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2001 Vulcan 800 Classic Issues

5K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  jfl1960 
#1 ·
Howdy all?

I did purchase a decent 2001 Vulcan Classic 800 3 months ago. When I bought it, it wasn't running. I hauled it home and cleaned up the carb and it started running for a while. It wasn't running as smoothly as I had hoped, but it was running. Given the fact that I paid only $650 for it. I was very pleased with my purchase as the bike has only 9800 miles on the clock and had several interesting extras. I put it away for a couple of months, and it simply stopped working. No matter what I have done it would not start. I also have noticed that there was a small puddle of oil underneath it. I did a bit of detective work and was able to find the general area of the leak. It is under the sprocket. I am including some pictures so you can see where exactly is the leak.
My questions now are:
What could have happened that prevents the bike from running. It turns over and seems about to catch, but it simply wouldn't start
What could be the cause of the leak and how can I deal with it?
One detail that could be important is that when I got the bike, the petcock was probably leaking as I have found a lot of gas coming from a hose that runs under the seat.
Any input and recommendations would be highly appreciated.
Thanks
 

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#3 ·
The oil could be coming from the chain, did you clean and oil it when you got the bike running? May also be the seal on the output shaft leaking. Was a fuel stabilizer used in the bike when you got it started last time? How old is the gas? If it had gas in it when you got it, was it replaced, drained and cleaned tank at least with fresh gas? Even though the carb was cleaned, if it is picking up trash from the tank, carb may be plugged again. Old gas could be why was running bad when you did have it started. Did you replace the plugs? Is the bike stock, or does it have aftermarket or modified intake and/or exhaust? Check the petcock by removing the larger hose. You may get a few drops of gas then in the run or reserve positions, but should stop. If it continues to flow, replace petcock. After this is done replace oil, gas will get into it if enough leaks into the carb. The hose you mentioned leaking gas I believe is a tank vent and if gas tank is full, its not uncommon to see a little gas under bike when parked
 
#4 ·
the hose that runs under the seat, you mention gas was leaking out, I wonder if that's the air vent hose from the carb bowl, and you mention having problems with the petcock, so what might have happened is the spring in the petcock has weakened and not closing off the gas line fuel to the carb bowl, so gravity pulls the gas from the tank into the carb bowl and is overflowing thru that air vent hose where the end of the air vent hose exits under the seat somewhere, that's my suspicion, if you can fix the petcock or get a new spring that gas leak thru that hose will stop, that's all I can think of for that, sorry I can't be of any more help, and for your oil leak, there might be a bad rubber o-ring seal around the output shaft behind the sprocket, just a guess, you'll have to remove the sprocket to get at it, or it might be a bigger problem to get at it, not sure if you can get at that o-ring from the sprocket side
 
#5 ·
92055-035 is the Kawasaki number on that o-ring
 
#6 ·
if your motor is not catching, could be too lean a mixture or too rich, and since you have a gas leak, I suspect that it's too rich, you probably have spark since you said it seems about to catch
 
#7 ·
if you were too lean then I was going to suggest putting a bit of gas in a spray bottle, remove the air intake cover and filter and just spray a little bit directly into the carb throat as you turn it over
 
