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Ok... so the bike has been sitting for a while. I started a winter project right before my son was born in November (big mistake). Having a 4 year old and a newborn has a way of cutting your garage time down to nothing pretty quickly. So... the bike sat... It's been about 4 months. Finally, this past week, I decided to finish up what few things I had mid-way done. I wrapped the headers, put the shorties back on, and relocated the battery. In the beginning of my project (before the baby), I cut out the crossover pipe and welded patches over the holes. I started it up afterward, and it started fine (and sounded great). So... I got it all back together today, and it won't start . It tries.. chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga until the battery starts to drain and the cranking slows down. So, the possibilities are the crossover pipe, and the fact that it's been sitting for 4 months (on a trickle charger). Anybody got any ideas about what I could try?

And no, before you ask, I didn't re-jet after changing the exhaust. I'm planning to do that next, but I don't know if that would cause the problem.

Thanks.

I think some fresh gas and make sure the battery has a full charge would be a good place to start. If you have not jetted then you will be lean but it should still start.

Yea, do like The Dog says, also the X over pipe wont stop it running.

You say it "tries" chugga chugga but does it sound like its firing?

Pull plugs and see if there wet (o yea baby) and act as required

gas
spark
air

Be sure you have good gas and it is making it to the cylinder (wet spark plugs)

Be sure you have spark, pull plugs, lean against the metal of motor, turn over look for nice BLUE spark.

be sure nothing is plugging the air flow.

get back to us...

It's official... I'm a moron. Yes... it takes gas. Which means the gas shutoff should be OPEN before turning the key! It started this morning. Took a while to get there, but I'm thinking a nice long ride might just do it (and me) a world of good.

Thanks for the update Lance. Got a good chuckle over that one. Not that any of us would ever do that....no way....

Good one Lance... ya know I keep hearing about other people doing this kind of thing, but never happens to me (yeah, right)! I got a good chuckle too outta that one.

Aren't you glad it was something simple?!

One word: Fine-C

Well, ok, it's not a real word. Glad she's running better now!

well dont fill too bad... i have a buddy,that has had his harley for three years,,,we couldnt figure out why he always needed gas before us,,,so one day at the pump i asked him why he didnt fill up both tanks? he looked at me in puzzlement and said i have two tanks? so guess what his nickname is....Twotanks....moral of the story...your never alone in making silly mistakes

I had a friend who always forgot to turn his gas on when out riding. He even had a sticker on his gas cap that said "turn the gas on dummy" but he would still forget.

First thing I thought of when reading your post was is the gas on. Second, was the choke. This is only because these two things stumped me for a day and a half after changing tanks over the winter.

Just happened to me this weekend...pulled the tank and took the shims out of the needles. Put everything back. Next day I go for a ride, start the bike and "what the hell" sounds like it was running on one carb...I start checking wire and what not and finally came to the petcock....Ooops!!!!!!!!

Glad to see I'm not alone.

Did about 80 miles on it yesterday to shake the dust off (well, more like RAIN the dust off... and then cover it in mud ) Looks like I was right. After a long ride, it runs better than before I monkeyed with it.