'98 wont start after riding. Please help.

[ed5757]

Put it in the shop and had $500 carb work done. But they didnt fix the problem.
Seems to start after letting it sit overnight after not starting. Runs great when it does start. No hesitation. I had full choke, half choke, no choke. Any help would be greatly appreciated before i have to spend more money that i dont have. Thanks.

[Jerry G Turner]

Does it turn over or does it do nothing the battery is often a starting problem it needs a good charge to send enough spark to start it.

[ed5757]

Thanks for responding. New gel battery, new rectifier, fairly new stator.
It turns over, sounds like it wants to start. I can go back and start it the next day sometimes.
There has been times when it does start with full choke and after closing the choke after about 30 secs Go to give it throttle and it bogs down and dies, never even allowing me to barely give it any throttle. After that, it turns over and I cant get it to start again.

[guywheatley]

Sounds like fuel starvation. Open your gas tank, then close it and try to start. If it starts and runs for a while, you've got a pinched overflow line, and are pulling a vacuum on your gas tank. That's an easy fix. Just reroute the line.

[ed5757]

I Would have to prob rule that out. As my commute is a 30 min ride every day. I would have to think the bike would die somewhere in between. It almost seems that the choke is causing the bike to flood or something, if thats possible. Like i mentioned before, it will start sometimes and die after a few mins, not wanting to start afterward
Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[reaperkeeper]

It would help to know what year your bike is, could make a difference on how to trouble shoot. 

[Ingramml]

I had a similar problem before. My kill switches contacts had gotten dirty. My bike would crank over once in a blue moon but most of the time i got just the sounds. Try opening up you kill switch and check that. Connect the two contacts with a wire or anything then press the start button. Hope it works.

[guywheatley]

I Would have to prob rule that out. As my commute is a 30 min ride every day. I would have to think the bike would die somewhere in between.

You are correct on that. I'd usually get about three blocks before it would start to drag down. No way it would go 30 minutes. Hope you get it figured out, and it's not expensive.

[Jerry G Turner]

Reaperkeeper the thread starts out 98 won't start it's proably a 98.

[lragan]

Reaperkeeper the thread starts out 98 won't start it's proably a 98.

'Ya think?

[ed5757]

I took it to work yesterday and would go out and start it about every hour on the hour to keep it warm. Noticed that sometimes After starting, i could give it throttle but only for about 20 secs it would make it up to 5-6 rpm and then die. At which point i would pull out the choke, start, throttle and it would stay running again after pushing choke back in.
  Feeling seriously frustrated.....

[Jerry G Turner]

Sounds a lot like a clogged jet if you just had the carbs worked on I would take it back and with my hands around their necks I would request that they make it right. The only other thing I can think of is clogged fuel tank screen take the pet cock off and there is a screen that it goes into and check to see if it is clogged.

[ed5757]

Thanks Jerry. I did that first. Looked clean to me.
And yes, i want to wring their necks but dont want to burn bridges. I've contacted them and seem to get blown off. What tears me is that the mechanic told me I am not using the choke correctly. Ok, yeah, Ive only had the bike for 13 years and think I have a fairly good grasp of how to start the damn thing, ya know?

[ed5757]

The only thing that seems to be working so far is after riding it and letting it sit for approx an eight to ten hour shift is to pull out the choke, and hold it at around 3-4 thousand rpms for about a minute. This is new to me, as I NEVER had to hold the throttle to keep it going. Thought that was what the choke was supposed to do. Yet even still, at which point I STILL have to maintain a 3+ thousand rpm after having pushed the choke in for another minute or two in order for it to remain idle @ 1,000 rpm. Oh brother.....
Sorry about the long post.

[Greg Cothern]

Needs slow speed jets cleaned..