Hey guys, first post on the forum. After driving my Audi back home from school with a cracked head, I found out my parents didn't start the bike at all while I was away at school like I asked them. The battery is really low, and upon connecting it to another battery, it cranks but won't start. I have class on Monday and can really only be here till Sunday at the latest, and I'm freaking the f%$k out.

I forgot to put fuel stabilizer, so I dumped the whole tank from a hose that connects to the fuel petcock, and added a few gallons of Super 93 gasoline.
I just put in brand new spark plugs this morning, and testing to make sure I was getting spark.

Here's a video of what it sounds like now when trying to start.

I took the gas tank off, disconnected the three hoses below it as well. Reconnected them and they're super snug and look good. No hoses appear cracked or even really worn anywhere.

Someone please help me before I lose my mind (already too late  )

Thank you!

Starting the bike periodically over the winter is a good way to get moisture accumulating in the crankcase and exhaust which can lead to worse issues down the line than a dead battery.  It's good they forgot.

Set the petcock to the Pri position, if you haven't already.
If it's been sitting forever fuel may have evaporated from the carbs, and from the vacuum alone trying to feed fuel you'll be cranking quite a while before enough fuel fills the bowls.

Also be sure you have the choke on.

And the last thing you might want to look at is the air filter to make sure no small critters turned it into a house.  Not even joking.

Huh, didn't know that. Thanks for the info!

So put it to prime with the choke fully on and try to start? I already checked and the air filter looks great.

"On" and "Res" only flow fuel when there's vacuum, as in the engine is turning.
"Pri" is the "prime" position and will flow regardless.  This is the position you want after the bike has been sitting or to diagnose any potential petcock issues.




You know when you fire up the car (or bike) in colder weather and have a bunch of white "smoke" come out of the exhaust?  That's water vapor.  Typically if you're driving around you'll eventually burn off all this water, but when you come to a stop and shut down the hot engine parts will condense the moisture in the air and it will collect wherever it's possible.  In the exhaust, in the crankcase with the oil, etc.

If all you do in the winter with your bike is fire it up and idle in the garage for a few minutes, you aren't burning off all the water that's collected, but you are leaving the bike in a condition for more water to collect on top of that.
If you ever see posts about "milky" oil this is usually the culprit.

People will recommend all kinds of winter stuff to do like leave the battery on a tender or bring the battery inside.
Honestly?  StaBil in the gas, disconnect the negative terminal, and if you can't elevate the wheels make sure to rotate them once a month so you don't get flat spots, and that's it.
Always had my bikes fire up come spring no problem.

I wasn't too familiar with how the PRI worked, and I'm worried about flooding the engine. Is there a certain amount of time I should have that on before I start it up? How long is too long?

Excellent explanations and I appreciate it. I bought this as my first bike last summer so I'm still learning about motorcycles and whatnot. I'm pretty mechanically handy with cars, just haven't done anything with bikes yet.

Turn Prime on, Leave choke off.. Don't touch the throttle give the bike a few cranks on the starter, if it coughs like it wants to start. Give it another go, and right as it coughs open the throttle just a tad, like ur giving it 200RPM a tad.

Quote from: J_Walker on February 03, 2017, 09:33:01 PM
Turn Prime on, Leave choke off.. Don't touch the throttle give the bike a few cranks on the starter, if it coughs like it wants to start. Give it another go, and right as it coughs open the throttle just a tad, like ur giving it 200RPM a tad.

Um.  It needs choke if it's doing a cold start.




You can leave prime on, it won't flood.  Best way to describe how the carbs work is like a toilet tank.
Bowl fills with fuel, lifts a float, shuts off fuel flow.

Quote from: Watcher on February 03, 2017, 09:44:38 PM

Quote from: J_Walker on February 03, 2017, 09:33:01 PM
Turn Prime on, Leave choke off.. Don't touch the throttle give the bike a few cranks on the starter, if it coughs like it wants to start. Give it another go, and right as it coughs open the throttle just a tad, like ur giving it 200RPM a tad.

Um.  It needs choke if it's doing a cold start.

my chokes been broken for idk how long.. starts without it? stock jetting and all... I mean it may take 2/3 or 4 turn overs before it starts.. just can't give it any throttle until right as it turns over, and then you can blimp it to 2kRPM and idles and runs just fine. but I do have an electric fuel pump on my bike too instead of the petcock, but I started it the way I mentioned before, when it still had the petcock.. some day ill rebuild the original petcock and install it back... because I want to move the fuel pump to the "special" gs project. 

Op: you shouldn't need to set the petcock to Prime for more than 15 seconds or so. The bowls will fill up fairly quickly, and then you can flip the petcock to On (or reserve). Even just pressing the starter button will give the petcock enough vacuum to flow gas - the Prime setting is really for when your carbs are bone dry.