here's one of the moldy oldies
And with the new ones
Got the tail/brake light working, mostly by myself but with some help from the always generous Spanner1, who is actually one of the judges for this here contest
Painted and mounted the muffler
I also set the valves & timing. One of the springs on the advance unit was shot so I replaced that it with one off the parts bike. It now actually springs. OK, follow me here.. the points cam can go into the advance unit two ways (180 opposite). With it in one position, you can twist the points cam and the weights extend as they should. Take the cam out & spin it 180 degrees & put it back in and - with one of the weights on top, you can turn the cam and it extends the weight. Spin it so that the other weight is on top, and it kinda jams. We thought that this might be keeping the timing from advancing but Spanner1 thought it would be okay once it started spinning.
Double-checked the points gap and the static timing while putting it all back together.. turns out that the meter I was using is a piece of s*^% and was giving me a false reading, so that my timing was way advanced at the plate. Fixed that, installed muffler, rolled it (not far enough) outside & fired it up with a timing light - bike advances as it should when you rev the motor. Note that it revs ok just sitting there. Also note that it smoked like crazy but I think that went away. We are just filling up the bowl with an aux fuel bottle (removing it before running so there's no vacuum problem) and running it until it runs out of gas. Once on the street it definitely ran better with the timing set properly, didn't smoke at just dogs it under load. Let off the throttle and when it settles down it seems to idle okay and then start to rev but it's got nothing when you let the clutch out. Not sure what's going on there. New plug & plug cap.
So could this be carb related? Stock intake (with wire mesh filter, not foam over it), stock exhaust, valves & timing set, advance unit working, 150+ psi... The carb had been cleaned by the PO, though the slow jet was clogged and I cleaned it out. Also shot carb cleaner through main jet and other passages, followed by compressed air but I didn't take anything else apart other than remove & clean the slow jet. We didn't want to have to buy a carb kit if we didn't have to - though we have space in the budget for that now.
