Wont start
 

I have no clue about how to fix bikes. It really sounds like it will start but wont. It will crank up but just wont start. Please help.

Engines need three things to run: air, fuel, spark. If you're missing one or more, it won't work. If you're incapable of checking for these things, you might want to take the bike to a shop before you break things.

There has to be more to the story than what you wrote... so fess up!

Try checking the spark plug wires making sure they are in the correct order so the engine is firing in sequence. Also you might wanna check to make sure your petcock is "on." Maybe you have aftermarket fairings, which chances are it won't say which position is on/off/reserve. Since it is carbed you need to prime it a couple times to shoot some gas down into the carbs. Idk the condition of the bike or how well it's been maintained, but when your not planning on riding the bike for more than 2-3 weeks you have to put some kinda gas saver in your tank so your gas doesn't get old which can destroy and gum up your carbs. This will make the bike unusable!!

Also make sure you have the choke on as well!

I know you're trying to be helpful, but you're off base a bit with your advice. Let me help you understand why so I'm at least helping some one here :icon_teeth:

First off, there's a distinct and noticeable amount of backfiring and awkward firing that shows up when the firing order is off. Dude didn't say he had any firing at all, nor backfiring, so there is no symptom to direct you to this conclusion. Plus, you're telling him to check that before you even know if he has spark at all, so we've now got the cart before the horse. Also, it ran before and stopped running suddenly, and since spark plug wires don't magically rearrange themselves, you can't point some one to this stuff without knowing that a person went in there and changed things up in the form of say... changing spark plugs, engine remove, valve check, etc etc.

Second... you've obviously not been inside of carbs beyond possibly a basic cleaning. There is no prime setting on the F2 gas tanks. The petcock settings are just on, reserve, and off. The vaccum operated carb won't let you squirt **** past it unless there is vaccum (or an issue). Even then, there's a float and valve/seat in there that won't let you squirt **** past it either once the float bowls are full. So, priming these bikes is mechanically impossible!

Now on a pumper carb or a bike with a specific petcock design... yes you can prime the thing! This however is a CV carb. It relies on vacuum from the engine to get the gas moving, and nothing short of vaccum is going to move gas through that thing.

As for fuel stabilizer, now you've got some good advice. Some may argue 2-3 weeks is a bit aggressive to go adding in fuel stabilizer, but better safe than sorry.

Hey, thanks for the advice Jesse! I guess I didn't know these things as well as I thought! lol. I haven't worked on these carbs at all, but I assumed they operate much like a carbed vehicle.

So on a stock F2 you cannot flood the carbs? When you are ready to start the bike you can twist the throttle all you want and it won't dump gas into the carbs at all?

As for fuel stabilizer, after I got my carbs professionally rebuilt I asked the tech how to prevent the carbs from going bad and that's what he told me (as well as draining the carb bowls). I suppose it would be a bit aggressive, but I hope to never spend that much cash on a preventative problem again!

man a short audio/video clip would reallllly help us help the OP in these situations.

Titus - "it will crank up, but won't start." that sentence makes no sense. Either it runs or it doesn't. We are assuming it will crank OVER but won't start.

As Jessee mentioned - sounds like something else has happened - was the bike running and somethig happened, (dropped it, loaned it to a buddy, filled the tank with diesel?) or you worked on something, and now afterward it won't start?

We gotta have some more details, or basically you only gave us "My bike's broke, someone tell me what to fix." as your posting.

Well I accidentally put gas and oil mixture in the and also I took all the plastic off and put a new rectifier connection on there. And it sounds like it will crank but wont. I put a video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=_z1xNcrEH88

Hate to be the one who says it, but if this is your first line on asking for help you really need to take the bike to a shop and pony up some money to get it repaired. No amount of advice can help if you have no clue on what you are doing, you will cause more harm then good and in the end lose even more money to have it fixed or replaced.

Ok- I watched your video. Sounded like you have a good hot battery. What you didn't show is if you had the choke on. with the choke on, you shouldn't have to be giving it throttle like you were while starting. Also - it never sounded like your bike was trying to hit at all, ever, in that video.

