Fellow riders,
If anyone out there is willing to oblige a noob seeking a little further mechanical insight, here's my blue Vulcan's problem put simply:
After running smoothly for days in a row, it was left out in the rain one night and not run for 48 hours afterward. Now it will not start up.
It has power; lights and igntn. are fine and starter cranks, but no fire-up.
Further details: Just prior to it running fine for days, I completely disassembled, cleaned (with carb dip) all jets and metal components, and reassembled and reinstalled the carbs (EN500C) with an immediately successful start-up. It had failed to start up before after it sat for a while; hence the rebuild. After the rebuild, I filled it with ethanol-free gas and it ran fine except for a slight throttle lag, until just now when it sat overnight in the rain.
I'm almost certain it's further trouble with the carbs (though I'm no expert by any means) and I've tentatively narrowed my options down to these:
1. Buy all new internals (jets, gaskets, vacuum valve assy., etc.) and re-build/re-install
2. Re-jet with dyno jets
3. Buy a whole new set of EN500 carbs
4. Switch to Mikuni carbs (anyone know if these are a little less prone to failure?)
And if I missed something totally obvious then by all means call me out!
Fellow riders,
If anyone out there is willing to oblige a noob seeking a little further mechanical insight, here's my blue Vulcan's problem put simply:
After running smoothly for days in a row, it was left out in the rain one night and not run for 48 hours afterward. Now it will not start up.
It has power; lights and igntn. are fine and starter cranks, but no fire-up.
Further details: Just prior to it running fine for days, I completely disassembled, cleaned (with carb dip) all jets and metal components, and reassembled and reinstalled the carbs (EN500C) with an immediately successful start-up. It had failed to start up before after it sat for a while; hence the rebuild. After the rebuild, I filled it with ethanol-free gas and it ran fine except for a slight throttle lag, until just now when it sat overnight in the rain.
I'm almost certain it's further trouble with the carbs (though I'm no expert by any means) and I've tentatively narrowed my options down to these:
1. Buy all new internals (jets, gaskets, vacuum valve assy., etc.) and re-build/re-install
2. Re-jet with dyno jets
3. Buy a whole new set of EN500 carbs
4. Switch to Mikuni carbs (anyone know if these are a little less prone to failure?)
And if I missed something totally obvious then by all means call me out!
Any advice? Thanks in advance!
What year 500?
Mikunis are good carbs. Did you check if your floats are working right? Did you check your fuel bowl levels? Did you check to see if your choke is working right? Did you check your lines if clogged? Those carbs you have need a little more work than just dipping if you are cleaning or rebuilding but it is worthwhile to do it yourself if you can. Have you used Seafoam to clean out your fuel system after getting it riunning successfully? Just throwing things out right now that you should check but someone with a 500 should come along soon enough with more to check.
__________________
It ain't about where you live; it's about how you live. So, ride to live, Bruh.
Comanche,
Mine's a '97, I verified that both the floats are working right, but I don't know how to check the exact level of fuel in 'em while the carb is put together. I just know that there IS fuel in the bowls, since it drains out smoothly every time I open the bleeder screws (I get about 3-5 fluid oz. out of each one every time). My choke is good, my fuel lines are good, I've yet to try sea foam...will let you know where I get with that.
sfair, thanks for that link! I'll be sure to score one of them and check my spark before trying a little sea foam. Also, after my first rebuild I scrapped the sock filters on my petcock (what was left of 'em after they'd been chewed up by the ethanol gas) and now run an inline filter which seems to be doing its job, so I don't think I'm getting crap from inside my tank into my carbs. Thank you all for the good tips, I'll post my results as them come in!
Carb trouble...too worn out to fix?
1967 Triumph Bonneville 650 T-120
Linear Mode
