First Berg, many questions

sashephe · Jun 11, 2011

So I'm fairly new to motorcycles in general, and totally new to these bikes. I just picked up a 1998 fe501 for what i believe to be a very good price, $850. I was told when purchasing the bike that it required a lot of maintenance to be kept alive. The seller told me the bike hadn't been started in a year, but despite that it started up fairly quickly. I've driven it around the yard a few times, and it does seem to run well, but it will backfire when coming down from high rpm. Ive drained the gas tank and put new gas in, and i intend to change the oil and antifreeze as well, and was wondering what type of oil to use, and what other maintenance was necessary? I was also wondering where I would be able to find a new exhaust for the bike, as the one that came with it looks to have to tip held on by some type of caulk. If plastics and graphics are still available for these bikes could anyone tell me where to find those as well? Sorry about the short novel guys, and I appreciate any time and answers you all can give me, this site seems like a very good resource. If anyone needs pictures or more information I will be happy to get those posted asap.

Thanks again,
Sean

Crispin · Jun 11, 2011

There is much debate about the best oil to use, personally I use Motul - 300V 10W-40 4T Factory Line, or 15W-50 4T.

Motul also do a good antifreeze, which reportedly lowers running temperatures, (Motul Mocool Engine Cooling Additive).

BTW, I dont work for, nor do I have any affiliation with Motul.... :?

You should be regularly changing the oil, I change mine every 10 - 15 running hours.

I also change the cartridge filter every 2 - 3 oil changes. Each time you change the oil you should remove the lower "screen" oil filter & clean. I'd suggest you use anti-seize (copper paste) on the drain plug & screen filter plug threads, as you can round the bolt heads fairly easily.

Lots of plastics & graphics available on e-bay if you search on Husaberg etc.

Good luck

Crispin

zar · Jun 11, 2011

Welcome to the BERG"resistance is futile " I would like to see some pics of a 98 fe, I bought a 98 fc for the same $ and think I stole it. Get to know a member "TAFFY" he seems to know alot about these bikes
I use Castrol 5w-50w synthetic with good results.

sashephe · Jun 11, 2011

Hello again, thanks for the replies. pictures are coming tommorow, it was too dark tonight, but the bike has stopped running now :cuss: . I replaced the oil, antifreeze and gas. I took the recommendation and went with Motul. I also added in a carb cleaner solution. At first the bike would fire up and run briefly, with white smoke, dying with any throttle. After experiencing this for about 45 minutes I decided I would try with just the gasoline and no additive. I dumped the tank again, and put just the gasoline in this time. from this point it seems to refuse to start at all. Ive tried with the choke both on and off, but it only sputtered for about a second once. I think I got 91 octane gas, is this the problem? or did I mess something up when I had the bike disasembled?

Crispin · Jun 11, 2011

White smoke usually suggests presence of water. It could be that water has accumulated over storage time following ingress of moisture/condensation from the last run, (especially after 12 months).

Did you notice any water whilst doing the oil change?

You mention the bike was disassembled? Was that you or someone else, and what was taken apart?

Crispin

sashephe · Jun 12, 2011

Well the bike was running decently before I changed the fluids, so if water got in it would have been when i was doing that rather than when it was sitting. There white smoke wasnt present before I changed them.

I was the one to disassemble the bike, although it wasnt totally taken apart. When I said that I meant I had taken the plastics and fuel tank off, cleaned it up a bit, and changed all of the fluids. I didn't disassemble the engine or carb, or any of the electrical bits.

sashephe · Jun 12, 2011

Also, as far as I could tell there was no water in the oil when i changed it out.

sashephe · Jun 12, 2011

also the additive I put in the gas initially was red line SI-1 complete fuel system cleaner.

Bergini · Jun 12, 2011

well now its not running you have to start somewhere, if your mechanical skills are not that great (and even expeirenced guys make mistakes) check over what you did, does it have spark? what does plug look like? change it? maybe the carb does need to be taken apart after sittin that long? i recently bought a 1997 fe600e that had sat for a year and been hardly driven for a fews years before that, had to go throught it all 20 times to finally find camshaft timing one tooth off from previous overhaul, but it always started good, even after getting it runing good, would seemingly run a little different at different times, still backfires a little bit coming of WOT, or smoke here or there, has only gotten better and better the more its been driven,
engine only needs air, fuel, spark, compression to run, reguardless needs to run before doing anything else, if worried about coolant, could pressurize the system with whatever pressure the cap says and watch for pressure leak down, if no external leaks but pressure guage leaking down pull plug and look inside or crank engine with plug out and watch for coolant
sometimes different people percive smoke differntly than others, sometimes oil smoke looks just as white as coolant or fuel smoke and these bikes tend to smoke just a little bit at different times
start looking for the obvious while going through eveything and good luck!
its good to know your bike anyways...no better way to know than to take it apart a hundred times!!

sashephe · Jun 12, 2011

Well, as it turned out I just had too much oil in the bike. The advice on checking over what I did and minding the simple stuff was really helpful.I drained a bit of oil out, and the bike started up right quick, and ran fine all day. :cheers: .

Im trying to figure out posting pictures as we speak, and thanks again guys!

Crispin · Jun 13, 2011

Good news! :cheers:

First Berg, many questions

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