You also said you had the carbs cleaned - I'm assuming someone else worked on the bike? You need to make sure that the petcock is flowing fuel, and that the vacuum line was properly reattached to the tank, so I'm going to list some very simple things here - but all need to be checked:

1) Tank has gas in it.

2) Is petcock is turned on. (Arrow pointing down is "ON" - Up is "Reserve" - Middle is "Off") If your tank isn't slap full of gas - try putting it on Reserve, just in case fuel might be too low in the tank for the normal pickup.

3) Are you using the choke at all - didn't show it in your video. When carbs are cleaned, they may take a good while to fill back up enough to run. The choke helps this.

I uploaded this vid real quick of a cold start on my bike and the process I normally follow just now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb06hOxKCBs


Assuming all of that is done, or didn't fix your problem

4) As the first responder in the thread mentioned - motors need Fuel, air, and spark to run. I'm assuming you didn't leave a rag on top of your carbs, so the air is probably ok. Fuel and spark can be tested pretty easy since your fairings are off. Crank the bike over for a few seconds like in your video. Pull either plug #1 (left most) or 4 (right side) and see if it is wet at all. It should be. If not, you have a fuel problem.

5) You said you put fuel/oil mix in - like Premix for a 2-stroke dirtbike or weedeater or boat motor? You might have fouled your plugs. Pull all 4 - make sure they are all NGK CR9EH9 or equivalent model plugs. Clean them up - or go buy 4 new ones - they're like $6 each. Before you do that - test that you've got spark on all 4 cylinders. Plug a sparkplug into each plug wire, and ground the plug to the frame. Bump the starter with the Run switch on. You should get a spark at the end of the plug.
http://www.aa1car.com/library/sparks.jpg

Give all that a try and report back.

This is probably your problem. Unless you put in some really thin 2-stroke mix (50:1 or higher gas:oil mixture) I'd bet this is your issue.

Remove the gas tank, and dump all the fuel out. Save it for your car perhaps. If you mix it in with a bunch of regular old gas you aught to be fine.

Once that is done, drain the float bowls on the carb. You can get to them without removing the carbs if you have a long enough flathead screw driver. Fairings will need to come off though.

As for the rectifier, that isn't the issue. A bike will run without a rectifier, it simply won't charge though. Now if you run the bike and it suddenly peters out to a slow and underpowered death... then you know where to look.

lmao this thread is ridiculous

Well I'm not sure how to check the plugs. But there was no fuel coming out of the tank at all.Is it supposed to be. Like I can tip it over and nothing comes out. But there is gas in it

How many hoses are connected from the engine to the petcock.

There should be 2.

The petcock (the thing that lets fuel out of your tank) is vaccum operated. It won't let gas out unless there is vaccum from the engine.


I'm inclined to say you're in over your head at this point. Hit up a mechanic familiar with the F2's.

I think I know someone. I will report back and let yall know what was wrong

This sounds like a really good ideal. I'm not trying to put you down or anything but if you don't know what you are doing, you will cause way more harm then good if you continue to work on the bike yourself. Please let someone else who knows bikes better work on it and save yourself the money in the long run. You really need some basic mechanic skills before your work on the bike. Not knowing how to check the plugs and not having a clue what the petcock is, says you don't have those. Let someone who knows what they are doing work on it, and if you would like to learn ask them if you can watch and get them to explain what they are doing so that you will know more next time something happens.

however, i didn't know **** about cars when i started wrenching. just asked annoying questions to friends and watched them do **** and that turned over to bikes. so he's gotta start somewhere

Yes and that starting point is called your friendly local motorcycle shop. Start there, have them do some work, hang out and pay attention if you can, and buy them some pizza in exchange for the loads of noob questions.

When you're done, you'll see that it wasn't all that bad, you just didn't know **** yet.

So I took the bike to the shop. It was just the the tubes hooked up wrong to the petcock. But before I took it in there there was an oil leak by the kickstand. What do I do about that

Find where the oil is coming from.

Take it back to the shop.

Point to the oil leak and say "fix that".

Kick stand, leaky stator gasket

You put gas & oil in the? If it's the tank...drain it bro...

If he's lucky.

It could be a countershaft oil seal like I'm dealing with. Not fun.