Changed the spark plugs yesterday. Notices the spark pllug wires were not in order from who had it before.1&4 to the left coil and 2&3 to the right. I changed the idle/mix screws on the each carb. I changed all seals on the carbs. I have new fuel pump and new fuel filter. fuel is getting to the carbs and spark plugs. It starts for 3 seconds and dies still. I have nothing else that I know to try except the float adjustment. I adjusted them before but I'm going to double check them tonight. Anyone have any other ideas? NEED HELP! How to measure the floats correctly?? and anything to get this bike running!!????

 

Not a carb expert and I don't own that bike, but probably similar to the 1000 hurricane. If it's a keihin carb have you checked out the aircut valves? If the diaphragms tear they can cause havoc. If they're torn just blank them off and they'll work fine

A bit more detail would help. Was the bike running before the carb rebuild? Did you clean the jets as part of the rebuild? Does the bike respond if you adjust the idle? Did you reset the mixture screws to factory spec or leave them alone? Does it run longer on choke or without? On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that the carb rebuild was successful? (before you think I'm being snarky, let me say that personally I avoid them whenever possible and wouldn't be super confident overhauling a carb off anything more complex than a lawnmower)

Since it's a wasted spark system it might not be necessary that the wires be in order but on my '87 CBR1000F at least the left coil is cyls 1&4, and the right coil is 2&3

It's possible that the bike has a weak spark. Confirm battery voltages and follow the manual's guidelines to make sure that the coils are doing their job

Also, gob up any cracks in the airbox or boots. Mine was running lean until I noticed

Obviously since the carbs have been worked over recently, they are number one suspect. If you're really sure it's not the carbs you could put a compression tester on the motor, then pull the valve cover to check that the previous owner didn't mess with the ignition timing. Some folks are under the impression that advancing the timing gives the bike more power, but in my experience all it does is make it run worse. The compression test should help rule out catastrophic failure, but if the bike's been sitting a while it's not a super reliable test anyway

As someone who gets super easily tilted with these things, sometimes it helps to put down the tools for a bit rather than just ripping everything apart and risking creating more problems instead of solving them - especially on old crusty bikes that have been sitting for a while

 

Yes it was running before but then the carbs started leaking. I replaced the o rings and now its fine just wont start.

 

how much voltage should my coils be getting

 

!!!Don't try to measure the voltage at the coils unless you want to end up in the hospital!!!



The check for them is resistance, but there's a whole sequence of things you need to check to make sure the ignition system is operating normally. The ABC's are:

Air
Fuel
Spark

If the bike turns over, check battery voltage. If it fires, then coughs and dies, that tells us we should probably look closer at Air and Fuel. As I say, I don't know your particular model, but getting your hands on a manual would be a great start. Here's a page out of mine that shows a pretty standard procedure for troubleshooting a no-start

Hope that helps

 

89 cbr600f hurricane. If my butterflys on my carbs completely shut would that cause that? I saw light coming through them so my friend told me to shut them completely where theres no light... but from what I've been reading they said I gotta leave it with a tiny gap with the butterflys. Also going to adjust my float level tonight would that possibly be it? Any advise would help thank you so much.

 

Yeah, you're probably past my level of expertise here, but I would reconfirm the setup of the mixture screws, aircut valve diaphragms, and idle before going any further down the rabbit hole

Try opening up the idle adjustment a bit and see if that helps. Try it with and without choke. Try it with the throttle open a bit too. If you can get it to run for longer than three seconds, that'll be a huge clue as to the cause of the problem

I don't remember there being any gap on the butterfly. What are you reading exactly?

 

If the float is sticking it would either cause fuel starvation, or massive flooding

 

Sorry on rereading are you saying that you adjusted the butterflies too? ie you loosened them off and rotated them by hand?

Taking a few steps back, I would be highly suspicious of anything you've adjusted to this point. Go back to factory setup on the pilot screws (on mine that's two turns out from seat, don't reef on it) and check the manual for correct position of the butterflies and anything else that's been tweaked

Manual! Not friends advice or strangers on internet! Manual!