Topic: 550f wont start....need some help

[550cafe]

Alright, so i finally got my cafe seat on and I'm ready to take the bike to go get inspected to get it out on the road before the winter tear down. So as soon as i get done with getting the seat on and getting the new tail light hooked up I try to take it out for a spin. Won't start. Checked all the fuses, they are good. I have all lights pre start, starter is blasting away, nothing....wont even fire. The only thing i did was change the damn tail light and burnt up one fuse. but now.....the bike wont start. I need all the help i can get guys.....today i am going out to see if i get spark. if not....what suggestions would you guys give in order for ways to solve the problem?

[Gordon]

If you haven't already gone through the entire tune-up procedure yet, start there. If it still won't run then it's time to start looking for problems.

[TwoTired]

The internal combustion engine Mantra recipe:
compression of a proper air/fuel mixture, and properly timed spark.

resulting Mantra:

Varooom, Varoom, Varoom, Varoom.



Check the fuel petcock position. Must be in "on" or "reserve" depending on fuel tank level.

Cheers,

[fergie]

spray some ether in the plug holes and try to start it.

[Hush]

I'm with Two Tired on this, I know we think we are laways onto it but the amount of times I have been scratching my head to find I have forgotten to turn on the fuel tap to correct position.
If you have spark at the plugs then your changing the tail light and blowing the fuse is nothing to do with your problem.
As none of your 4 cylinders will fire it would appear to be a catastraphic lack of fuel to all 4 carbs.
This does not occur suddenly for no reason, check that you have enough fuel in the tank, add more even if you think it has enough.
Sometimes all the fuel gets stuck on the other side of the tank and even though you know there is gas in there the carbs still are starving.
Good luck................Hush.

[bwaller]

Loosen the float bowl drain screws and make sure you have fuel there. Make sure the choke is fully closed and try again. If still no action, pull a sparkplug and see if it is wet or dry before deciding which way to proceed.

[NGL_BrSH]

fuel in the float bowls?  check by opening unscrewing screw slightly at the bottom of the bowl and see if fuel runs out.

[TwoTired]

If there is fuel in the bowls, it takes passage through the jets to get to the cylinder.

Choke should increase the vacuum in the intake runner and carbs, and that should force fuel though either the slow jet, the main jet or both, in oder to get fuel into the combustion chamber.

Are either of those jets blocked?

[bistromath]

Oh yeah, make sure your choke is on and operating properly.  If that's not it, and you have gas in the bowls, you've got plugged jets, which seems unlikely after sitting for as short a time as it has. But it could be. Next step would be dropping the bowls and taking the idle jets out and cleaning them.

Might want to verify it's gas yet another way by hitting the intake (air filter out, of course) with some starting fluid or whatever flammable spray you have on hand while turning over the starter.