Won’t start, won’t rev after fuel sprayed in to prime.

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

Bike sat a couple years after I stopped commuting on it. Ran fine up to about 90mph. Was always a little hard to start cold, especially the longer I didn’t ride it. Fuel started to gel. Cleaned the carb and put in fresh treated ethanol-free fuel. Didn’t help. Had to spray fuel in the carb. Hard to keep running, at best would eventually die at idle and wouldn’t rev enough to ride away. Found the jets to be 45/165. Considering the Buell Pro Series intake and V&H exhaust, this should be lean, so I got 48/175 jets, sanded some washers down to 0.050” to shim the needle up, and adjusted the screw to 3 turns out (from about 1.5). Added a large Wix filter to the fuel line. This essentially changed nothing. Still have to spray a lot of fuel to start and it won’t hardly rev. Fuel bowl is filling fine..
IDEAS?
Elevation 3600-3700 feet.

[Cooter]

Hows the auto choke?

[cvc]

Did you check the carb coupler? and Cooter’s on it check your enrichener. Also look at your tank vent pull the fuel line and drain into a jar see how much fuel you get in x number of seconds then do it again with your gas cap off i have a blast tank with some wierd gunk in the petcock and the filter fills with fuel but slowly and the bike is hard starting and doesn’t want to rev over 1/2 throttle so when i get time I’ll pull the pet cock and tank clean and be off and running again.

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

Hows the auto choke?
Who knows? I’ve been told previously that they never go out, don’t worry about it. Do I need to pull it and observe when I turn the ignition on? Is there a resistance spec? OK to put 12V to it?
I’ve tried manually choking the intake pipe with the filter off and it hasn’t helped.

Das Boot is fine.
It doesn’t help if I try to start it with the gas cap off. Fuel flow seems relatively unrestricted when I pull the line off at the carb.

[jetlee]

Who knows? I’ve been told previously that they never go out, don’t worry about it. Do I need to pull it and observe when I turn the ignition on? Is there a resistance spec? OK to put 12V to it?
I’ve tried manually choking the intake pipe with the filter off and it hasn’t helped.

Das Boot is fine.
It doesn’t help if I try to start it with the gas cap off. Fuel flow seems relatively unrestricted when I pull the line off at the carb.

They can break, the wires can break, they can be set improperly. Open it up and test it.

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

They can break, the wires can break, they can be set improperly. Open it up and test it.

I can’t find how to test it anywhere...

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

Took enricher apart. Green crud inside. Cleaned. Gets hot when put to 12v. Now how do I adjust it? The threads on the body probably a critical adjustment with as little as this is supposed to move.

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

Adjusted enricher on the rich side. Still have to spray fuel to start. Once running, idle and very low throttle are fine. Will not accelerate bike in this state. Leans out most of the time, but today, on occasion, I had full fueling, could hit the rev limiter, and ride normally down the street. Then it started acting up and I had to limp it back. Totally confused.

[casual_observer]

Adjusted enricher on the rich side. Still have to spray fuel to start. Once running, idle and very low throttle are fine. Will not accelerate bike in this state. Leans out most of the time, but today, on occasion, I had full fueling, could hit the rev limiter, and ride normally down the street. Then it started acting up and I had to limp it back. Totally confused.

Is the needle lifting / diaphragm working? Is the float level correct? The Blast does not use an accelerator pump, so all circuits need to be at 100%. If it is running lean and you have to spray fuel to get it to start, you likely have blockages in the carburetor. You need to pull it apart, and verify ALL passages are clean and unobstructed.

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

Is the needle lifting / diaphragm working? Is the float level correct? The Blast does not use an accelerator pump, so all circuits need to be at 100%. If it is running lean and you have to spray fuel to get it to start, you likely have blockages in the carburetor. You need to pull it apart, and verify ALL passages are clean and unobstructed.

