Aye leah,
Sounds a right scunner!
The petrol tap under the tank as you probably know is just a tap, 'ON' or 'OFF'. The tap on the near side of the frame is a vacuum tap, 'ON', 'PRIME' and 'RESERVE'. Have you connected a pipe from the top spigot of this tap to the small brass spigot on inlet side of the 'carb' manifold? If not, do so! To 'prime' the float bowl of the carb, turn the tap to prime and petrol should flow into the float bowl and then be stopped by the float needle seating as the float rises. There should be sufficient petrol in the carb to enable the bike to start or 'flood' it! If the bike starts, runs a short while and then splutters, suspect the petrol tank breather is blocked!
Clean the breather then try again. Once the carb is primed, the vacuum tap can be left in the 'ON' position.
Starting Sally from 'cold', even with warm ambient temperatures, requires full choke, take the engine through 2 TDC compressions (no need to thrash about, just turn the motor over!), ease over TDC for the 2nd time, allow kickstart to return to the top of the stroke, turn on ignition and swing the kickstart through the full arc. Sally usually starts and settles to a fast idle ~2000rpm. If not, take over TDC once then swing through again. If no response, shut the choke fully and try taking over TDC and then the swing through again. This usually results in at least a splutter or cough, which partially clears the unburnt fuel and the full choke maybe applied again. DON'T TWIDDLE THE THROTTLE OPEN AND CLOSED, WHILST DOING THIS, LEAVE IT SHUT UNTIL THE MOTOR FIRES AND RUNS ON THE CHOKE!
Check the thin orange wire from the coil beneath the front of the tank, for fracturing of the insulation close to the body of the coil. Sally's was fractured and the wires covered in verdigris!
Required cleaning and then encapsulating in slow setting Araldite. Clean ALL the earth connections to the frame, check for continuity, between wire, tab/connector and frame. Lightly 'Vaseline' or ACF50 after assembly to keep watertight and prevent corrosion. Check the wire from the coil to the spark plug for fractures as well. Buy a new plug cap (NGK XD05F)
<'NGK_parts_catalogue'> and ensure a clean tight fit onto the wire from the coil. Check ALL the connections from the alternator, back to the CDI unit, clean, waterproof them ALL!
Do you have a manual? If not, send me a PM and I will send a CD-ROM to you.
Have you used the diagrams from SteveH's www site? Here:
<'Wiring_1'>If 'Sweetheart'!
still proves reluctant, do you have good compression? At least 120psi, but better if you can achieve 150psi +. I know they will run on less, but loss of compression also means oiling up and all manner of other nasties are possible and we don't need that at the moment. Hopefully, removing the corrosion from the wiring and any blockages in the breathers will suffice.
Please keep us posted.
My regards, Bill.