Do Not know why she won't fire up

jazzyrigged

Jazzyrigged
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Belleville IL
OK folks, seems like this is the day that everything stops working. I was riding my bike home the other day when it died on me at a light in the morning. I was waiting at the light and it just stopped running. Fired it up and it ran ok, except it kept feeling like it was going to die on me (maybe that part was just psychological) almost like it was going to misfire. Got to work and then when i was going home it died again at another light. Fired back up, but it did not seem to fire up as quickly as before, and I took it home where she will not run at all.

Here's what I have checked on it:
Air filters are clean
I removed the sparkplugs one at a time on each side and they show spark when I try to start it.
The ignition is gapped correctly at TDC.
I removed the carburetors and thoroughly cleaned the living daylights out of them
Fuel lines just replaced with new fuel filters on each side.
When I took the carbs apart they did have fuel in them, so I am at a total loss right now.
I put two capfulls of Sea foam in the tank mixture and topped the tank off with 92 octane.

Now when I cleaned the carbs and put them back on the bike saturday the motorcycle initially fired one time when I first put them back on and tried to start it. After that first puff the motorcycle has not shown any signs of life. It just seems to crank and not do anything but laugh at me.

Any ideas would be extreemly helpful.
At this point I am very close to throwing in the towel on this beast and using this as my basis for an all electric cycle. I could probably at least get a few $ for some of the motor and electrical parts.

Thanks for listening to my rant everybody!
 
jazzy, I feel your pain.

Let me ask... what year is your bike and what ignition are you running? The stock coils on these bikes are notoriously weak in a best case scenario. Condensor(s)? Plug wires and caps? What are the weights on the ATU doing? Are they snapping back on the pivots freely as they should, or are they hanging out near or at full advance? If the latter, your bike will not fire. Are your brushes okay? Battery have/holding a charge? Charging system doing its job?

I spent weeks chasing an iggy problem through the carbs. Make sure your iggy system is top flight.

TC
 
the spark should be bright blue and be able to jump 10mm to the engine case. use an old spark plug and bend the ground strap straight out to test this..

if it's weak make sure you have 12.5v on the battery. if not, charge it. when it's charging check the alternator brushes, they';re probably worn too far. must be at least 7mm

sounds like you have points, if you have never put in new condensers you should do that. get 2 1960's Ford F100 condensers from an auto store. about $5 each. make sure they ground well to the frame
 
any oil on the points is bad and they will not spark. clean them with lacquer thinner and some card stock. do it a few times to get all the grease or oil off
 
Thanks for the advice gentlemen, heading home from work here in a few and we are going to try some of these items you all suggested. Figures just as the motorcycle stopped working, so did my laptop. I'll post tommorow with my progress. If anyone else can think of something that perhaps we overlooked here it would be most helpful. Thanks everyone, I don't feel like throwing in the towel as much now.
 
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