$395 USD for 1998 with 60k Miles

[mitcheg]

Hi everyone. New to the forum. Need advice on what to check for a quick fix before buying, maybe. Down the road a big dealer has a ST1100 1998 with 95k KM on it. He really needs it gone for space. It was traded in 130 days ago. Miles seem genuine, foot pegs are original and not worn down. Front brakes seized, ( no problem), but it won't start. Dealer says old fuel and needs a carb clean & Balance.
It has new tyres - really new. Decent condition. Fork seals tip top. It's lived inside. It's price tag is $500 CAD all in! Seriously. I visited it yesterday - battery is strong and it turns over but will not start. ( yadadadada chuff chuff, yadadada chuff chuff).

It's trying but will not fire up for more than a pop or two. It has almost no rust.

As you can imagine I'm tempted. But I really do not want to hire a truck to take it. The dealer may let me fiddle with it to get it going so I can ride it 70km to my place.

Any ideas on how to spend an hour with some tools and help the carbs, or any other tricks ?

Regards
Graham

 

[Obo]

Welcome from out East. I can't be of much help on the 1100's though. Someone will be along who can!

 

[Slydynbye]

First, it's not a 1 hour problem. You probably have a fuel issue,
Could be the Carbs need to be cleaned or you need a fuel pump, but could be as simple as a fuel diaphram.
As a newby to the ST it will take you about 1/2 hour to figure out how the Fairings and all come off.
Next step is to drain all the old fuel and get fresh stuff in there.
Then you'll need to check the Fuel cut off diaphram, fuel pump for flow and failing those solving the isssue you will need to pull the Carbs to clean out the bad fuel and varnish. After pulling the carbs it is highly recommended that you replace carb insulators as the old ones will be very stiff and re-installing the carbs will be really tough with the added bonus off a possible vacuum leak when finished.

 

[jdmccright]

but could be as simple as a fuel diaphram.
As a newby to the ST it will take you about 1/2 hour to figure out how the Fairings and all come off.
Next step is to drain all the old fuel and get fresh stuff in there.
Then you'll need to check the Fuel cut off diaphram, fuel pump for flow and failing those solving the isssue you will need to pull the Carbs to clean out the bad fuel and varnish.

Fuel pump and diaphragm are the first to check, the latter can be bypassed. If not, then it's more than an hr to find more. But if it fires up on carb spray, it's fuel related.

 

[St-Gerard]

Check fuel pump, turn key on , you should hear a faint hum for two seconds. Has the bike been in storage a long time? Old fuel not good of course. Check fuses, that you have spark. Sly's suggestion of fuel diaphragm is a possibility, removing it maybe the answer. At five hundred dollars still a good price,if you have to rent a trailer.

 

[Bmacleod]

Welcome to the forum. When the dealer says it was traded in 130 days ago, does he mean ridden in or trailered in? If it was ridden in than there is a better chance you could get it running than if it was trailered, which I would put my bet on seeing how it would have been winter 130 days ago and the fact that you say the brakes are seized. That raises another concern in that if you get it running, how will you ride it 70km with a brake issue. $500 sounds like it COULD be a good deal, but it sounds like a trailer really is the safest bet...

 

[gunsmoker]

Here in the USA, u-Haul rents motorcycle trailers really cheap-- $16 a day.

I rented one on two different occasions last year.

PS: If a dealership took this bike on trade-in and expected to fix it up and sell it for a nice profit, and yet they did not fix it, I would assume that that means the dealership believes that it's not worth fixing and it's better to be sold for almost a scrap price.

If that's what the dealer thinks is the real situation with this bike, you've got to consider that it may be true and applies to you as well. Are you more knowledgeable than the dealer? Do you have better wrench skills than the dealer and the dealer's mechanics?

 

[Weaselinsuit]

Agree re U-Haul trailer. I rented a motorcycle trailer from U-Haul here in Canada and I think it was under $30 all in. The bigger issue is finding a dealer that has one on the lot.

