Won't start

[jackdim]

Bike won't start, totally died on me t'other day so here's the story:

Was running on fumes so refilled at Asda and set off, upto ~8k rpm and no power and cuts out, no noise. Battery is a bit shite so quickly died from trying to restart, got car battery and got it to fire but wouldn't rev above ~1.5k rpm no matter the throttle position. Pushed it home and did the following:

Check spark, firing strong on all 4
Stripped, cleaned and rebuilt carbs
Checked fuel pump operation, fine
Bypassed fuel pump and fed fuel directly to the carbs
Checked chain tension and tensioner (but not checked timing yet)
Swapped over the pulsar coil pickup

Still nothing, its sparking and getting fuel (I believe) but don't think it would lose enough compression on all 4 to not even fire, it ran sweet before it shut down. If comp was the issue would prob fire but just run shite for a while until it eventually died.

I don't think it is, but unless I've missed something obvious its timing as its the last thing I haven't checked but the bike ran sweet beforehand so surely couldn't be the cause?

Also someone mentioned something about corrosion in the ignition wires coming from the switch but they all looked fine.

Anything I've missed? Ideas?

[Mad Phil]

Diesel ??

[RedexRobB]

If your plugs are firing nicely then chances are your ignition switch is fine. Not sure if directly feeding carbs without the pump works but you can make sure its working by putting one of the fuel pump pipes in fuel, turning the motor over and see if fuel comes spurting out the other pipe.

Timing, i wouldnt worry about as you said it was fine before and unless something drastic has happened its probably fine.

Have you checked yor CDI? Any chance you can borrow someone elses? Are the HT leads on the right plugs? Tried a new batch of fuel? Float heights correct?

[jackdim]

Cheers for the replies lads, definately filled up it with petrol.

Got it to just about start, aired the motor out and cleaned the plugs. Then me and my mate tried another set of carbs with the pump bypassed, airbox on and sprayed carb cleaner (aka easy start) into the box and she fired up briefly until she ran out of cleaner then died. So it must be a fuelling issue, so will air motor out, clean plugs and strip, clean and rebuild carbs to check they're working ok and then retry. Will also get myself a new fuel filter as the current one looks a bit suspect.

[jackdim]

Sorry Rob, didn't fully read your reply.

CDI swapped over, ht leads and coils swapped over (originals looked ok though).

Fuel pump does work

Hopefully I can get it to fire up on its own carbs, will also have to test the compression (related issue? dunno) and possibly re-ring it

[jackdim]

Tried another set of carbs, fully cleaned them, stripped and rebuilt then mixed up some Redex and Petrol in the washing up bottle (dummy tank) connected it to the carbs then she fired up! Fucking success ftw!

[RedexRobB]

nicely done! So it was the carbs then?

[jackdim]

nicely done! So it was the carbs then?

Yup it were a carb blockage initially, then flooding from me trying to start it. When I got it home and cleaned the carbs I must not been thorough enough or the bike was still flooded at that point. So I let the engine air to eliminate the flooding and then gave the carbs a proper good seeing to and now its perfect again . I completely emptied the tank as well, took the fuel tap off and loads of sediment shite came out which must have been a contributer to my problems.

Just come back from visiting the girlfriend, done about 20 miles (had a little blast on the zxr) trouble free.