I'm not used to working on vehicles that use a liquid coolant and radiator without having either a gauge or idiot light to alert the operator of a too-hot condition. And this is an A-1 version. So how does one go about determining whether this bike is operating under normal temperature conditions?
When I had it running this past weekend for 2-3 minutes (after I installed the radiators and filled it with water), it puked all of the coolant out the radiator cap. Many times, in my years of automotive experience, this would indicate a head gasket failure, but I am fairly certain that this is not the case here because it appears the previous owner had installed a new one. So in this case I assumed this was due to air pockets since it had recently been all apart by the previous owner.
After letting it cool down and the above-mentioned 15 minutes of kicking it to try and re-start without success, I pulled the carb, and as of right now (and after a thorough and needed carb cleaning) I am awaiting a used eBay air cut-off diaphragm to be delivered so I can reassemble and try it all again. (I wasn't willing to spend $60.00 on a new one);
http://www.ebay.com/itm/302038533313?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT,
I am sure the carb cleaning/rebuild will help things, especially in regard to the running of the engine, but how will I know if the the cooling system is doing it's job if I don't have a gauge? And how should I proceed from here?
This cooling system is a bit of uncharted territory for me.