Okay, I think I have this licked. And if so (Several quick and easy starts suggest so) the "cure" was, well, amazingly simple.
As simple as adding a container of Techron and running it through.
As silly as that sounds it was for me a 'forgotten' fix, not a newly learned one.
Back in my active motorcycling days (I was, among other things, a club founder and a columnist for the official Ducati website) I came to know of a product sold by Yamaha called "Ring Free." It was a super fuel additive fuel system and combustion cleaner/solvent that actually was rebranded Chevron Techron.
I started using it yearly in my Spider and did so for some time, and then just sort of forgot about it. (It's been probably 8 or 10 years since I last used it)
Interestingly a mechanic I was using for a time called it his secret fix. Many times, he told me, he'd have a rough running car that did not respond to any 'normal' adjustment. He'd add Techron and then wait for the owner to rave about what he'd done for their car. "One good run over Temple Mountain was all it'd take" he told me.
So I ordered some, put it in the tank and took my baby out for two longish back road blitzes with a rest inbetween.
Two because I was pretty sure the carb's enrichment system was affected so the rest and then cold restart, then rest again and restart seemed to make getting to that more likely.
That's it. Now she at least seems to start up as she used to. East, peasy.
Oh, but also a part of this was that separate fuel pump issue. That's been an on and off on and off for some time. Easy to identity (there is no sound of the fuel pump when the ignition switch is on), but a beast to resolve. A new ignition switch didn't do it. Cleaning the connectors that I could see and reach didn't either.
My "fix" -- more actually a workaround -- was simple in concept, but took a bit of work to do right. It was a fused, lit, switch in the cabin that turned on the fuel pump independently from the ignition switch.
If I turn on the ignition and don't hear the pump I simply switch it on, and then when the engine catches turn it off.
Here's the switch lit for "on."
It is hard mounted, but easily accessible, and easily removable of that ever seems good. The wiring is neat and simple with inline fuses (two actually) and runs through the battery box and rear bulkhead behind the seat -- all carefully run through grommets.
It works like a charm.
-Don
