I have a 2004 Road King (Carb) and I've had a bit of trouble starting it today. It's never really been a breeze to start up in the first place, but today it decided to be a real pain.

Since the weather has been cold, obviously I haven't ridden it as much as the rest of the year, but I've been trickle charging the battery every so often to keep that going.

This afternoon I went to go for a ride and went through my normal start up process. Pulled the choke all the way out, cranked the throttle a bit, then fired it up. It chugged for a bit then let out a loud backfire like gun shot and I gave it another go and it started up.

Rode it for about 20 minutes and stopped at the dealer. Ordered a part I wanted and when I went back to start the bike up to ride home, it just kept cranking and wouldn't kick over. I had the choke all the way out and gave the throttle three hard turns.

Then it started up and I rode home about 20 minutes.

When I got home I let it sit for about 20 minutes and checked the spark plugs. I only pulled one out and it was clean and dry. The ceramic middle was white and the metal around the top was black. It wasn't sticky or grimmy.

Because the spark plug was bone dry and clean, I was wondering if it was a fuel issue. As in not getting any fuel. I have half a tank of gas and can see it when I look in the tank. I always zero out my trip meter when I fill up and it only has 90 miles since the last fill up. I generally let it go to about 130 or so before I fill up.

Just for the hell of it, I switch it to reserve and tried it again.

It did the same thing where it hesitating and just kept trying to kick over. I held it for a while and turned the throttle a bit and finally it kicked over.

Any ideas what my issue is? My father thinks I have bad gas or it was 'empty' but I can clearly see half a tank of gas in there.

I added some of that Star-Tron fuel treatment and shook the tank around, and it's just sitting now.

Driving me crazy.

 

Is it just hard to start or does it hesitate and misfire when riding?

 

It's fine once it gets going. It seems to be just starting up. But once it kicks over, and I let it warm up...once I get moving I push the choke all the way back in and it rides just fine.

...until I stop and go to start it again.

But it's never been as hard as it was today where it just wouldn't start until I monkeyed with it so much. Usually it just takes a few tries.

 

I'd look for an air leak...manifold, carb seal, if the idle adjust plug was drilled out, make sure the adjusting needle hasn't fallen out.

but start by adding fresh good gas...I just had to do that with my CT90...even with stabil in there when stored last year, it ran poorly until I added some fresh gas to the tank.

most CV carbs, you pull out the enricher until it grabs, then go to 1/2 to maintain idle...and usually push all teh way in after a mile or so.

mike