vzuden

Brian, that's part of my concern. I am 100% sure, without a doubt, the fuel petcock was off. I have been doing that for 40 years. When the day comes when I get a bike without a fuel shut off I will probably have to add one because I will always be reaching for it. There must have been enough fuel in the lines, fuel filter and pump to fill that cylinder. When I hit the starter button, I did it three times with the same result, it would not turn over. The starter engaged but that was it.

I am not sure what they did with the carbs when they had them off. they just said they were full of gunk. That was 2-3 years and 20,000 miles ago. I have been riding the bike everday since I got running on Saturday and it seems to be ok. Probably in the neighborhood of 250 miles so would a rod issue have shown up by now? It seems pretty quiet without any knocking or unusual noises. Since this happened I am really leery whenever I go to start it. I did find the carb drains and opened the drain and let the pump refill the bowl 3 times as was suggested. Its pretty hard to tell if anything came out since the piece of whatever was probably too small to see. I tried catch the fuel as it came out but it went everywhere. Thanks to all of you for sharing your experience and advice. I hope I can eventually get to the point I trust it again

This morning I hit the starter button after sitting all night and it started instantly. I didn't leave it running since I am going to change the oil. Thanks for the advice to those who suggested to change oil. I was so relieved it ran without knocking yesterday the thought never crossed my mind. Going out to the garage to change the oil and see if I can figure out where the carb drain is located.

In regards to the inquiry of whether the bike had tipped over, no it hasn't. It has about 21,000 miles on it with all but 1,800 put on by me. It was 2 years old with 1,800 on it when I purchased it from a private owner 3 years ago. The carbs were full of gunk then and I took it to the dealer for the carb overhaul. I have replaced spark plugs every year and sync'd the carbs and it ran perfectly until this and the fuel pump failure a couple of weeks ago. The popping in the exhaust I mentioned in the original post would be another deviation.

I have 2007 tour deluxe that wouldn't start yesterday when I needed to leave work to head home. The starter would engage but the engine appeared to be locked up. I towed it home and started by pulling the seat and tank to access the plugs. The first one, left rear cyl, had fuel dripping off it. The other 3 were dry. I hit the starter and it blew a bunch of fuel out iog the cylinder. I put the plugs back in and it started and ran fine on the fuel in the carbs. Earlier in the day yesterday a coworker pointed out fuel dripping from that carb. i always turn the petcock off. Just a habit for many years. Anyway, put it all back together and rode about 20 mlles and everything seems fine. Here's a little history. About 1,000 miles ago my original fuel pump quit. I found in this forum i could replace it with an aftermarket pump from an autoparts store so I installed a Mr Gasket part number 42S. The only other symptom has been some popping from the exhaust at idle. I have Baron 4-2-4 Nasties mufflers. The sound is a "pop....pop.pop. pop......pop" and stops with any amount of throttle applied. Whenever I hear this I add a can of Sea Foam and it seems to correct it. Any ideas why I had a cylindeer full of fuel? Do I need to switch to the factory fuel pump?