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A little history on this bike...l bought it from my cousin down in Santa Monica, so it's a California bike. It ran great when I picked it up. He warned me to start it regularly or the carb will get gummed up. It's an aftermarket racing carb and aftermarket pipe. It ran beautifully and sounded badass. While it's a 2003, it only has like 3700 miles on it. He had back surgery a few years ago and hasn't ridden it much, but always kept it garaged and ran it once a week. I continued on my road trip through the Midwest and started it once and let it run for a few minutes somewhere along the way.
About 2 weeks after I got home I remembered to start it again and it wouldn't start. Choke on, choke off, nothing. Tried compression starting it on my hill and it fired off but died quickly. I put a new plug in and it started finally. I ran it for ten minutes and shut it off. It wouldn't start again and hasn't started since.
My buddy came over and we cleaned the carb and drained the tank. The carb was in great shape and carb cleaner went cleanly through every little orifice we could find. The gas was bad...very yellowy. So I determined that, while my cousin started and ran it weekly, he didn't ride it enough to go through any significant amount of fuel and the gas had deteriorated on him. We put it back together and figured it would start with new, ethanol-free gas. Nothing.
We checked for spark and had none. Fudge. That's weird. What could have happened that it no longer had spark? I went to my trusted helper...YouTube. I found some videos on this particular bike. They said the common culprits are the CDI box and pulse generator. One particular video said to crank it over and tap on the CDI box; if it starts, that's the problem. If not, then it's likely the pulse generator. If all else fails it could be the coil.
I cranked it over and banged on the CDI box. Nothing. Likely the PG, I thought. I went ahead and bought all three parts. The CDI box took all of 2 minutes to swap out. Nothing. On to the pulse generator, which required taking of the right side crankcase cover. 2 weeks later, after a mess of getting the wrong gasket, etc. I get it back together. Nothing. Replaced the coil. Nothing. New spark plug. Nothing. Checked spark again, still no spark. l'm dumbfounded.
Any thoughts? HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLPPPPPP!!!!
About 2 weeks after I got home I remembered to start it again and it wouldn't start. Choke on, choke off, nothing. Tried compression starting it on my hill and it fired off but died quickly. I put a new plug in and it started finally. I ran it for ten minutes and shut it off. It wouldn't start again and hasn't started since.
My buddy came over and we cleaned the carb and drained the tank. The carb was in great shape and carb cleaner went cleanly through every little orifice we could find. The gas was bad...very yellowy. So I determined that, while my cousin started and ran it weekly, he didn't ride it enough to go through any significant amount of fuel and the gas had deteriorated on him. We put it back together and figured it would start with new, ethanol-free gas. Nothing.
We checked for spark and had none. Fudge. That's weird. What could have happened that it no longer had spark? I went to my trusted helper...YouTube. I found some videos on this particular bike. They said the common culprits are the CDI box and pulse generator. One particular video said to crank it over and tap on the CDI box; if it starts, that's the problem. If not, then it's likely the pulse generator. If all else fails it could be the coil.
I cranked it over and banged on the CDI box. Nothing. Likely the PG, I thought. I went ahead and bought all three parts. The CDI box took all of 2 minutes to swap out. Nothing. On to the pulse generator, which required taking of the right side crankcase cover. 2 weeks later, after a mess of getting the wrong gasket, etc. I get it back together. Nothing. Replaced the coil. Nothing. New spark plug. Nothing. Checked spark again, still no spark. l'm dumbfounded.
Any thoughts? HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLPPPPPP!!!!