Just picked up a fully stock 01 fxdxt with incredibly low miles. Bike had been sitting in a garage for quite some time so I drained and replaced all fluids, took apart and cleaned carb (jets were seriously gunked up) and drained the old gas of course. Replaced petcock due to leak, battery, spark plugs and wires. Cranked engine for a while to attempt to get the gas to flow into carb, wouldn't start. Pulled the fuel line and vacuum hose that runs from petcock to carb and inspected them, no leaks and no blockages. Tried to crank it again and still nothing. Pulled the float bowl and not a single drop of gas had made its way in. Being that petcock is brand new, im thinking that somehow the carb isn't giving the vacuum needed to pull fuel through the petcock. Any ideas on what's going on?

 

petcock doesn't have a prime position - just off, on, and reserve. My friend and I got it to start by spraying starter fluid in the carb but it dies out as soon as the starter fluid is discontinued. Good call on the vacuum pump to check the petcock!

 

you might try it on reserve and see if fuel flow out without the bike running also , guess I should have asked have you checked to make sure your not getting fuel to the carb, just not into float bowl and maybe have a stuck needle valve or float . re reading you post thinking it may no be a petcock issue

 

Tried it with the petcock set to reserve too, nothing. When I pulled the fuel line that leads into carb there was no gas in the line either, that's what's making me think it's got to be a vacuum issue from the carb since the petcock is new and the vacuum hose has no holes or blockages

 

pretty much has to be the petcock ,if its new, you may have got a bad one , what brand is it. if it the original the diaphragm in it probably has gone bad. you could try the old one and see if the carb fills with it installed I understand it leaks and you couldnt start the bike but could at least eliminate e or confirm the new one is good or bad

 

Change Vacuum line maybe a pin hole or crack in it?

 

Welcome from Boston ! This is a CV Carb ? When you had float bowl off, did you fiddle with the float ? Try with gas cap off, maybe Vapor Lock ? Ethanol is beating the **** out of carb innards ! If all else FAILS, Buy a Mikuni 42, bolt on 15 HP !

 

Dump the stupid vacuum petcock and get a conventional one.

 

The night before last I tried it a bunch with the old petcock on with no luck, same situation as with the new petcock. On the old one the diaphragm is deteriorated but I think I can flip the spring in it to in essence convert it to conventional rather than vacuum operated and cap off the vacuum port on the carb if it comes down to it which should hopefully bypass the problem. I'll be sure to check that vacuum line again to make sure there's no pinholes and replace it just to be safe. The only other thing I can think of is that there would be a blockage in the fuel delivery passageway on the carb, I'll have to check it after work and I'll be sure to get back to you all and let you know what I find. Thank you for all the input!

it is a CV carb, when I had the float bowl off I didn't mess with the float too much other than to check to make sure that it moved freely. I'll give that a shot with the gas cap off, and if all else fails mikuni 42 will be in the making haha!

 

Vacuum signal not getting to petcock or petcocks faulty. With vacuum and fuel line off, you should be able to suck on vacuum line and "open" petcock...I used pingle petcock on each of my builds over the years. No vacuum worries then. Also, the Mikuni thing; waaay overrated and will give negligible return for the money. Indy's love to sell up to them 'cause they're a nice money maker, but I've used CV's on all my carb builds and challenged any shop that dissed them to a simple dyno comparison, none accepted. Stock CV with proper stock jets and no fairy dust internal parts. Have also used 44CV and 51CV but they're pretty hard to find now. When you do get convinced to go Mikuni, make sure you grind away enough fin on the heads so it's not touching...the vibes cause havoc with the float level.