Winter project: bringing an old sidecar motorcycle back to life

Not everything I do involves a server. A friend of mine bought an old Soviet-era sidecar motorcycle in the autumn, the heavy kind you still see on village roads around Kyrgyzstan, and I offered to help him get it running over the winter break. I know a lot more about PHP than about engines, so this has been humbling.

What we've done so far

• Drained years of old fuel from the tank and found a small colony of rust living in it.
• Took the carburettors apart on his kitchen table, cleaned every jet and put them back together. Twice.
• Replaced the spark plugs, the battery and most of the cables we could reach.
• Discovered that the noise we had blamed on the gearbox was the sidecar wheel bearing.

On the third weekend it started, ran for about forty seconds and stalled, and we both cheered like it had won a race. The garage is unheated and it was minus twelve outside, so the tea flask did more work than either of us.

What it reminded me of

Working on a machine with no manual, no forum thread for your exact model and a neighbour who keeps leaning in with advice is a lot like supporting a young community. You learn by taking things apart, you write down what worked, and the neighbour is usually right.

If anyone here restores old bikes or cars, I'd love tips on getting an old carburettor to idle evenly. Photos of the finished machine in spring, hopefully.