jkahrs595

http://www.altelco.net/~jacil/clay/motorcycle/KElecSetup.html That's a pretty good how-to, please be careful!

Awesome, you are the man! I'll post updates hopefully tomorrow when I get out of work.

Turns out it was the kickstand sensor! Sprayed her down with some WD40 and it was working like a charm. Now that I have a clean gas tank (My dad and I used naval jelly/nuts&bolts), fresh gas, fresh oil, I need some advice on cam adjustment. The motor idles fine, but giving it any gas tends to get a little noisy, and I suspect the cam chain rattling. Anyone have a reference to how it should be adjusted?

I haven't tried it on the center stand yet. Unfortunately, I've only recently moved out of my parent's place (just graduated college, woot!) and I don't have a garage to work on the bike in. So the bike is at my parent's place until it's ridable. It's a 30 minute drive, and I'll try to get out there as much as possible (mostly weekends). I will be taking notes on all the suggestions here and will update.

Just a quick intro, as I'm new to bikes (owning and riding) as well as these forums. I'll have to ask for at least a little patience as I'm not an expert with engines. So, hey! I took a chance this weekend and got ahold of a 1981 SR250 (I think they also call them Exciters). I traded it straight up for my old laptop, so there was no real money out of pocket. The condition of the bike is pretty rough. The tank has a lot of rust inside, it didn't come with a battery, the seat is in bad shape, and it's dented/rusted in various places. Onto the good news... my dad hooked up the battery leads to his tractor just for the hell of it and it started right up! It stopped as soon as we disconnected the leads (I'm assuming it needs the battery in to continue running). According to the guy I got it from, he said that when it did have a working battery in it, the bike started up fine but stalled when put into gear. I looked at the kickstand, and there seemed to be a little sensor (in very bad shape). Could this be the cause of the stalling? Obviously, considering the condition of the bike, it could very well be other factors. One more thing before I get started on this project, how difficult is it to come across an SR250 tank? Will other model tanks fit? Is it worth it to restore the original? I really appreciate any help I can get, and look forward to posting more in these threads as the weeks go by.