Wing sat for 2 years :(

Hi everyone! My family has commissioned me to sell an '03 FSC600A3 that hasn't been run for a while, like 2 years. As my user name suggests, the owner has passed.

I'll be looking closer at the Wing in the days to come; I wanted to introduce myself as I'm sure I may soon have many questions. Its been in a semi-climate controlled garage, out of the sun and is just really dusty.

I opened the fuel filler a few weeks ago and there was minor scaling on the cap but the rest of the tank looked good. The key turned fine. I was kind of surprised, given that whatever is in there now was once ethanol. After the cap opening, the bike seemed to start to belch gas fumes when the temps began to change from day & night. This being Florida, I'm thinking its just the breather reacting to the just-now colder temps.

I was involved with honda dirt bikes in my youth, even a ninja 600. I got fuel injected ninja 600 a few years ago, and no, I don't do one wheel stupidity (that's for the gsxr folk, lol). But outside of the "old days" and the minor maintenance I've done on my bike, I'm a n00b again. So any help will be appreciated.

The bike is located in central Fla if anyone is interested. I'll be taking to the local dealers to get wholesale values in the days to come.

Additionally, I did try my local forum. Less than helpful is the best thing I can say. Throw in something for nothing... you get the picture.

Wingers -- Help me get this old girl going!!!

Many thanks in advance. Please feel free to input your thoughts as to what I should be doing. I have ideas, but your seasoned advice is very welcome .

PS -- my thoughts are to get her going to the point where her new owner can do the fluid/hose changes himself. I'm setting the "actual cash value" at the highest dealer offering and posting ads on c/l and local forums (mostly sportbike and cruiser oriented).

CHH

New Estate, I'm not sure what constitutes central Florida, but there seems to be a very active scooter community in the St. Pete area. One of our members (model28a) has posted about their activities and their rally. If you look under rally information, there should be a link to their club. I have seen a number of people reccomend running Seafoam gas additive to clean the fuel system once the scooter is running. Of course in an older bike, there are things like tires, belt (needs changing at 16k miles), and other things as you mentioned. There are a number of pictorials and links under maintenance available here to help you. Best of luck with your task. Also, we have a for sale section where you can post it.

CHH
Welcome to the forum. I sent a PM last night, to check your PMs, go to the top of the page and click on PM. As I said in the PM if I can be of any help let me know. We have a lot of members in our club. I would be happy to list your Wing on our forum. And if I could be of any help getting it running let me know.
Roger

I'm not too sure having it appraised at a dealer is a good idea. I too live in Central Florida and am more than aware of some of the practices of the local Dealers here. www.kbb.com is a good source, however they make no provisions for a bike that's not running. So your problem is compounded by the fact that the bike isn't in good running order and the price of repair ( try to avoid the dealership for this! ) If your anywhere near the Mount Dora area of Central Florida, there is an extremely reliable and resonable mechanic available. You can get his details at his web page http://www.vengeancecycleworks.com/

Try to get all the old gas out. As much as you can.

Add a little Seafoam to the gas tank and then fill the tank up with fresh Gas, all the way to the top.

Make sure the battery is charged up and then give her a try. (Read the part in the owners manual about starting the bike)

When you get her running again be sure to change the oil and filter.

Check the sparkplugs. (install new if needed).

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My 2 cents

Unfortunately when a bike sits this long without adding Stabil to the fuel, the fuel will gum up and cause not only problems in the lines, but it will require the fuel injectors to be cleaned. I hope this isn't the case, but here in Florida with our high humidity and 7 months of summer heat it happens all too frequently. I've seen the fuel go bad here in as little as 8 months. I let my Swing sit for 11 months, but I added Stabil to the tank and suffered no adverse effects.

The only thing I have read that works with the ethanol varnish ( I have not tried myself ) was Starbrite Star Tron products to clean the varnish ( http://www.starbrite.com/productdetail.cfm?ID=1167&ProductCat=Marine&ProductSCat=Gas%20and%20Diesel%20Additives&ProductSSCat=Startron%20Tank%20Cleaner ). After removing the gas, I would follow the instructions Starbrite instructions.

I don't think CHH has ever returned to the site. He only made one post, and I sent him a PM which never got read. I made the offer to help him get it running and then explained on the forum how to get to the PM and it has still has not been read. So my guess is he got rid of the Wing as is or got it running wasn't and polite enough to let us know. Not so unusual for people to do on the web. But it sometimes pisses me off to the point of not offering help but then I try to remember all the help given to me over the years and not to let one bad apple spoil the bunch.
On a side note, what has made this topic so wide? The link perhaps?

I'm not a bit surprised. I see this all the time in the area I live. A parent dies, the kids come down to sort their affairs out. The only thing they're really interested in is getting back to their own life up north. She probably sold it to the first person that made an offer.