Two intruders with issues that have me stumped

[Smerft85]

I've got two vs800's, a 94 and a 98. The 98 is mine and the 94 is my best friends bike that I picked up for him, long story short, easier to call all the bikes at my house mine. Anyway, the 98 seems to be only firing on the rear cylinder, backstory on my hunch: about 6 years ago a "friend" attempted to rebuild my front carb and install a new clutch, screwed up bad on both jobs. Once I finally got it to start after he worked on it, it would idle around 9k, only had second gear and neutral, and he opened the wrong case to access the clutch. Took me a little over 3 years to right all his wrongs with the exception on one, he used rtv gasket maker on the carb, it ran fine before he did his dirty work, and after I fixed most of the other issues I got about 6 months of riding time out of it,and one day on my way to work (before I became a full time stay home dad) it lost almost all power, 2nd gear and full throttle limped me the quarter mile home at 25mph TOPS. my theory is some of the rtv flaked and caused a blockage, on top of sitting more than running since 2013 which obviously doesnt help. Thinking a carb rebuild and sync are needed for this one, right track?

The 94 I've only had home for a couple weeks and I've only ever heard it turn over by jumper cables and using a screwdriver to close the circuit on the solenoid so I can't absolutely guarantee it runs, but with 16k on it I imagine it should. I seem to have no life between the starter button and the starter. Wiring harness was all disconnected to dismantle that one so I could fit it in my SUV for the 5.5 hour drive home with it, once home I reassembled it and compared harnesses with my 98 as I hooked everything up, the one time I turned it over was before dismantle and still didn't have life at the button so I'm sure the harness is correct at least for the section under the tank and seat, didn't unhook any others. This one I'm having more trouble figuring out for sure, I suck with electrical.

[navigator]

..."my theory is some of the rtv flaked and caused a blockage, on top of sitting more than running since 2013 which obviously doesnt help. Thinking a carb rebuild and sync are needed for this one, right track?

YUP, I would do a rebuild, new gas and a sync.

As far as the "no start at the button issue" I would grab a meter and disassemble and clean the switch box, then start ringing out circuts...possibly a faulty solenoid.

[Smerft85]

..."my theory is some of the rtv flaked and caused a blockage, on top of sitting more than running since 2013 which obviously doesnt help. Thinking a carb rebuild and sync are needed for this one, right track?

YUP, I would do a rebuild, new gas and a sync.

As far as the "no start at the button issue" I would grab a meter and disassemble and clean the switch box, then start ringing out circuts...possibly a faulty solenoid.

That helps more than you know, my wife ordered carb gaskets, plugs, and coils for my 98 last night, all I should need is some dip for the carb cleanings and hopefully that'll do the trick, that bike is very sentimental to me and it's been breaking my heart not to be able to ride it, purchased my victory so I had a ride while I rebuild it.

I think before I work with the meter that I don't know very well, I'll take a test light to it and see if I even have power up to the bars, I have been teetering on the idea of the button itself being corroded and not getting a good connection, and I may have another one laying around, that would be best case scenario. Like I said, I suck with electrical, but in my thinking, if I can jump the solenoid and get it to turn over all the main wiring should all be intact and my problem should be somewhere between the button and the solenoid itself, shouldn't be any issues from solenoid to starter in theory?

[navigator]

Since you can jump the solenoid and spin the starter, The problem lies either in the wiring feeding the switch, the switch contacts, the wiring feeding the solenoid, or the solenoid itself.
You can check for voltage along that path.
I don't recall if the switch breaks the hot side or the ground, I suspect it is in the hot path, but check the schematic.

[Smerft85]

Got my parts in today, I'll be doing what I can over the next few nights to get the 98 going proper. I just picked up an 02 Suzuki savage project for $300, wish I knew how to post pictures here, I'd show you guys the noble steeds.

[hillsy]

Got my parts in today, I'll be doing what I can over the next few nights to get the 98 going proper. I just picked up an 02 Suzuki savage project for $300, wish I knew how to post pictures here, I'd show you guys the noble steeds.

You need to house your pics on an image host and post the links here.

I use https://imgbb.com/ - it's free and quite user friendly from either PC or mobile.

There's a bunch of others out there (Imgur, Pinypic, Flikr, etc) - Google is your friend here

[Smerft85]

I de-googled my devices, figured I'd censor them before they censor me. I'll give that link a try a little later, thank you.

[Herb]

Got my parts in today, I'll be doing what I can over the next few nights to get the 98 going proper. I just picked up an 02 Suzuki savage project for $300, wish I knew how to post pictures here, I'd show you guys the noble steeds.

Postimage.org. It's a free site that is easy to navigate.

[Smerft85]

Got life to the button on the 94 and waiting for my buddy to get the battery for it and we are going to sit down together and rebuild the carbs together for his 94 and my 98. The 94 will turn over now (using jumper cables to a battery on the shelf) and I'm about 99% sure carbs are nasty on it, with a bit of fuel in the tank she never coughs like she wants to start and I'm betting the float is stuck and no fuel to carb.

In the process of tinkering around with the intruders, I have also been working on that little "savage" s40, pretty much same story, pulled the carb and it's like melted green laffy taffy inside, and the screw for the diaphragm that is in the bowl fell apart on contact with a screwdriver, may have saved it by drilling out the broken screw, but I'm not sure yet. Not sure if anyone knows the s40 very well here, but just incase I can't fix that carb, anyone know if the front carb with the choke from a vs800 will work in the s40? I have an extra pair of carbs from a parts bike vs800 and dont have the $350 for a used mikuni at the moment.

[Smerft85]

Got the carbs pulled from both intruders last night and boiled out the ones for the 98. Upon removing the float bowl suspicion was confirmed, the rtv seal had started to melt and had pulled a "worm" of rtv roughly an inch and a half long through the main jet on my front carb. I'll be putting the carbs back in today with fingers crossed that is my only issue.