Ok, my name is Jeff. I just started riding street bikes and I need a little direction. I picked up a '82 LTD440 belt drive and I'm having trouble with the engine. It sat for about 4-5 years, I took the carb's apart and cleaned the jets out, then it started to run great. Now I've been riding it for about 3 months and it started to run real hot and idling at about 5500 rpm. I tried changing the oil and filter again to see if that was the problem, but it still over-heats. I have no idea what's going on with this bike, I don't want to put a bunch of money into this thing by rebuilding the motor. If theres anyone who can help, PLASE!!! I'm begging. Thank you =) Jeff



Thank you for all the ideas, but I guess I forgot to say some stuff. It's air cooled, I changed all the fluids and it's stock as hell. I'm going to look at all the other stuff and thank you again.

 

Welcome Jeff. (Cool name!)
You may want to check the head gasket. Also, look at your oil; see if there's any coolant blobs in it. (I actually can't recall if this is an air cooled vs water cooled motor, sorry.) If not water cooled, do a compression check to see if the cylinder will hold pressure. A cheap way to do this is to rig an air hose with an inline pressure gauge toget at least a ballpark reading.I don't think your problem is fuel or oil. IF it's water cooled, make sure the coolant path is fresh and clear of contaminants. You may want to lube your throttle cable if it's been sitting that long. Sounds like the air/fuel mix may be lean. Has it been re-jetted or otherwise "messed with;" likely due to an aftermarket pipe or some other mod which was haphazardly done? As long as it runs, you can inspect/adjust a variety of things until it runs properly.
Again, welcome, and good luck. Let us know what you find!

 

Flushing all fluids on a ride that has sat for so long is a good idea. Hoses go bad, clamps become shot, air gets into the system Rad Caps go bad. Do a good visual.

Welcome to the forums.

 

I would assume this is an air cooled engine. If the head gasket is shot, you will probably see some oil seepage on the exterior unless the gasket blows out between cylinders. More likely, you have an air leak somewhere since the idle is really high, and it's overheating. Use some starting fluid and spray around all vacuum tight areas to see if the idle changes. If it does, you found a leak.

One other thing, did you sync the carbs after rebuilding them?

 

The fiche that I used was for an '84.

 

sometimes the headgasket going bad will also make the unit run extremely lean, i would say start at the Cap pressure test the cap to make sure its operating

 

welcome to KF