I also agree with the others that you are likely better off trailering or trucking it home to tinker with it at your own pace. Safer too.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

PS: If a dealership took this bike on trade-in and expected to fix it up and sell it for a nice profit, and yet they did not fix it, I would assume that that means the dealership believes that it's not worth fixing and it's better to be sold for almost a scrap price.

If that's what the dealer thinks is the real situation with this bike, you've got to consider that it may be true and applies to you as well. Are you more knowledgeable than the dealer? Do you have better wrench skills than the dealer and the dealer's mechanics?

The fact that the dealer isn't interested in fixing it doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything wrong with it. He is running a business to make money. After fixing it he needs to be able to sell it for a price that covers the trade-in cost, the mechanics labour, the parts cost, and a reasonable profit or it just isn't worth the effort. It won't take very long before he has spent more on it than he can sell it for because the reality is that a 1998 ST1100 isn't worth much in today's market. Most likely the only reason that he even accepted it as a trade-in was to close the deal on whatever the previous owner bought. An individual who will fix it themselves only has to spend money on parts. This makes for a completely different calculation. It might be an incredible deal, or it might be a piece of scrap. Up to the buyer to inspect and figure that out.

 

[kiltman]

Ah the rare green ones only available in 1998. I’ve had great success by putting a fresh new set of plugs. (Recommended by my Honda mechanic whose been doing this for the last 40 years)
If successful, I then recommend using an injector cleaner additive to few tanks of fuel, that usually deals with the carb muck that has built up over the storage time.
You will also need a fully charged battery. Again from personal experience it takes a few times before it will finally catch once it’s been in storage over the winter.
Good luck.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Remove the spark plugs to see if it the cylinders are getting any fuel. At the same time check to see if it has spark at the spark plugs. If you have spark try shooting some starting fluid in the intake. If it does run on the starting fluid it is a fuel problem.

If there is no fuel getting to the engine look through the below article. It will explain where the fuel cut-off valve is, what it does, why it fails, and how to easily bypass it if it has failed. You can disconnect the fuel line at that location to easily test to see if you are getting any fuel from the fuel pump. If not, you can connect a hose from a Jerry can to the fuel line going to the carburetors and gravity feed gas to the carbs to bypass the fuel pump/tank to see if it starts. If you are getting fuel from the pump you can bypass the valve as a test to see if it starts. If you determine that there is no fuel getting to the cylinders and it is not due fuel supply, i.e. the fuel pump or the cut-off valve, then it is most likely that the carburetors are gummed up and will need to be cleaned out.

ST1100 - How to do an emergency bypass of the fuel valve​

 

[STFlips]

The fact that the dealer isn't interested in fixing it doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything wrong with it. He is running a business to make money. After fixing it he needs to be able to sell it for a price that covers the trade-in cost, the mechanics labour, the parts cost, and a reasonable profit or it just isn't worth the effort. It won't take very long before he has spent more on it than he can sell it for because the reality is that a 1998 ST1100 isn't worth much in today's market.

Coincidentally I was chatting with a dealer today, I already knew they didn't want to work on old bikes, and he confirmed that. Anything over 15 years is declined in his service dept because old parts are hard to source and the fear of something breaking when the mechanic is removing panels or other items to access the initial problem.

 

[mitcheg]

First, it's not a 1 hour problem. You probably have a fuel issue,
Could be the Carbs need to be cleaned or you need a fuel pump, but could be as simple as a fuel diaphram.
As a newby to the ST it will take you about 1/2 hour to figure out how the Fairings and all come off.
Next step is to drain all the old fuel and get fresh stuff in there.
Then you'll need to check the Fuel cut off diaphram, fuel pump for flow and failing those solving the isssue you will need to pull the Carbs to clean out the bad fuel and varnish. After pulling the carbs it is highly recommended that you replace carb insulators as the old ones will be very stiff and re-installing the carbs will be really tough with the added bonus off a possible vacuum leak when finished.

