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Pastors bike just died.......

T

theteacher

Member
Left for a ride with my pastor this afternoon. 3 miles down the road, his bike dies, just dies. It has nearly a full tank of fuel and the battery wouldn't hardly turn it over, yet he hadn't had any problems starting it up 'till then. Tried to push start, no go. Bike has a carb. I came home and got my car and cables, went back, and it wouldn't even start when being jumped. It turned over fine, just wouldn't fire. Any ideas.
Just curious how it can go from starting and running fine, to dead, won't start.

2005 Sportster 1200 with carb
 
Well I'm not an expert troubleshooter, but I would pull the plugs (right after turning it over a few times) and look and smell them to see if there's any evidence of gas on them. Also lay them against the heads to ground them and then turn the engine over and watch to see if they spark.
 
Not to be smart, but did you check the kill switch?
Make sure fuel switch is in the "on" position?
 
Keeping in mind with the other posters, try opening up the float bowl drain plug, gas into a clear glass and see if clean. Check behind the fuel petcock for the vacuum line and make sure it is not pinched, cracked or missing. Of course once you confirmed that fuel and spark are there, compression check is next, but I would be more inclined problem is fueling or electrical...
 
Also, want to rule out the obvious, make sure the fuel petcock's on...

Was the fuel fresh, or has bike been sitting?
 
Well, I pulled the plugs today, figured I'd start there, and I'm getting spark to both plugs. That surprised me, I was expecting a faulty coil. So the next thing missing to create a running motor would be gas. This bike has a carb and I know nothing about them. Is there a simple check for something besides making sure the gas tank has fuel, which it does, it's nearly full. I've turned the petcock every which way, still no runny.
Any ideas/help is appreciated. Last resort is taking it to the shop, I'm trying to help pastor avoid that cost.
The bike has been running fine. The fuel is fresh, we ride every couple weeks, plus his sons ride it in between.
 
You may try a squirt of fuel into the carb and see if the engine pops off then.

You may also view the throat of the carb and open the throttle. You should see a squirt of fuel if the system is working right, if you don't see the squirt, then track backwards to the tank and find out why. Possibly a hung up float or a problem with the petcock or even debris in the tank too.
 
Bike is RUNNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's a vacuum hose on the back of the petcock that came off. A guy on another forum told me to check it, and sure enough, it was off ! Put it on, cranked it and 5 seconds later, fuel reached the cylinders and we have lift off !!!!!!!
Thanks guys !
 
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