Topic: 5 550's drowned,need help

[rb550four]

5 550's drowned in Schoharie county NY flood, totally under silty water,could use clean out ideas short of a rebuild

[CBGhia]

Drain the cases, fill with fresh oil,  pull the spark plugs and spray oil or MMO in there.  Kick it over with the ignition off.  You may want to pull the carbs and clean them out.  Drain the gas,  and re-fill.  Blow out the frame with air,  every nook and cranny.   You may have to clean all of the electrical connections with files and emery-cloth.   Good luck!

[tlbranth]

Boy what a bummer. If 'twere me, I'd drain the oil, pull the plugs & hand crank what water I could from the cylinders and suck the rest with a syringe or dry cloths pushed through the plug holes and pulled out 'til dry. Squirt a little oil in each cylinder and replace the plugs. Fill with oil, manually crank the engine a few times to lube things up, blow-dry the ignition components. Empty the gas tank, swish some fresh gas around and empty again. Replace tank, put some gas in it. Pull the carb bowls and empty them. Fire up the engine, run it for a while. Change the oil and filter. Fix all the cosmetics. Oh, you may need to blow dry inside the headlight bucket. That should cover most of it. Good luck.

[fmctm1sw]

Oh man...  I was waiting for a post like this.   

[MoMo]

That is a shame.  You need to do everything mentioned as soon as you can.  Keep us informed as to the outcome, you should be able to bring them back to life...Larry

[zackblack]

I would rebuild them.

No use wrecking a bike because you wanted to "rush" or "cut corners" on cleaning it up. (yes I realize there are five to do)

[rb550four]

Thanks guys, I'm going to do everything that you mentioned here .Winter is on it's way so if there is time, after I rebuild our businesses , Then rebuild the bikes.I've been up to my ass in mud for a week,so I dropped all the machines at a snowmobile shop to do what everyone suggested and perhaps sidestep total rebuilds for a while. On a happy note, I have one 550 that was at my home shop that has not been in the flood downtown, so I have one to ride. There is also 4 500's that I started to rebuild last month that were also in the dry shop at home.The 500's will be back burnered until the 550's are resurrected. No worries, these machines won't be parted away on E bay as long as I breathe. And again ,Thanks for the help.

[Kong]

First take a hose with clean water and rinse and rinse and rinse until you get all the silt out of it everywhere.  Then do all the good things recommended above.

[Goldbug]

Everything should be fixable. Don't give up if they're nice bikes.

[rb550four]

I got a hold of my insurance company and it turns out that  3 machines are covered for loss. The problem is that they will brand my NY titles as totaled. I'm not sure if I rebuild these bikes ,if I can get a salvage title for a motorcycle from this state, I would go to my local DMV to find out but, their office has been washed away.The next logical thing is to find a titleable frame or 3, so I must ask, does anyone have a frame that they would part with? It doesn't have to be straight, just able to title,I can change the #'s on the frames that I have to match the title. Ohoh that sounds kinda illegal but I'm not a lawyer,and this sounds like a good idea to me.Anyone have any other ideas that might work?

[MoMo]

Technically, it is probably illegal but you will be owning both bikes so who is to say which is which.  The idea to do that has crossed my mind as it can be really difficult to get a title in PA when the previous owner cannot be found...Larry

[HondanutRider]

Technically, it is probably illegal but you will be owning both bikes so who is to say which is which.  The idea to do that has crossed my mind as it can be really difficult to get a title in PA when the previous owner cannot be found...Larry

With the silly regulations in most areas, requiring each and every vehicle to be separately registered AND insured (even tho you can personally only ride one at a time), a lot of "collectors" are law-breakers!    One jurisdiction here in Canada (British Columbia) is sensible and provides a "Collector Plate" that can have various vintage-class vehicles registered to use.

[MoMo]

HondanutRider,  here in PA there is a vintage plate available for 100 lifetime fee, but it is only good for one bike. So, if someone had 13 bikes  ???and wanted to be able to ride each legally, that person would have to register all 13 and provide insurance for each one.  Kind of encourages one to break the law doesn't it?...Larry

[HondanutRider]

HondanutRider,  here in PA there is a vintage plate available for 100 lifetime fee, but it is only good for one bike. So, if someone had 13 bikes  ???and wanted to be able to ride each legally, that person would have to register all 13 and provide insurance for each one.  Kind of encourages one to break the law doesn't it?...Larry

My point exactly.

[rb550four]

Well,the boys at the snowmobile shop did their best to rid my bikes of silt and excess water,and was only able to get 2 to fire up. They drained the oil,cleaned the carbs and drained more oil but to no avail, the ones that run , run like #$%* and the others wont turn easy,infact , the fastest machine is seized. They got on it right away but, there really is no substitute for a total rebuild. I am glad that you guys gave me some hope, and we gave it a shot. I haven't had time to wrench them myself, but I did get 2 small storefronts up and ready but, our big store is in rough shape and will  require my full attention for the next two months or so. Maybe after life gets back to normal I'll have some time for rebuilds and repaints, I'll shoot some pics as things progress. Again, I would like to thank you all for your input in my time of need , hope is a powerful force.

[rb550four]

Well, it's December and the search has been on for 500 and 550s with titles. Santa came to my house early with a lead on a 550, called the owner up an took a look,wind jammer fairing,hard side boxes, and a choice of sissy bars, one in brown velvet and the other in black vinyl with yet another hard box on the rack!The paint was faded,chrome has a little surface rust , and it hasn't been run for ten years! why you can smell that sour gas from three feet away and you know it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! It looks right at home in the garage and I think it knows that it'll be the first to rebuild ,then the rest of them will follow. I have high hopes for this year, I think that I need to start it with a machine that I haven't just finished first then go on to the others.

[Don R]

I own a bike that had a frame tube split probably from freezing and water. When I took if all apart and washed it at the car wash before sandblasting it sat for two weeks. When I turned it over for some welding the main frame tube was holding water. Just in case you didn't have enough to worry about.

[rb550four]

Thanks DonR, I never gave the frame a thought, I haven't laid them on their sides so the swingarms may still be full of water...hope not..... But anyways , thanks for the heads-up.