#10 ·
not that much of a hazard doing that, let me share what my brother in law and me did in north Carolina, the old 1977 ford pickup for sale the young lad was asking too much for would not start, but what we did was find an empty water bottle laying around the owner has shot full of holes with his shotgun, I know cause I saw plenty empty shotgun casings around, so with a bit of gas in that bottle (I couldn't find anything else to put the gas in), and me sitting on the engine right over the carb, my brother in law turned it over with a borrowed battery (his was dead) while I poured gas down the carb throat while I sat there on the engine, that's how we got that old beat up ford going and up and onto our trailer. so my experience tells me that if I didn't die or explode in a firey ball of flame doing that, you won't die either spraying gas into your bike's carb throat standing beside the bike, it's not going to explode and catch you on fire, and you won't be sitting on the motor like I was, so there's a good chance that no nasty hazard will happen, oh but then there is a risk to your health, sure if you are smoking a hot stogie like 2 inches from your gas spray, life is full of hazards, you could be sleeping in bed dreaming peaceful dreams and the ceiling fan above suddenly comes loose and fall on your head cutting off your head with one of its turning blades, now there's a hazard, or you could be minding your own business sitting on your nice patio chair outside enjoying the sunshine and unknowingly get smashed to death by a falling coffin that fell out of the blown cargo door of a passing jetliner 7 miles high, (now that one has happened but the coffin with the body landed in a farmer's field), now there's another hazard you want to watch out for, or you could be cutting your grass with your newly bought cheap on-sale lawnmower and thinking how good life is to get it so cheap when all of a sudden the bolt holding the blade falls out and the blade comes flying off at you and cuts you in half causing you to bleed to death right there on your half-cut lawn, now there's a nasty hazard for you, come on, life has hazards, what are the chances that spraying a bit of gas into your bike's carb throat will explode you into a ball of flame like a New Jersey 4th of July firecracker? come on, be like a hell's angel biker riding his chopper 120 mph down the LA freeway at rush hour looking death in the face and smiling with his teeth showing, fear nothing, oh wait, forget that one, someone will see that on their car dash cam and put it in the road rage section on youtube where millions will see it and say, that guy is nuts
 
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#12 ·
Ya, use a spray bottle with gas in it to see if its a fuel or fuel delivery issue. Clean carb again if it runs when you spray the fuel. Clean/replace fuel supply line as well if so. I had dirt dobber nest in my carb vent tube before and it wouldn't run.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Hope your having some luck, as previously stated all you need is spark and gas to run, check for spark first, don't assume you have good spark you must check, if that's good then check for fuel, there is a drain plug on the carb float bowl, to verify you have fuel in the bowl I would open that and see if any gas comes out or if gas is dirty etc..., also with the filter cover off crank the throttle fuel should squirt into the throttle throat from the accelerator pump action if there is any fuel in bowl and if the pump diaphragm is intact and working. No need for a squirt bottle and gas unless you like making a mess and possible starting a fire, if all is well then about 1/3 cup of fuel will drain out and stop, if no fuel comes out then the carb will have to come off again and be cleaned, suspect the main fuel line and needle, the tank should always be emptied if gas age is unknown, then new fuel and a full bottle of seafoam in the initial new tank full of gas will help remove residue from tank and carb, even a f'ed up engine will run until it actually seizes or blows up as long as there is gas and spark. BTW remove EPA crap while you have the tank off it's easy and will give you a bit more HP, just google "EPA Mod Vulcan 800" there's a good YouTube video for this. Fuel problems are much easier than electrical to trace so I would personally make 100% certain that you have good spark before wasting time on the fuel system, good spark is a bright blue spark seen on a spark plug not a dull orange or red spark, to check spark first make sure your battery is fully charged, then simply get another plug rated the same as what's in your bike (I keep a used plug in my tool box in case I need to check my ignition system, so far haven't needed it yet), remove spark plug wire from front cylinder and plug in the spare spark plug, now wrap a wire tightly around the body of the spark plug or use a battery jumper alligator clamp whichever you prefer and attach the other end to a good ground on the motor, not the frame. Crank bike and observe the spark at the electrode, then repeat same procedure for rear cylinder, blue is a good spark orange or red is a weak spark, weak spark with a low compression engine and dirty gas can cause the problem you described also. I would also do a compression test just for the heck of it.

If after verifying good spark and checking for gas in bowl the problem most likely is in the carb itself, and a cleaning and complete rebuild would be my next step. if you get the bike running I strongly suggest some seafoam approx every 1000 miles or so, or once a month depending on how much you ride for a while to really clean things out and prevent further problems fuel wise.
 
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