Cranks -but won't start

[Moonbeamvw]

1998 - turns over just fine but it will not start. I tried ether still would not start. Any ideas as to what might be Wrong?
Thanks,
Rich

[fudgie]

Prob battery. How old is the batt?

[Thunderbolt]

Try charging the battery first.  Quite a number of folks have had the same problem.  The bike will turn over well but not fire because the voltage is too low to operate the ECM.  If charging doesn't help your old battery either replace it or very carefully jump it from a know good battery.  Don't use your car or truck if the engine is running in the vehicle.  The positive terminal is very close to the frame so take note and don't short it to ground.

[Moonbeamvw]

Thanks for the quick reply. The bike sat all winter and the battery still turned over the engine. I charged the battery -  still will not start. The battery is only a year old.

[gordonv]

Choke on full. ALL the way. Jumper the MC battery from a known working auto, NOT running.

Crank.

Smell of fuel from the exhaust, then you know you are getting fuel to the carbs, back it off, crank again, and this time use throttle only.

No smell of fuel, then no fuel in carbs. There is other things you can do to confirm this, but I think this would be the quickest and easiest thing to do first.

The other thing to check next is spark.

[Wewaman]

I had same thing and it was my petcock, hole in diaphragm.  I would do like suggested and check spark first.

Wewa

[Hoser]

Thanks for the quick reply. The bike sat all winter and the battery still turned over the engine. I charged the battery -  still will not start. The battery is only a year old.

Push the lever hard, you'll think it will break by the time it moves.  Hit the starter with no throttle engaged.  A common problem with Valkyries.  It needs the choke anywhere below 50 or 60 degrees.  It's the nature of the beast. Hoser    Hoser

[fudgie]

Mines sets all winter to and sometimes I have trouble also. Most of the time it will start and I have trouble keeping it running. Working on it now and havent tried starting it for the yr.

[salty1]

Have you opened opened up the float bowls to see if gas is flowing? Pull a little vacuum on the intake tubing on #6 that goes upto the petcock. If there is no gas, checkout the functionality of the petcock. Cranking the bike should create enough vacuum needed to pull the diaphragm back and allow gas to flow from the tank.  ??? If your battery is good, spark is probably not your problem IMO. 

[Patrick]

As the others said, typical symptoms of a low battery. Make sure choke is fully on if you are new to this bike. DO NOT use ether, it doesn't need it !  Check to make sure you are getting fuel to the carburetors. You also may well have flooded it, remove and blow off the sparklers. Just because the battery is a year old doesn't really mean that much especially if it was not charged correctly when installed.

[rugguy]

All very good suggestions. I recommend trying them all before doing what I had to do.

The problems stated above are typical from what I have read. However, it is also typical of Valk that has set for a long time without running. Floats stick, slow jets clog, bad gas from condensation in tank....I had the same problem after my bike sat for two months in a garage in cold weather. Full charge on battery and jumpers from my truck (truck ignition off)....would crank but not fire. Here's what I had to do to get mine running:

Fully charged battery
Drained all carbs
Drained fuel tank
Fresh gas with Seafoam
New spark plugs
Checked for strong spark at each cylinder (yes)
Checked for fuel flow from petcock (yes)
Checked for fuel in each carb bowl (not all). Right side cylinders firing but not left...kickstand side.

Still would crank but not run.

Removed carb bank an cleaned with carb cleaner. Focused on all moving parts and all jets
Pulled floats and checked for leaks (none)
Replaced all the gaskets....do this or else!

Used this video as a guide. It really helped me. Clymer's manual had you do extra steps definitely NOT needed. But, it's good to have for re-assembly diagrams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDLTpQCTBsc

Reassembled
Full choke (all the way down...not up)
Bumped starter and it fired up on the second try.... ran like a champ. But had fuel leak and vacuum leaks. My mistakes. Should have replaced fuel/air rail "O"rings and fittings and intake "O" rings while carbs were out. Pulled and replaced and runs great...until I hit that patch of sand. Recommend redeye's kits for all gaskets and "O"s...I'm sure there are other's.

Good luck. Hope it's just a weak battery. Either way, report back and let us know.