Seeing its the silly season [must be lockdown lol] Is it possible for the armature polarity to be reversed so the starter is spinning it backward. Ok lockdown is getting too me!!. Have had that happen in the old days to generators not charging after being in there & had to close the cutout in the regulator & put it back right again. Actually the same thing happened the by fuel pump on my car in the "70's, a Triumph 2.5PI. I'd put brushes in it & headed off to a motocross, got just out of town & it stopped. The pump in the boot was red hot. Mate from work with me was a very clever technical guy [RIP MIke] & said polarity has reversed, so shorted something out & it was away & never ever gave any more trouble.

hahaha! I haven't been doing that!

ok I win, its running!

well messed with it all day. when I got the bike I took the left cover off and water came out. I ordered a almost complete lower off ebay just to replace my rusty parts. when I got it, it was obvious it had been dropped in shipping. the governor was bent. I have a post in the wanted section here. anyway I was able to disassemble it and straighten it up. first every time I did the timing, it took a bit of patients. I have been completely baffled as to why my points had to be at the completely at the end of adjustment to get the timing good. well, come to find out the stator in that motor got bent too! the timing was all over the place! put in my old stator, cleaned up, went ahead and refurbished my original governor (it's a little pitted), re gapped the points, re-timed it (now they are in the middle of their adjustment) added a car battery in the equation, and it fired right up! holy cow what a fiasco!

the clutch wasn't working for me. redid all under the cover, adjusted all, still no. I pushed it down the hill bump started it and rode it around town for awhile, seems to be fine now.

thanks to all for putting in their thoughts! your time is greatly appreciated!

Awesome man! Another success! Nice work.

Great news, & we need some of that. Great satisfaction in sorting it yourself too. Top man. Clutch would have been stuck together from sitting but often come unstuck with a bit of hard use with clutch pulled in.

May have to do the bump start thing a few times, as it can continue to get stuck until you change the transmission fluid or dis-assemble the clutch and clean the plates (also changing the fluid), or replace the clutch plates.

thanks everybody. i did change the crankcase fluid, but all i had was automotive oil. next time in town i'll get some motorcycle oil.