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edit: not "gas line" anymore, !!!!start!!!!

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:45 am
by rapidblue
qiuck question

when i took off the gas line to the carbs to clean them, no gas came out.

is this normal or is the petcock clogged. Im having trouble starting my bike and thought this might be it

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:08 pm
by Gadjet
This is normal. Your petcock is vacuum operated, so it should only allow fuel through when the engine is on. The 'Prime' setting pushes the vacuum diaphragm open, allowing fuel to flow with having a vacuum.

I would be more worried if fuel leaked out all over the place when you took the fuel line off with the petcock in the 'Run/On' position.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:16 pm
by rapidblue
good to know

still can't get my damn bike started though

new plugs, clean carbs, gas, i dunno

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:06 pm
by TechTMW
If you are sure you have spark and carbs then the thing that's holding you back is compression ....

Try priming the carbs before you try starting the bike. I find most start alot better wheen the float bowls are completely full. (there should be a "pri" notch on your fuel valve.) turn it on for about 10 seconds, switch to "on" and try starting.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 6:36 pm
by rapidblue
my valve just has STOP/ON/RESERVE
how else could I go about priming it?

its the weirdest thing because all of a sudden my bike lost power and died and I haven't been able to start it since

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:25 pm
by TechTMW
Sounds electrical. A fuel issue would usually have it puttering and sputtering before death.

Do you have spark?

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:31 pm
by cruisinflatout
I had a similar problem. Bike ran awesome then one day....just died no reason (or so it seemed). Ended up being a loose connection on one of the coils...

Good luck figuring it out and hopefully see ya on two wheels soon...(fellow saskatchewanian :mrgreen: )

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:31 pm
by rapidblue
i fear that it IS electrical because I dread electrical problems, dealt with enough on cars.

so i guess thsi weekend is electrical hell weekend for me.

does anybody think it would be beneficial to rewire the entire bike just to be safe or is that more work than needs to be done?

it is a 68 so I figure there's got to be a few connections that are ready to cause me pain.

Anybody who has rewired a bike... time frame?

I can't wait to ride again

Thanks
Nolan

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:39 pm
by TechTMW
just open all the connections and clean them

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:54 am
by cruisinflatout
rapidblue wrote:i fear that it IS electrical because I dread electrical
Anybody who has rewired a bike... time frame?
I completely redid my harness on my current bike....took a total of, I'd say, 6-8 hours over the course of a week.

The only reason I did it was because there were more melted wires than good ones.... :wink:

So, unless you have to do the whole thing, I wouldn't...

And I'm with ya on the woes of wiring, I dun like dealing with it either...good luck... :rocking: