Hello! I've recently taken on a project bike a month ago. I got it for 500 dollars. Couldn't pass it up. The guy said the bike just wouldn't start one day and so it sat on the porch without an enclosure half way under a tarp for nearly a year. I'm going to take you through steps I took and hopefully you can point out where I went wrong. I took mechanics in school and I've done all my work to my old Ninja 636. Thought this would be no problem. So I've been doing all the work at his house because i'm moving soon and I didn't want to move the bike twice without it running.
To start off I charged the battery. The lights slowly came to life and the bike cranked twice and I heard the starter buzzing like the battery just died. Battery got turned into a core deposit 20 minutes later and I had a new battery. Oddly they don't make modern batteries for these but I managed to get a DuraLast Gold power sports battery to barely fit in the slot. (ETX15L) The battery came pre-charged so after it was hooked up the lights came on instantly and it cranked and cranked but there was no sign of it wanting to start. So I figured it had bad fuel and the carburetor was backed up. Sadly the petcock doesn't have an off setting so I had a gas can nearby to drain it into. 1 - 2 - 3... The hose is off.. the tank is full.. and no fuel is coming out.. Weird.. I couldn't drain the fuel so I leaned it on it's side and removed the petcock. It looked fine. I disassembled it completely. Checking it. It seemed perfect. Nothing was clogged. I put it back on and still nothing. Nothing was in the tank but fuel. So I bought a petcock rebuild kit. Few days later I rebuilt it and fuel was coming out. Weirdly though it only let a small stream out and then after I turned the knob from on to res it stopped completely. No matter where I set it. So I took the petcock off again and removed the 2 filters. It was coming out like it should. But when I turned it on its side, the petcock bubbled and out of curiosity I put it back up and the stream was slow again.. Frustrated, I moved on to the carburetor. I removed it and had my cleaners ready and tools. I opened the bowls and they were dry as a desert. The jets where clear of particles. Nothing was in these carbs. So I wrapped up everything to the petcock being defective. I got a clear gas line and installed it on the carburetor. "Which by the way was even worse reinstalling than it was taking off. " Connected the gas line to the carburetor and gas went into the tube but stopped at the carbs gas input. I removed the tank with the line still in the carburetor and nothing was going in. I put my mouth on the tube and blew the gas into the carburetor. Thought maybe I missed something when I went to clean it. So I tried the tank again and same thing. Blew the gas into the carburetor and tried the bike again, it just cranked and cranked. I tried spraying starting fluid into the intake and nothing. I moved on to electrical. I went to see the plugs but the area where they were was submerged in water. I went the store and got compressed air in a can and blew it all out. I wanted to see the plugs but I didn't have my spark plug remover set on me. I plugged in new sparks plugs on the bike to see it I could get a spark, but I didn't see spark for either side. I went to plug the old plugs back in but the coil wouldn't go on. I removed the protector on the coil and only then did it snap back on the old plugs. I tried the bike again with the choke out and it roared to life. Confused out of my mind, but I just went with it. I tired giving it a little throttle but it bogged like it wanted to die so I backed off. The bike was loud so I put the choke in one click and another. It seemed to idle just fine. Still bogged if I tried giving it gas. The headlight was on, it wouldn't turn on even when I tried cranking it, which I thought was weird. I just thought the bulb was bad. I'm guessing the bike drank up all the gas in the carbs and it died out. I repeated blowing gas into the carbs and I wasn't able to get it to start again after 20 minutes of trying. That puts us to now.. I have no clue whats going on with this thing. It's a mystical creature to me because something shouldn't be able to start if it has no spark haha I don't know what to do or where to start. I want to take the carburetor off and see if I missed something. Maybe there is a vacuum issue.. Along with others. What should I do?
To start off I charged the battery. The lights slowly came to life and the bike cranked twice and I heard the starter buzzing like the battery just died. Battery got turned into a core deposit 20 minutes later and I had a new battery. Oddly they don't make modern batteries for these but I managed to get a DuraLast Gold power sports battery to barely fit in the slot. (ETX15L) The battery came pre-charged so after it was hooked up the lights came on instantly and it cranked and cranked but there was no sign of it wanting to start. So I figured it had bad fuel and the carburetor was backed up. Sadly the petcock doesn't have an off setting so I had a gas can nearby to drain it into. 1 - 2 - 3... The hose is off.. the tank is full.. and no fuel is coming out.. Weird.. I couldn't drain the fuel so I leaned it on it's side and removed the petcock. It looked fine. I disassembled it completely. Checking it. It seemed perfect. Nothing was clogged. I put it back on and still nothing. Nothing was in the tank but fuel. So I bought a petcock rebuild kit. Few days later I rebuilt it and fuel was coming out. Weirdly though it only let a small stream out and then after I turned the knob from on to res it stopped completely. No matter where I set it. So I took the petcock off again and removed the 2 filters. It was coming out like it should. But when I turned it on its side, the petcock bubbled and out of curiosity I put it back up and the stream was slow again.. Frustrated, I moved on to the carburetor. I removed it and had my cleaners ready and tools. I opened the bowls and they were dry as a desert. The jets where clear of particles. Nothing was in these carbs. So I wrapped up everything to the petcock being defective. I got a clear gas line and installed it on the carburetor. "Which by the way was even worse reinstalling than it was taking off. " Connected the gas line to the carburetor and gas went into the tube but stopped at the carbs gas input. I removed the tank with the line still in the carburetor and nothing was going in. I put my mouth on the tube and blew the gas into the carburetor. Thought maybe I missed something when I went to clean it. So I tried the tank again and same thing. Blew the gas into the carburetor and tried the bike again, it just cranked and cranked. I tried spraying starting fluid into the intake and nothing. I moved on to electrical. I went to see the plugs but the area where they were was submerged in water. I went the store and got compressed air in a can and blew it all out. I wanted to see the plugs but I didn't have my spark plug remover set on me. I plugged in new sparks plugs on the bike to see it I could get a spark, but I didn't see spark for either side. I went to plug the old plugs back in but the coil wouldn't go on. I removed the protector on the coil and only then did it snap back on the old plugs. I tried the bike again with the choke out and it roared to life. Confused out of my mind, but I just went with it. I tired giving it a little throttle but it bogged like it wanted to die so I backed off. The bike was loud so I put the choke in one click and another. It seemed to idle just fine. Still bogged if I tried giving it gas. The headlight was on, it wouldn't turn on even when I tried cranking it, which I thought was weird. I just thought the bulb was bad. I'm guessing the bike drank up all the gas in the carbs and it died out. I repeated blowing gas into the carbs and I wasn't able to get it to start again after 20 minutes of trying. That puts us to now.. I have no clue whats going on with this thing. It's a mystical creature to me because something shouldn't be able to start if it has no spark haha I don't know what to do or where to start. I want to take the carburetor off and see if I missed something. Maybe there is a vacuum issue.. Along with others. What should I do?