On to the next point of interest. The carburetor always needs to be checked out for corrosion or contaminates. If either is present you will simply have a problematic bike that will not be a joy to ride. With a clean carb the engine will run perfectly provided you keep the oil changed. It's pretty basic but as long as you keep fresh fuel and oil circulating in an engine it will last forever under normal operating conditions. Let the fuel get old (a matter of a couple months) or let the oil level drop and the fun is over.
Being how the bike has sat for years I wanted to shake the dust out of the old carb. I knew I would see some sort of crud inside and I wanted to check the mainjet for blockage as well. I took the float bowl off and low and behold I found a little tiny bug. That would have easily blocked things up when the body started to separate upon contact with the fuel. I simply brushed out the bowl with a couple small brushes and then blew out the dust and dead bugs out with compressed air. I was happy to see the bowl gasket still in operable condition so I put some grease on my finger and coated it with a thin layer to keep it fresh. Any rubber seal you see should be coated with a little grease or oil to preserve it for as long as possible. That way it won't be so dry as to lead to a crack or further deterioration. The grease and oil keeps air molecules away from the rubber which is a good thing, even inside a carb. I would much rather take a carb apart that has freshly oiled rubber gaskets in it than dry old crusty ones. Sorry for the restoration 101 tips. On with show.
Once the bowl was placed back on the carburetor I put a new length of fuel line from the fuel petcock and clean fuel was a'flowin again. Of course this is after I removed the fuel tank and drained the old fuel.
