[jcmars44]

Background:

I am currently living in Costa Rica and have bought my first motorcycle, an old 1980's Yamaha 175 cc dirt bike. Everyone tells me this is a great bike, sufficient power, and the parts are easy to find.

The problem is that the bike will not start. My mechanic has told me the gas valve (llave de gasolina en español) needs to be replaced and possibly the float bowl so that the engine doesn't flood every time I kick start it. The only way I can get it running is to push it down the road with the clutch in second. To compound the problem, we just had a major rain storm and when I tried to push start it, water was coming out of the muffler.

Questions:

1. Are there any methods to starting the bike when the gas valve doesn't work and the engine gets flooded.

2. Is this problem with the water coming out of the muffler simply a matter of waiting for it to evaporate or could this be a more serious problem.

I have tried everything I know to get answers to these questions and I pray someone at this forum can help me seeing is how my Spanish is only adequate and my knowledge of motorcycles is about half as good as that.

Gracias,

John