All righty now, I need help from the smart kids here. I took off my tank and checked my sparkplugs and air filter. Plugs looked new and the coloring was spot on, the filter was pretty clean but I cleaned and earled it anyway. So I am pouring feul into the tank and I see some dried car wax chips go in , F--K ME! I think to myself ,weeeell theres suposidly a in tank filter and a inline filter that I can see ,so alll should be well. I drained the tank and saw nothing inside, gas roars out of the tank, I have replaced the inline and it recieves feul but the bike started and ran for 45 sec. or so, and then died like when I ran out of gas. never to start again. It sat for a month while I am being poor. Before I " stored" it I drained the feul into my truck with no consequences. Today I put some fresh feul and tried again. nothing. I have obviously checked and tried everything me and Haynes could think of and it wont even try to run like crap! I dont have to tell you guys how some shop will probe me six ways to Sunday when I roll up with a dead 96 F3 in the back of my truck. Like I said, it ran and reved normal for 45 sec. so why not now?? Thanks and love.

 

Might sound stupid but is your fuel tap on?

 

Not stupid man, could happen. It would not matter if it was because I purchased the bike and drove 15 miles across town with the tap off because Im a newb, turns out it leaks enough to cruise normal. That is why I could not tell if I was flooding it because I doused me and the bike trying to remove and install the tank. Good times. Thanks for the reply, I'll take 50 more please!

 

Well first thing make sure you have spark on all your cylinders. (Timing light works the best, just clip onto the wire and see) And if that is good you have a fuel problem. that simple.

 

If you are getting spark then you might have crap in the carbs. Take 'em off and clean really good, especially all the jets. Then try with some fresh gas.

 

I'm grasping for straws here assuming the posts above did not do the trick... but.... when you oiled your air filter, just how much oil did you put on it? If it's totally saturated, you may not have any air getting into the cylinders at all. Sounds crazy, but I've seen it before.

Post an update, I'm curious as to what happened.

Good luck.

 

Forty-five seconds is about how long the gas in the fuel lines and float chamber would run the engine if it's not replaced. My 1000F uses a vacuum tap to open the petcock when the engine cranks or runs. Does your F3 use a vacuum tap on the petcock (a small pipe opposite the fuel line)? If so, it needs a vacuum line from the carbs to operate it.

 

Update: I replaced the plugs to rule them out,and did. I tried to start the bike to no avail, and then smelled fuel, floody. I then drained the bowls and found dirty fuel in carb 1, then nothing in the other carbs. Also the fuel pump doesn't unless you wak the relay,and the plug for my ignitor is toasty and broken, where the hell do I find a harness plug? I'm considering leaving it on the curb for bulk pick-up day.

 

Although it's probably dangerous to do it, the relay can be bypassed to see if the fuel pump actually pumps. But what is the "plug for my ignitor is toasty and broken"?

 

Assuming you know what the ignitor is, if I unplug it and examine the the plug itself, it is slightly burnt and some of the dividers that keep the wires from arcing are broken and missing.The only apparent solution is to cut it out, and rewire a replacement plug.All this and all I wanted was to check spark plugs and air filter!