i dont know what could be wrong with it but good luck in fixing her up and hopefully it wont cost you to much......... good luck and ride safe

Thanks for all the help... I'm waiting on a couple carb rebuild kits to come in and for a couple nice shiny Iridium plugs to arrive and then hopefully I'll be able to get her running. I'm pretty optimistic 

What werase said ... except ...
Do not buy NGK plugs ... champions ... NGK seems to have shitted out of late ... nothing but trouble POS.
Cool.
Srinath.

It probably just needs a battery and the carbs cleaned.  It's been sitting.

Uhoh, the plugs I bought were NGK Iridiums. Whats wrong with them?

Nothing.

Srinath has his head up his butt

NGK or N-D
do not buy champion
i hate running a champion in my lawnmower
AC not much better

get what ever you want
Srinath will continue to buy champion and i'll continue to buy NGK
just get standard plugs
nothing fancy

oppinions are like GS's....everyone has one and they are all different

If it started with starting fluid, then it probably wasn't getting gas.  That is almost certainly the carburetor and/or bad gas.  Carb should be one of the first things you address. 

Oh, and where are you?

I'm in Chicago (well, Oak Park). I figured it was a gas problem, so hopefully cleaning and rebuilding the carbs will help. I was pretty happy that I was able to keep it running after the starter fluid had burned off, so at least a little gas is getting to the engine.

So, after taking the carbs apart, I discovered that the little jet was totally clogged. After a long soak in kerosene and a thorough cleaning I was able to put them back together and back into the bike. During this process I also discovered that the choke cable was totally rusted through. I have no idea how the cretin managed to do it, but in the middle of the cable, inside the sheath, it had gotten completely rusted and wasn't moving at all. So, I bought a new cable (which hasn't actually arrived yet) and finished putting her back together. With a little starter fluid I was able to get her turning over, and it sounds like shes running pretty well. I tried putting her into gear on the centerstand and she did pretty well, although I think I'm gonna need to buy a new chain soonish. The new sparkplugs probably helped too. Anyway here are the pictures, I still need to get the title so I can't take it out yet, but altogether the bike only cost me about $1250 and seems to run fine. My dad was an @$$hole and took her up and back on our street since he used to ride, but I can't play with her for a couple days.

Tied her up in the van for transporting




Taking her apart...




The little POS switch that kept disabling the starter





Even more of a streetfighter than usual


The rusted choke cable. I rigged it up so I could still pull the choke open by hand so I can ride before the new cable comes in.


And finally, the porn










I can't wait to start riding her!

overall I think you did great. bike looks good and if it runs as well as you say, you did real good. congratulations for both the bike and your preserverance...

Yeah, what pablo said....it sounds as though you got a GREAT start wrenching!