need help on first bike 78 cb550k

Z

zpow

New Member
so i picked up this bike a couple of months ago and am completely new to this but the PO had the tank off the bike and was trying to remove the rust but had no luck but he did have a mini fuel tank hooked up so i could hear it run and it did, it fired right up. so i get the bike home treat it with por 15, put some pod filters on it because the original airbox was off from the PO cleaning the
carbs, and hear is where the trouble comes in i get everything sealed and put back together go to fire it up and no luck it turns over fine but it seems like its not getting fire not sure probably will start with plugs but not sure past that any help would be appreciated thanks
 
Start with the basics. Fuel, Air, Ignition... Not to sound like a turd, but I've done it a hundred times, have you checked the petcock? If you've been working on the bike, do you have enough fuel on fuel setting, or maybe you need to hit the reserve. Try the easy stuff first, then we'll move on to other stuff....
 
hey thanks for the reply, i have tried running it on reserve and in the on position with no luck. could there be something wrong with the petcock that would restrict the flow enough to mess it up because i'm pretty sure i'm getting some fuel through it but maybe not enough?
 
Yes, see if plugs are getting fire. Also pieces of POR could have clogged carbs. back up. I always run an inline filter in these old bikes, it keeps me from having to pull the carbs off a dozen times to clean them out. Go back through what you did, till the point it ran. I doubt by coincidence that some other system failed, but it happens. Check fuses real quick, roll through the ground straps real quick. Take the Emgo's off, if it fires, then obviously they are causing the issue, pull the fuel line and see if the petcock is working properly.

One of the things I tell most people (by the way, I'm no expert, just a hack who has a habit of dragging home old bikes) Sync the carbs. This is important for the bike to start and run properly. If bits got into the needle jets, could be the issue. Unfortunately you have to go back over everything to see what's up. Check the bowls for gunk, see if the floats are still free. I've had this happen dozens of times, usually it's something small, like I forgot to tighten the screw on the points, or the bike is on the center stand and doesn't have enough fuel to reach the feed. We've all done it, it's just going back to see what we forgot to button up...
 
yeah i had an inline filter on it but then took it off thinking it might be restricting fuel flow but i also bought some plugs today and am going to try that and the PO did say that i would probably need to sync the carbs so that will be my next step after the plugs and going through the petcock again i'll try and post as i go and hopefully post some pics too thanks again for the help
 
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