Hey all,

The bike has been in the shop for almost a month now and we still can't figure out why she won't start. Easily.

To begin at the beginning:
A couple months ago my '09 would crank but never catch. Before this she'd start like a charm: never need to use the choke or throttle no matter the weather (not that we have much weather out here on the central California coast: 50 - 70 degree weather just about year round). I've put mostly highway miles on and am meticulous about changing the oil every 3,000 miles with Mobil 1 and the biggest change has been putting touring tires on.

Since she's been in the shop the stock petcock has been replaced with a Raptor, the carb cleaned, float adjusted, battery tested, wires checked, starter rebuilt, plug replaced and compression checked. Everything says she should jump back to life. Now it seems that she has to crank for a bit, shut her down completely (petcock and all), then play with the throttle from wide open and everything in between and hope she catches in the next few tries.

Once she catches she runs fine but getting her going is near impossible!

Does anyone have any ideas?

Stock 2009; recently put a Raptor on hoping to fix the problem but hasn't helped

I have a '96 that was hard starting.
dyna muf, stock intake, stock pilot jet.
The engine was burning oil so I pulled it to rebuild...
and in the mean time put an '02 in and it wouldn't start.
everything same except the engine.
swap out the carb and it starts right up.

You probably have an issue with the carb and may need another cleaning.
How was it cleaned before?

Unless you KNOW the gas is fresh, dump it. Put some fresh gas in it, dump the carb bowl, put it on prime, drain the line from the tank, whatever, get rid of ALL of the old gas.. It not much gas, itll go in the car or whatever,, If it changes nothing,, okay, then ya KNOW its got good gas..

It's probably not the gas,itself,But,when I find myself in a puzzle I start eliminating things that Could potentially be part of the problem. The quickest,easiest,potential problem,first.
If this changes nothing,then get some ether,starting fluid for a diesel, access the intake, give it a Small squirt, don't piddle around and let it evaporate, hit the button...
If I didn't want mine to start,all I had to do was twist the gas...
I'd try no choke, no gas, no go? 1/2 choke, no gas,,, etc...

Make SURE the voltage the spark control box is getting is good enough WHILE the starter is loading the battery.
If you have not checked the ground on the engine near the right foot, I would. I'd pull it, clean it,

I'd do that first,if the gas doesn't do it.

PMd by a forum member selling a '97 carb. Would it fit my '09?

Laser wrote on 11/20/14 at 07:39:12:

yes

Bluesman wrote on 11/20/14 at 07:48:43:


Agreed. Had this happen when doing a post-storage overhaul on a riding mower that was sitting up for a while. Thought something major was bad because of being in storage and turned out that the plug was faulty right out of the box.  New plug and she ran like new.