So I just bought my first hd a week ago. 98 heritage classic 1340cc evo, carbbed, engine is stock as far as I know.
A couple days ago I fired it up and forgot to turn the fuel on. It died and it wouldn't start back up. I sprayed some fuel on the air filter while starting it and it fired up. Now every time it sits over night, it will fire up then die out and I have to spray fuel in the intake to get it to fire back up. Once it's running and warmed up it's fine. Only have that problem when it sits over night. I'm new to working on hd's and don't know anyone personal that does work on them so I figure this forum would be the next best thing. From researching online my guess was either the fuel petcock is bad or screen is getting clogged or the float is getting stuck in the up position overnight. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The bike did sit over the winter with stabil in the tank. I've already burned through that and a whole tank of 93 . Fresh fuel in it now

 

Are you using the carburetor choke to get the bike started until it's warmed up a little?

 

Along with the choke I used to always give my throttle a couple of quick twists immediately before cranking. Now I have FI and kinda miss the carb. Just be careful not to flood the carb.

 

Yes choke pulled out, and giving it a little gas through the throttle. This problem only started after I ran it with the fuel turned off. I'm positive I'm not flooding it because the gas I shoot in the intake will get it to fire. It's being starved for somewhere. Possibly the vacuum function for the petcock?

 

Pull the a/c off, while looking down throat of carb twist the throttle. You should see a fuel mist. If not something in fuel line needs cleaned.

 

Oops, sorry OP, if you read this before my edit, the vacuum petcock portion probably doesn't apply to you, sorry for the misinformation.

It appears the problem started after you used the petcock....... could be some cleaning, repair, or replacement of the petcock is the solution...

Good luck with the fix...

 

Replaced the stock vacuum petcock with a non vacuum one. Capped off the vacuum line, removed the carb and cleaned that too. Waiting on my pipes to come in the mail and I'll find out if that fixed it.

 

Excellent... let us know how it works out..

I originally posted several things about HD vacuum petcock issues that I remembered from years ago, but then I deleted it because I thought it didn't apply to your year...

I think there's a good chance you fixed your problem.....

 

Well I got everything put back together, it took a second to get her primed with fuel but she fired right up. On top of being happy that I fixed the problem, the new v & h short shots sound awesome. Thanks everyone for the help

 

I'm thinking we need to see a pic of this heritage with short shots.