New build - no spark, no fuel

[Hossamania]

Mine is carbed, same symptom when the battery is low, womp womp womp, lights dim big time, no start. Charge the battery, or new one, fires right off.

[chris.m.j]

Load test the battery after a full charge. You can do this using your volt meter and the starter on the bike. Crank the engine for 15 secs with the volt meter connected to the battery. If the voltage drops below 10 volts replace the battery.
Are the valves adjusted correctly? No compression equals no ignition and no fuel in a ion sensing ignition.
Did the engine try to start and backfire? If so, you may have a bent vale or pushrod causing low or no compression.

Here's the sequence so far:

Low battery, but bike started once with a booster and ran for like 30 seconds before I shut it off. It was loud, not sure if it was backfiring since I'm not familiar with what the new exhaust should sound like.

It started one more time with the booster, was still loud, and died after 10 seconds or so. It wouldn't start with the booster after that but would turn over.

Replaced the battery, now the bike turns over fine but won't run. Still pretty loud when turning over. And after a few seconds of pushing the starter and not catching, a puff of smoke came out from the intake area. Is this narrowing anything down? valves/pushrods? Or should I move on to a compression test?

[chaos901]

I would start by checking the pushrod adjustment, no money involved just time.  As suggested before, give them time to bleed down before moving to the next set.  Make certain you are at TDC on the compression stoke too. 

[Sycho01]

Loud as in loud exhaust or loud as in the engines valvetrain is noisey?
Either way proceed as advised in the previous post.

[chris.m.j]

I re-did the pushrods, didn't see anything unusual. Loosened them all the way and found TDC on compression stroke for eachwhen re-tightening. Waited until they could spin freely with my fingers before moving to the next one.

No start again. Sounded the same when turning over and wouldn't catch. Im kind of leaning towards it sounding like a backfire. Its a loud pop, pop, pop, pop.

I did a compression test and got 180-185 on both cylinders. Does that rule out anything? Bent valves? Do I need to do a leakdown test next?

And the engine light comes on when turning the key, goes off and then comes back on and stays on.

Any suggestions on next steps? Leakdown test, fuel system, ignition, intake air?

[fbn ent]

It has a hard code that is probably the low battery but that is not for sure. I don't remember the procedure for readin codes on the earlier bikes but someone here will.

[chris.m.j]

Also, any reason why the engine would start and run one time with the booster pack and then not again since? It started and ran for a few seconds another time but died, and since then no running.

[fbn ent]

Did you ever put in a new battery?

[chris.m.j]

Did you ever put in a new battery?

I did. And keeping it on a trickle charger in between start up attempts.

[chris.m.j]

Just went out and tried it with starter fluid it ran for about 10 seconds. Only the rear cylinder though, but the front cylinder has a spark based on a spark test so maybe the plug is bad?. Here's where I'm at:

New battery
Push rods should be properly adjusted
Spark going to both cylinders, unsure if the spark plug is bad up front.
Ran with starter fluid for ten seconds
when it died a puff of black smoke came out from the air filter.

[Hossamania]

Diconnect your fuel line from the tank and reseat it.

[biggzed]

Are you sure your cams are timed correctly? It sounds like they should be with compression being even on both cylinders, but the other symptoms you describe sound like out of time cams could be a possibility.

Zach

[fbn ent]

I was thinking the same thing....Chris, did you do the cam chest or the shop? 

The CPS also crossed my mind but it seems strange it would fail right after an upgrade...

[901SG]

Loud as in loud exhaust or loud as in the engines valvetrain is noisey?

yeah..need and answer to this one.
also..state your pushrod adjustment procedure.

[chris.m.j]

Loud as in loud exhaust or loud as in the engines valvetrain is noisey?

yeah..need and answer to this one.
also..state your pushrod adjustment procedure.

Loud as in exhaust. But not like a shotgun blast or anything you hear when it's a single backfire. Just a loud pop pop pop, almost like an exhaust with the baffle removed.

The valvetrain sounds normal I suppose for new lifters.

[chris.m.j]

I was thinking the same thing....Chris, did you do the cam chest or the shop? 

The CPS also crossed my mind but it seems strange it would fail right after an upgrade...

The shop did. And my pushrod procedure was from the S&S adjustable instructions.

"To  ensure  that  the  piston  is  at  the  correct  position  to  remove  pushrods,  rotate  the  engine  forward  and  watch  the  intake  pushrod.  The  intake  pushrods  are  the  two  closest  to  the  center  of  the  engine.  Watch  the intake pushrod rise and fall as the engine is rotated. When the intake pushrod  is  at  its  lowest  position,  the  piston  is  on  its  compression  stroke.  Check to see if the piston is at TDC. If it isn't, rotate the engine a few more degrees to bring the piston to the top of the cylinder."

The second time I did it as part of the trouble shooting to fix the 'no start' I turned the back wheel in 5th gear and held a plastic straw in the spark plug hole, waited til the straw reached a peak on the same stroke that air is pushing out the spark plug hole.

Then I tightened the pushrod to zero lash plus 4 turns (24 flats). Waited until that was able to spin freely with my fingers (10-20min) and moved to the pushrod on the same cylinder. Waited for that rod to spin with fingers and moved to the other cylinder and repeated the process (TDCc + tightening + bleed down time).

Should I open the camchest and check the alignment? Would 180psi compression in both cylinders rule misaligned cams out?

[86fxwg]

 Would 180psi compression in both cylinders rule misaligned cams out?


[/quote]

My opinion yes.

86

[Hossamania]

It seems to me a fuel issue now.

[86fxwg]

It seems to me a fuel issue now.

Id be careful using starter fluid. Flammable brake cleaner or carb cleaner's probably a better idea.

86

[chris.m.j]

I found a problem with the front fuel injector after running the diagnostic check (P0261). The gray plastic piece with the wire connector was broken and barely hanging on. Must have snapped it during breakdown or rebuild. I'll replace that and see where that gets me.

Thanks for the responses along the way.

[chris.m.j]

I found a problem with the front fuel injector after running the diagnostic check (P0261). The gray plastic piece with the wire connector was broken and barely hanging on. Must have snapped it during breakdown or rebuild. I'll replace that and see where that gets me.

Thanks for the responses along the way.

Good to go. Just a bad injector. Probably should have pulled the codes from the start but was second guessing how I installed the push rods. Thanks again.

[fbn ent]

  Glad you figured it out.