ok yeah that didnt make sense did it.. it was cranking and turning over but not starting. like it was out of gas.. and yes I looked for a fuel tank selector and it appears this model does not have one.. I thought bad gas but it really didnt have much gas in it..
and yes I am coming to the conclusion that I have no clue what i'm doing and the simple things liek it just needs a new battery is not working..
its a nice bike and I'm pretty sure its worth fixing so i'm going to stop being cheap and dumb and get a real mechanic on it..
then I can get back on track for building my subs
In that case your problem is either ignition or fuel. Ignition problems are more common than fuel problems.
I have found your bike has solid state ignition, and it is distributorless.
It will be the same type of system as on outboard motors which, living where I do, I'm very familiar with.
First do this. Get a can of carb cleaner or ether, and squirt it down the carb air intake, and turn the engine over as you squirt it. The engine should fire if there is spark. You need to remove the air filter hose and squirt directly into the choke tube.
If the engine does not fire, then you almost certainly have ignition trouble.
Now this is how these systems work. Inside the fly wheel, there is a charge magnet and charge coil for each cylinder, and a sensor coil and sensor magnet of each cylinder. The charge magnet and coil charge a cap in the ignition pack. The sensor magnets and coils destabilize a silicon controlled rectifier, in the ignition pack and discharges the capacitor for that cylinder into the primary of the ignition coil for that cylinder, and a very high voltage, thousands of volts, is sent to the sparking plug from the secondary coil to the sparking plug for that cylinder and you have spark.
Now these systems are fragile when you work on them. If your ignition module was not blown before, it almost certainly is now, as you cranked it without the battery in. Booster charger produce and unsmoothed rough DC, and the battery acts as a giant smoothing capacitor. The rough DC from booster is instant death to those ignition modules.
The other thing that blows them is removing a plug to see if you have spark. If the plug fails to ground for a split second the module blows. Also I have seen cases were the ground from the module has gone bad. This blows the module and the one you replace it with, if the ground issue is not corrected.
You have to check the spark with an ignition tester. They are quite cheap.
If there is no spark, then you need to have testers to check that the charge coil are working and the sensor coils. If there is no output to the ignition coil pack, then replace the ignition module. With the age of your bike, the caps in the ignition module are almost certainly no good. You have almost certainly totaled your module anyway.
Now I have found out that the coil packs on those bikes give a lot of trouble, and so do the ignition switches. You might be very lucky and just have a bad ignition switch. You can test this with a test light and make sure you have 12 volts to the ignition module.
The bad news is that production runs on bikes and outboard motors are small compared to cars, and ignition parts much more costly. An ignition module for a small fishing motor is a round $200. For a big powerful six cylinder outboard about $400. The coil packs usually run even higher.
From what I have found out, it is quite probable that your bike needs an ignition module and coil pack. With labor that will probably run to about $750 with labor. If you are unlucky enough to have cracked coils in the flywheel, its going to go over a $1000.
If the bike fires when you squirt in ether or carb cleaner, then you have fuel problems.
First remove the fuel hose from the carb. Then crank the engine and see if a squirt of fuel comes out of the hose. If it does not disconnect at the fuel filter. If no gas then replace the fuel pump. If there is gas replace the fuel filter.
If there is gas at the carb, get a set of carb gaskets and a a carb kit. remove the carb, clean it and rebuild it.
If the problem is fuel, or the ignition switch you very likely will be successful in getting the bike running yourself, if you are careful.
With you level of expertize, I doubt you can repair the ignition system, but if you get the right equipment use you head and take it steady you well could.
I have had one further thought. It is possible that on that bike the solid state ignition module os part of the coil pack. That may be the reason, there are so many reports of failure. If the bike fails to fire squirting carb cleaner down the choke tube, go and buy an ignition tester. Make sure you ground it well to the engine, and then connect the spark plug leads to the tester. Crank the engine and see if a healthy blue spark jumps the point electrodes.
If there is no spark, I would replace the ignition module, and I have the feeling yours is module and coils in one package. With what you did that unit will be toast if it wasn't before. Sensor and charge coil problems are quite unusual in my experience.
If you install a new unit, take care not to switch any wires and check grounds for continuity carefully. Of course check for ignition switch problems first.
Too bad you don't live near hear, we would have the diagnosis in short order.
