General guidance needed on my LTD

[snojet71]

Ok, I will need some guidance here.  Recent purchase, 81 LTD , 6000 miles but engine rebuilt about 1000 ago but that was  more than a few years ago.   Has sit for 3 years without running.   I siphoned as much fuel out of the tank as possible (about 6 ounces left) and put in 4 gallons fresh fuel.  Thought I might get lucky.   Nope.  It runs on spray but wont stay running.  Both cylinders are firing, runs a few seconds and dies out. It appears that I have gas at the carbs.   I do now see that one rubber carb boot is cracked so I will need to address that.    Should I be concerned about crank seals at this point and how do I diagnose.   I have built and rebuilt many car motors but I'm pretty new to 2 cycles.  Any thoughts on how to proceed?
Is there one parts source when I get that far , or is it a "shop around/ask around" situation?? 
One more point.  I've got a couple years of projects lined up here.  Is there anyone on the east coast  (NE Pa for me) that does Kawi work as a sideline or primary business???      Thanks,  Greg

[snojet71]

One other point on the previous post,  I see my carbs are marked B36AL but I dont see the name.  They are butterfly type.   Are these the originals?   Keihan?  (Mispelled)

[jimvw57]

Sounds like Keihns to me. The Mikunis are completely different and have a slide in them instead of the butterfly type of throttle plate, and yours uses an accelerator pump where the Mikunis don't. The throttle cables are a completely different setup using a seperate cable from the carbs to the oil pump too.

Your carbs are similar to the ones HD uses on their motorcycles, and some parts can be modified to fit (I have been told)

[JDmatt]

If the gas was sitting in those carbs for all that time, they they are probably all gummed up and will need to be cleaned/rebuilt as a starting point.

To check the clutch side seal after you get it running, you can try spraying starting fluid behind the clutch.  If it revs up, the starting fluid is being pulled into the engine and the seal is bad.  Unless these engines have a seal guard, then that won't work (I don't know if they do or not).  Otherwise you just have to pull the clutch & recoil/flywheel/ignition to inspect. 

[ChaChi]

From my experience with the butterfly carbs they seem to be quite picky about any dirt at all, more so then any round slides i've tinkered with... So clean them good and make sure you take the pilot jets out and clean them well and blow out with compressed air...

[snojet71]

Thanks guys,  did the LTD yesterday.   Today I fired the 82 intruder (bought them as a pair and both sat the same time period)  and pretty much the same thing, although the intruder starts and runs longer.  But it idles high, then low, somewhat unresponsive and the gags/coughs a little.   Of course this one has Mikunis.  Guess I got some cleaning to do.  Greg