Those heads are painted it looks like, you can touch it to the head, but the paint may not give a good "connection" to ground. Touch the plugs to nice clean metal like a bolt head. Also, you may wanna start with new plugs if the engine flooded out the plugs. get a spark teser, and a compression gauge. Have you had the bike apart as far as wiring? double check connections. It looks like the bike has been apart, it has a "Dyna" style tank on it.

 

+1 what John said....sorry must not have been clear in my instructions.

Once you have verified that you have spark, try not giving it so much throttle when turning the motor....it will flood and not start. You will need to wait until the plugs dry out or take it out and clean it.

Perhaps 2-3 quick blimps of the throttle BEFORE you turn the motor. Try NOT using throttle when turning the motor and listen to determine if it is try to turn over. When it starts to turn over, give it another blimp or two
.
My ironhead did not start if I gave it too much fuel to start. My shovel requires no throttle to start and only throttle to move the idle.

 

 

Just hold the plug against your top engine mount, lots of grounded metal there. The bolts attaching it to the head will work.

Also, I have never, ever twisted the throttle on my bike to start it. Pull the enrichener **** out, push start, and it starts. Try it that way first, then go wristy twisty cwazy if you wish. When my bike is warm, I just hit the starter and it starts, no twisty wristy.

John

 

You said it had been sitting for 3 years, is the gas in the tank that old too? If it is, get rid of it and put in new gas. Not sure if the '91 uses a vacuum controlled petcock valve or not but may want to make sure all hoses coming off the petcock are in good shape. You also may want to pour the gas into something else and pull the valve to see what the filter looks like. If the gas is 3 years old and you didn't use any stabilizer in it, it may have a lot of rust in the tank an has clogged the filter. If it has been sitting for 3 years the float pin that stops the fuel from filling the carb. bowl to full may be stuck in the closed position too.

Hope this helps.

 

Alright guys. I am getting this bike running asap. It has been sitting for far too long. I found today that it is getting spark to the spark plug wires at least. I took out the spark plugs and they were fouled. I went and bought new ones. I just installed them and still the bike isn't starting. So, I would have to guess at this point that it is fuel related.

Can anyone give me any recommendations of where I should start first?

Here is a video of how it sounds.

 

You said you have half gallon (fresh?) fuel in it. Do you have it on reserve?

 

If it was my bike, and it sat for that long with fuel in the carb, I would rebuild the carb and have it completly cleaned. Just cleaning the jets isnt good enough. You need all the passages cleaned. You could also get a can of carb cleaner, spray a small amout right into the carb throat then crank it over, it should at least fire a couple times.

 

you can guess all day at it, fuel,spark compression are needed. Try the carb cleaner spraying it in as you crank it over if fuel related should start. If not check spark, put old spark plug in wire and hold it to the head crank over if spark were good if not you need to check ignition , pickup and coil and module. If two above are good check compression. if you dont have good compression its engine repair time.
If this sounds like this is too much take to a local shop it may be cheaper in the long run thatn throwing parts at it

 

It sounds like it's cranking so fast I would suspect lack of compression first.