The front two turn signals stay lit all the time while the rear ones only work when the turn signal switch is turned on. Shouldn't the rear turn signal lights always be on?

 

not from the factory, the front two are made to stay lit and have an extra wire(three in total including the running light wire) while the rear turn signals only have two(without the running light wire).

 

Ok just making sure since I thought I forgot to plug a wiring harness or something. Just got her together today and took her for a ride for its first time in 9 years.

 

How old are the tires?

Look for the 'DOT' lettering on the sidewall. After that is a 4-digit code. The first two digits are the week of the year it was made. The last two are the year. For instance, if it said '1005' that means the tire was made in the 10th week of the year 2005.

Tire rubber gets harder as it gets older. If they are older than about 3 years be very careful.

 

They are actually the bridgestone battlax tires from the factory. And yes i am going to get new tires this week, but i have to ride about 6 miles to the shop that is going to change them. If i ride at a leisurely pace should i be worried about the tires failing on me?

 

You should check out his rebuild thread - bike had 26 (not a typo - twenty-six) miles on it when it was parked in Puerto Rico. Picked it up for a steal. The harsh air had taken a toll on everything - he's doing a good job getting a neglected machine back up and functioning. We've already discussed replacing everything made of rubber in that thread.

Still an awesome barn-find scenario.

 

I wouldn't do any high speed, knee-dragging cornering but you should be OK if you're just riding it to the shop. It's somewhat cheaper if you remove the wheels and just take them in, rather than the whole bike. If you have a way to suspend it off the ground you can save some money in the tire change labor charges.

 

Unfortunately I don't have any way of safely getting the wheels up in the air to remove the tires. But the fellow at the shop gave me a $265 quote for the tires installed plus installation of the chain. That's not to bad.

 

Assuming that includes the price of the tires - that's a pretty decent price indeed.

What's she look like now?

 

what ended up being wrong that was causing the pump not to prime and the starter not to crank?