You little beauty!!!!
We've managed to get the old Johno to start! Great work all around fellas, you took a newbie with no engine experience and helped guide him to start a motor that hasn't been cranked for about 2 or so years. I think we should all be pretty happy with this combined effort and awesome result.
I've had my 13yo boy help with a few bits, tinkering along the way, so we've both learnt something from the experience.
OK, so today (after last night knowing I had a good spark) I pulled the air box off, removed the fuel hose to the sides of the carbs, pulled the drain plugs and basically just filled them with carb cleaner and opened/closed throttle/choke, anything that moved, let it sit for a while, cleaned it out, put fuel back up to the motor and started cranking.
It took more than a few cranks, and to be honest I was almost about stop, thinking I was going to have to go a full carb rebuild (which i still might, see how it goes) but then it tried to kick one time, then blew some smoke another time, then kicked and blew smoke, etc, until it sounded like it really wanted to run!
I kept playing around with choke and throttle and finally managed to get it to run while applying a bit of throttle. It wont idle and it needs a bit of choke and play to get it to start, but I am so happy!
OK, so what i know now is that it will start and run, it wont idle, but also it is not pumping any water. Had the muffs on and plenty of water, but it didnt pump any out of back of engine where big holes are or from telltale. Also, when engine stopped it sounded like gurgling inside lower leg, so I think my next project will be the water pump.
Anyway, that's all for now, just really happy it started, and thanks again everyone who provided advice, give yourselves a pat on the back, you gave me the confidence to have a go, and you had the perserverance to stay with me even when it looked like it was going nowhere fast.
Cheers fellas, good work all around!