That’s the thing...the next day, I went to start it, it fired right up normally. Ran perfectly up and down several residential streets in all throttle positions. Then, just as I was going to pull up the driveway and put it away, it started lean-coughing when I tried to accelerate, and I had to limp/push it up the driveway into the garage. It’s like a switch flips and lose fueling from the main jet. It still idles and low throttles (in neutral) fine, but won’t move the bike.
I saw no way to adjust float level. My neighbor suggested maybe the float was getting stuck intermittently. Makes sense, just don’t understand how. Everything seemed to move freely when I had it apart.

[Cooter]

If the float was sticking it would either run out of gas completely, and not run at all, or gas would overflow the bowl and onto the ground from the bowl drain port.


Is the needle lifting / diaphragm working? Is the float level correct? The Blast does not use an accelerator pump, so all circuits need to be at 100%. If it is running lean and you have to spray fuel to get it to start, you likely have blockages in the carburetor. You need to pull it apart, and verify ALL passages are clean and unobstructed.

Do this ^^^^. Yes, again.

Do it right and the bike will run fine. If you can't do it right:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/144068543651?fits=Model%3ABlast%7CMake%3ABuell&hash=item218b2784a3:g:-IIAAOSwOq9gv2CK

Before you re-install any carb, remove the petcock and clean the screen. IMO add a small inline filter as well.

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

I felt I cleaned this carb well about a month ago. I used Berryman’s carb dip, carb spray, compressed air, and wire (for the tiny port near the jets). I also drained the tank and put in fresh ethanol free 91 octane fuel. I don’t know what this crystalline stuff is, especially developing in such a short time. The main jet had a big chunk stuck in it, so that explains how it was running. Anybody have a good idea what happened here and how I can prevent it happening again?

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

Another look

[34nineteen]

Anybody have a good idea what happened here and how I can prevent it happening again?

If you truly did thoroughly clean out the carb, you likely have garbage in your fuel tank/fuel. I would recommend putting a clear inline filter between tank and carb, after throughly cleaning the tank and carb (again).

I had an old car that would do something like this no matter how clean I could get the gas tank. Long story short, any time the fuel level got below a certain point, the fuel filter would quickly clog (i cut them open to verify) and the car would run like crap. Luckily the filter would catch the garbage before it hit the carb (Weber 32/36).

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

I have a large, clear WIX fuel filter and I can see nothing in it so far.

[Cooter]

That disgusting gel is corrosion from leaving Ethanol gas in your carb for a long time. If it's going to sit awhile, drain the float bowl. That's what that little flathead screw on the bottom is for.
Guess what?
It's time to take apart and clean the carb. No way you say? It MUST be something else...

Main jet, pilot jet, and emulsion tube are in that pic and all clogged badly. Welding tip cleaners or a jewelers drill set are fantastic for that job.

[34nineteen]

That disgusting gel is corrosion from leaving Ethanol gas in your carb for a long time.

A long time? Wasnt this carb recently cleaned out? The fuel is specifically ethanol free.

[REVOLUTIONary_2B]

A long time? Wasnt this carb recently cleaned out? The fuel is specifically ethanol free.

That’s right.

[Cooter]

It was also supposedly


Cleaned.

Yet there are pics to prove its dirty. Like everyone in this thread has said. Repeatedly.

It's dirty. Still.

Clean it.
and your tank
and the pet-cock
and the fuel lines

If you do that correctly, your little Buell will run like a champ and we can all get back to bickering about oil and tires.

[jetlee]

I've had California's E10 fuel sit in my carbs for years and not look like that. I don't think ethanol is to blame.

Something is causing a chemical reaction for sure, though. Clean everything out and rinse it all out with gasoline to be sure there's no sediment or leftover chemicals to react.

[Barrett]

Simply put...it's oxidation crystals which have formed from the chemical reaction taking place between various aluminum components in your system...water in your fuel tank....zinc alloy in your carb. You need to fully drain, flush, clean your fuel tank. Until that task is properly performed, this will continue.