OK. I guess the honeymoon is over. I went to start my 1200 sportster the other day and it ran for about 5 minutes and then just died. Tried to restart and ended up killing the battery. After a fresh charge from the dealership, I've just buttoned everything up, changed the oil and plugs and went to start. Nothing again. Gave it a shot of ether like was suggested in another thread and it caught then died. I took the fuel line off the petcock turned it on and gas streamed out. There was also gas present in the fuel line. So what is keeping it from getting gas? The vent at the bottom of the float is not leaking fuel. Also when I twist the throttle I don't see or smell any fuel. Could this be the accelerator pump diaphragm being torn or what ?

 

Need more info, what year? At some point in the carb mosdels I believe a elec cutoff was put in play.

 

?? Stuck float ?? Do you get gas when you loosen the drain screw? You should see and smell gas and even hear the accelerator pump squirting gas into the intake manifold without the engine running. Good luck.

 

Float stuck in the float bowl? loosen the float bowl with a rag below, you should get a steady stream.

 

it's a 2002 xl1200. the petcock is a non standard for this bike. it does not have the additional vaccum line going from the petcoc to the VOES. the vaccum line at the VOES end has been plugged and up until the other day it operated as such. the carb has the following part # on it: 27480-97a. i did not see a drainscrew under the float bowl. the only thing that comes off the bottom of the float bowl is the vent.

 

The float bowl should have four or six screws holding it onto the carb, loosen each of them just a bit and crack the seal, it should start pouring fuel, if not continue to remove it and check the fload and needle valve.

 

turn the gas off and drop the float bowl then turn the gas back on slowly. You should have gas running out, if not, the float could be stuck, work it up and down gently and see if gas comes out. the float should work freely. Did you store the bike with gas in the carb?

 

when you say store do you mean for a period of days or weeks. i just purchased this bike last week from an auto dealer. i rode it off the lot and rode all last week. i let it sit for a couple of days and when i went to start it ran for about 2 min. and then stopped. i'm about to check the float now. i'll let you know what the outcome is.

 

Reference this thread and see the part regarding the diagnostic mode, definately an eye opener. https://www.hdforums.com/forum/showt...ht=minute+ride

 

ok i think i got this figured out. the fuel inlet into the carb has some sort of blockage. i've tried blowing in with the float in it's open and closed position with no change in outcome. any suggestions?