'96 SP500

Ran it out of fuel the other day, and had to switch to reserve. No biggie right, done it a number of times and never had any problems before...

So, I get it back to the shed, park it and kill it, put 5 gal. of fuel in it, turn the fuel valve from res. to on, and now it won't start. WHY???

I pulled the plug and it was wet, so I cleaned it off, ran the starter for 15 seconds or so w/o the plug in thinking it was flooded, checked spark to the plug (nice blue spark, firing as it should), put plug back in, let bike sit for 15 minutes or so, hit the starter, and nothing. Just turns over and over, but will not fire. WTH??

I pulled the plug again and it was dripping with fuel. Cleaned it again, let the whole thing sit overnight with fuel shut off and plug out, put plug back in this a.m. and still no start. I'm about to beat this thing to death with a hammer... anybody got an idea before I go to swinging on it? TIA.

-J

 

Do you have an inline filter? It's possible the float valve got plugged up with dirt when it ran low, and it's not coming out of the overflow but instead going into the engine and flooding out. Quick way to check would be to shut the fuel completely off, tip it on it's side a little (OK, I'm used to doing this on sport quads or bikes, you'll probably want to just partially drain the bowl), then do what you did before but maybe a little longer to clear it out. If it fires up & runs with the bowl only 1/2 full it's probably the issue. Then turn the fuel back on, give it a minute, and if it dies out again you know that's what's going on.

 

Check and make sure you dont have gas in the oil, Ive seen the needle and seat go bad in carb and fill the crankcase with gas, flood it and it wont run, you dont want it to run like this.