Thanks - I think I'll leave it to someone else

 

[MaxPete]

Here's my $0.02 - and as others above have said about their ideas (all good IMO) - but I think that mine might be simpler.

Check the air filter housing for mouse nests / other debris or just a clogged air filter. If the filter housing is clean - but the filter is clogged (i.e. you cannot see light through it) - then try starting the bike with NO air filter.

NOTE: I would not run it this way for long - but a few minutes in a clean-air environment won't hurt.

BACKSTORY
Some years ago I was touring in eastern Ontario and western-central Quebec with some buddies and one guy had an older GL1500 Gold Wing - which he had just gotten out of storage and had "de-winterized".

It started as normal and ran fine all day - but late in the afternoon, we went through a horrendous rainstorm late in the day. We all survived the downpour and made it to the hotel in Levis QC where we got dried out and had a good sleep. The next morning we loaded-up and started our bikes - but his GL1500 would NOT start. It displayed exactly the same symptoms that you describe on the ST100 you are considering (yadayadada-puff-f@rt-puff-puff....yadayadayada-puff-f@rt-puff-puff....etc. etc. etc.).

I had never worked on a GL before and none of the other guys had either (including the owner), so we called a big local Honda shop that was less than a km away from the hotel and they came and got it with a flatbed and took it back to the shop.

Lo and behold - the air filter housing had a huge mouse-house inside and the whole mess was soaking wet from the previous day's ride. The mechanic took out the mouse debris, and vacuumed the housing - and the bike lit right-up immediately and ran like a new machine.

Clearly, the stealership that had "done the de-winterizing" had cheated my pal - but the clogged air filter housing was all that was wrong with the bike.

Give her a try and let us know what happened.

 

[mitcheg]

Here's my $0.02 - and as others above have said about their ideas (all good IMO) - but I think that mine might be simpler.

Check the air filter housing for mouse nests / other debris or just a clogged air filter. If the filter housing is clean - but the filter is clogged (i.e. you cannot see light through it) - then try starting the bike with NO air filter.

NOTE: I would not run it this way for long - but a few minutes in a clean-air environment won't hurt.

BACKSTORY
Some years ago I was touring in eastern Ontario and western-central Quebec with some buddies and one guy had an older GL1500 Gold Wing - which he had just gotten out of storage and had "de-winterized".

It started as normal and ran fine all day - but late in the afternoon, we went through a horrendous rainstorm late in the day. We all survived the downpour and made it to the hotel in Levis QC where we got dried out and had a good sleep. The next morning we loaded-up and started our bikes - but his GL1500 would NOT start. It displayed exactly the same symptoms that you describe on the ST100 you are considering (yadayadada-puff-f@rt-puff-puff....yadayadayada-puff-f@rt-puff-puff....etc. etc. etc.).

I had never worked on a GL before and none of the other guys had either (including the owner), so we called a big local Honda shop that was less than a km away from the hotel and they came and got it with a flatbed and took it back to the shop.

Lo and behold - the air filter housing had a huge mouse-house inside and the whole mess was soaking wet from the previous day's ride. The mechanic took out the mouse debris, and vacuumed the housing - and the bike lit right-up immediately and ran like a new machine.

Clearly, the stealership that had "done the de-winterizing" had cheated my pal - but the clogged air filter housing was all that was wrong with the bike.

Give her a try and let us know what happened.

Very useful. Thanks to all for the info. Ya know... I'm gonna leave it. I have a Tiger 955i that runs. I think I'll spend it on her. Not an ST1100 - Thanks for all the feedback y'all helped me make a decision

 

[Larry Fine]

If I only had the time, the space, a heart, a brain, etc, I would pick it up as a parts bike in a heartbeat.

 

[Al st1100]

Overpriced - parts bike thats all. Do you think the dealer paid anything for that?