Well after letting it sit for 8 hours at work, it still isn't turning on now. With the choke fully open, it will fire badly for about a half second, then die. You can smell gas so I know its getting it.

We then thought something electrical with the ignition. Fired a bit of starting fluid (just to see if it would catch), and it soared to life for a full second.....than died again.

Did this two more times with same result, and now my battery is dead.

I don't think its fuel related, the pump is working and I can smell gas out of the exhaust when I try to fire it up. Its getting in there, its just not doing anything.

 

Do you think it could be R/R related? If you have a voltmeter it might be worth checking as it's a very common issue, check out the manual for diagnosing the charging system.

 

Im not the best at advice but check yor plugs. maybe fouled. when was last time you changed them. this maybe why it wont start now. good luck

 

Sounds like your pilot circuit is clogged up or the slow jet this is a common occurrence on some other Hondas.
The Valkyrie and the Magna if they are left to set anytime longer than a few weeks they tend to gum up and cause nightmare nothing a little Seafoam or any other fuel treatment you prefer.

Also you mention the battery have you check it and made sure it is giving you full voltage on start up thats another thing that got me one time bike ran fine till I stopped to get gas and would not start let her sit for a minute and she started right up did this a few times ended up being the battery.

The ECU is the thing that needs the voltage without it the coils do not fire properly and it will not start.

 

Plugs were changed last month. We ended up taking the whole thing apart today, down to the carbs.

Fuel pump contacts were pristine, and I checked out the pump 2 weeks ago when it did this to me. It was clicking and felt it pumping fuel.

Testing all 4 plugs and each spark was fine.

With the tank off, we put a couple drops of fuel into the top of the carbs and fired it up. Hit fine (until the fuel was used up obviously).

Airflow is fine, since it starts for a second with ether sprayed through the intake. Spark at all 4 plugs is fine because we tested it. The fuel pump is working.

After taking apart the bike and pulling the carbs, I can't really tell if its dirty or not. My friend is helping me clean it, and is it true that it won't need a re-sync as long as we don't mess with the throttle position on each of them? Like only cleaning the jets etc.

And anything specific on these carbs? Any tips or tricks on cleaning?

Aaaaaand a pic for good measure.

 

Yes on sync if you do not mess with the whole bank as in do not separate them you should be fine but I would bench sync them while they were out anyway gets you close enough.

Am I seeing things or is your airfilter real dusty?

Before spraying any carb cleaner make sure to take the air diaphragms out and any rubber as the carb cleaner will mess the rubber up.

Just got done reading a good write up on this site about the carbs here this will help you a lot he has done his homework and has done a great job on explaining what goes on in your carbs.

https://cbrforum.com/forum/stickies-...cation-124026/

There is the link read this and you will know where to spray the cleaner and what each one does.

 

Yeah I'll be replacing the filter haha.

I looked at that write up, and found another one on cleaning and syncing our carbs. Amazing jobs to everyone who wrote these up.

I was terrified going into this, seeing as I've never done this before. But looking at these writeups, im not so terrified anymore. It's really not that complicated. And now I know exactly how carbs work (I've worked on cars for years, but everything has always been FI. Yeah I know "kids these days.")

Never worked on carbs before, good learning experience.

 

I just went round and round with my bike over fuel issues. The guy i got the bike from said the fuel pump leaked. So i bought a different pump that didnt work like i liked it to. So I got the stock pump ran 2 gallons of fuel from 1 can to another can. It pumped fine no leaks. Put the stockpump back on the bike started it up ran to the end of drive way and it die. It was a bad pump. So it could still be bad

 

Well, there was fuel in the bowls when we emptied them. We poured a tiny bit of gas in the top of each carb and it fired up fine.

 

UPDATE: FIXED.

Took the carbs off and brought them to the master tech at work. He had them apart, inspected, and back together in 35 minutes. Everything was crystal clear with not a spec of varnish. Also found out it was jetted.

Put it all back together, and bypassed the fuel pump. The bowls were empty so it was hard to start, but after a couple minutes, fired right up. After adjusting the idle (it got turned a bunch when I took the carbs off), it ran perfect. Drove it up and down the street, and it ran GREAT. Better than it has since I bought it.

Filled it up again, and drove it home.

The only problem? The throttle must have gotten tightened up allot, as its VERY sensitive, need to back it off a bit.

But to everyone who said it was a pump, YOU WERE RIGHT.

And I apologize to my friend Mr. Carburetor.