Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods arghhh! bike wont start!

tried to fire my bike up for the first time this season. replaced gas, battery and new spark plugs. bike will turn over, but will not fire. Battery seems to be drained of energy really fast. Any thoughts or suggestions sure would help.

I'm no mechanic, but did you put stabil in the tank before you shut her down for the season. If not your carbs could need a cleaning.

Is there any chance the handlebar kill switch is on or stuck? The side stand also has a kill switch, but only when the bike is in gear and stand is down.

If it's a new battery and won't hold a charge, the battery could be bad or you might have a short to ground somewhere or loose connection. Make sure the connections to the battery are ok and tight.

Otherwise, you need to check all electrical connections to igniter, coils, and plugs.

put stabilizer in it last fall. thought bad fuel was the problem at first, so i added some seafoam to help clean out the carbs. very frustrated.

first thing. Determine if your bike is fireing at the plugs. Then proceed.

agreed,pull your plugs and ground them against something where you can see them and crank the engine while looking for spark. If you have good spark then probably a fuel problem.

Clogged fuel filter? T filter?

at first i really thought it was the battery. the guys at the battery shop must be getting really sick of me because i have returned a brand new battery to them twice, completely drained of power, everytime i hook up the battery, and turn the bike over, the battery drains out and the engine wont fire. I think i may have a short.

Depending on where you have stored it, a mouse is good for chewing on electricals, and making nest in things such as your airbox. Make sure your petcock is allowing fuel to pass through when open, turn your idle screw in just a bit, pull the choke?? I'm running out of ideas on the fuel/air side. Be sure the plug wires are fully snapped onto the spark plug.

Shouldn't be a hard fix, my bike has been pretty darn dependable for starting, and so has most everyone elses here.

Good Luck!

i totally agree. up until this point, my bike has fired up every spring after a long minnesota winter, with little more than a battery charge. Thats why i'm dumbfounded. The america has proven to be a really dependable bike. up until now. I'm sure its something realitively simple, that for whatever reason, i'm missing.

Yes, if it's drained the battery twice there's a grounding problem, either you're leaking the charge to ground or your frame ground has gone bad and the charging system can't operate properly. The spark check might tell you which way to start looking...weak spark, bad ground or no spark, short/leak to ground. Why not start at the frame ground point from the battery and work your way through?

Hook up tho positive side of the battery. Be sure everything is turned off. Place a test light between the negative post and cable. If the light comes on, you have a drain or short.
If not proceed to check battery draw (amps) as you turn on various switches.

A dead short should at least blow a fuse if not let the smoke out of the wires.
A heavy starter draw can drain the battery fast, but the cables would get very hot.
A bad ground would show up as hot wires also.

You may just be getting junk batteries. (you do charge them before you hook them up don't you?)

If he lets the smoke out of the wires where can he get new smoke? Does new smoke require rejetting? Do I have to disconnect the battery to install the new smoke?

I saw replacement bottles of vintage Lucas Smoke on eBay a while ago...

You can get some smoke from a HD dealer, just have to be carefull, as with all other HD products, they go over board with thier smoke as well.

Need smoke go herbal!

Just be leary of that "tom cruse purple" smoke. Jury is still out on that one.