won't fire

[rocketray]

I replaced my stock petcock and it wouldn't fire--I was told to use a vacum pump awhile back to get the fuel to come down. I had a friendly Harley mechanic come to house last nite to do that--it did fire up some and quit---it seems to be flooding now as the plugs are wet--they are brand new and are sparking well when pulled out and the starter hit--any ideas??

[Hoovey]

How's the charge  on the battery ? If you have been turning it on and off quite a bit
it could be drained enough not to give you a good hot start.

[Bighead]

A bit more Info would be helpful. Did it start before the petcock replacement? If so why did you replace it? And why would a vacuum be needed unless you rep,aced it with an OEM petcock. Did you replace it with an OEM or an aftermarket such as a pingle with requires no vacuum?

[crash1980]

I'm not mechanic, but I have spent quite a few nights in a Holiday Inn Express this year... When I read "won't fire", I think this means no spark.  No gas is a complete different problem..... 

[gordonv]

it seems to be flooding now as the plugs are wet--they are brand new and are sparking well when pulled out and the starter hit--any ideas??

Wet plugs to me says there is fuel in the cylinders.

Spark on the leads mean you have spark. But the question is still there, is it enough?

Add a known good battery to the circuit. Using jumpers, hook up your daily commute vehicle (NOT running) to the mc battery. Try to start again.

You're not saying that the bike isn't turning over (starter).

[rocketray]

I replaced the stock petcock  a few months ago at 13 yrs and 52k miles as I went down the highway at 80-95 it would start running out of gas--would only go 50 or so--I replaced the stock petcock w/another one and it won't run at all--a day ago with the vacum pump applied it did run roughly for some 5 seconds and then I shut it off to tighten things up and now it won't fire at all---I did buy a Pingle and it is sitting there in a box--I thought the stock petcock looked better with some cool chrome engine hangers I picked up...maybe I'll put it on as it seems to be a vacum issue

[Fazer]

I'm sure someone else will chime in on this, but with the Pingle, which does not use vacuum, you will have to manually shut of the gas whenever you turn off the engine to prevent fuel flowing into the cylinders in the event your float needle gets stuck open in carb to the number 3 (I think) cylinder.  Many have installed the Dan Marc electronic fuel shut off (search the forum for Dan Marc) when going to the Pingle.  Works great, but you will have to remove the air box to install it.  I did mine when I de-smogged a few weeks ago since I had to remove the air box anyway.  I stuck with the OEM petcock, just replacing the cover set gaskets, but if I have trouble in the future, it will be easy to switch it out for the Pingle, which is a fine unit.  I have one in a Shadow 1100.