ok, I need suggestions

[mikelem79]

Well, where to begin? I am having trouble with my bike. when I got back from my motorcycle run last month, my bike hasn't started since. The last time it ran it was popping and it idled a little rough. Also you could smell gas in the exhaust. Things I have done since the run was an ignition relocation mod ( to the dash panel). before the run I drilled into the baffles for a little rumble. The bike ran fine before the run, but when I got home, it wouldn't start.
Ok, so a little diagnostics for ya: after the ignition mod, the bike would function normally- i.e. lights, starter would crank- but no fire. Also I would smell gas big time. So obviously it flooded. I took the carbs off, and checked them out. Readjusted them according to my chilton's manual, and reinstalled them. Bike would kick over, but no fire. I then inspected the plugs. found what I thought was oil on the outer plugs, but not the electrodes- those were dry. wiped them clean, and reinstalled them. same thing, no fire. ok, then I took the right plug from the cylinder, while still on the ignition wire, and checked for a spark. I couldn't find a spark, but it wasnt all that dark to see it. I measured the voltage w/ my meter, and I have 12.40 volts (give or take) at the ignition wire, so it isnt the wires. please any reasonable suggestions will help. oh ya, also After i tried to kick it over the last time, a pool of gas formed under the bike, but I didnt find any open leaks. Please help if you can.

[mikelem79]

Also, before I forget, does this indicate that I should re-jet the carbs?

[Triangles]

Mike sounds like you have a multitude of issues.

1st that comes to mind is the puddle of gas would indicate to me that your float needles in your carbs aren't closing properly. This can cause gas to spill out on the ground and or gas to leak into your engine and wash down around the pistons and get into your oil. I'd check your oil level to see if an appreciable amount of gas has gotten into your oil and check to make sure your float bowl levels are where they should be. Rough idle and gas smell at idle could indicate it's running rich because your float needles aren't stopping the gas and it's ingesting too much gas at idle. However both my vulcan 500's have a rich gas smelling exhaust at idle which I believe to be normal.

With your ignition mod I believe it is possible to have things come on but not have any spark. It's been a few years since I looked at this and I vaguely remember the need for a proper resistor somewhere. re-check your wiring, maybe even go so far as to put the original ignition back in as a double check.

Exhaust popping in a way is by design as an emissions control. Kawasaki designed the Vulcan 500 engine to "inject" fresh air into the exhaust system to provide oxygen to burn up any unburned gas before it leaves your tail pipe. As a result you get a lot of afterfires in the exhaust especially when letting off the throttle. The factory exhaust muffles this to where you don't really hear it.

Opening up the exhaust a little shouldn't require re-jetting the carbs. going to straight pipes... maybe, but doubtful. Now if you mess even slightly with the intake you'll likely have to rejet. My experience has been that you might gain an ever so slight power increase by opening things up and letting her breathe a little easier, but you sacrifice fuel economy and usually you lose the smoothness of your throttle (ie the low end runs a little rough).

In summary you need air, spark, and gas and it sounds like you have 2 of the three screwed up. 1) bust out the wiring diagrams and figure out why you have no spark (crank sensor, Igniter, ignition switch). 2) figure out where that gas is coming from before you go up in flames! Maybe that should be #1. My first suspect would be float needles. 3)DO NOT REJET!!! If you don't like the popping that you now hear because you drilled out the exhaust you can live with it as it is normal or I've read of some people plugging the air injection hoses with marbles.

Let us know what you figure out.

[mikelem79]

ok Triangles, heres what I found.

After procrastinating for 9 months about actually working on the bike, I did. I started with the puddle of gas under the bike. Using your suggestion I pulled the carbs again and adjusted the floats. This fixed the puddle- no problem. I then moved onto the ignition mod. I found that the little resistor you referred to is needed and found another forum that addressed the actual mod itself. (Thanks Paul Andreasen, wherever you are). So that fixed that problem. Now heres where it gets weird. I decided to check the spark to see if that was the problem. I had purchased brand new plugs when I ran into this whole mess before and knew that they werent bad plugs. So I pulled the plugs anyway to check the gaps. When I took them from the cylinders I found that they looked as if there was fuel all over them. So I wiped them dry and shorted them on the engine to check for spark. Pretty blue spark when I cranked it over, and the bike acted like it wanted to start. so I installed the plug and the bike fired right up! so naturally I'm excited right? I let the bike run for a minute and after about a minute, it stalled out again. So I tried to fire it up again, and the engine would crank but not start. So I'm like WTF, so I pulled the plug to check it again. And again, the plug was soiled, and no spark showed when I shorted it to the engine at all. I cleaned it off again, and like before the same thing happened- fired right up when placed into the cylinder. So I have an intermittent spark and an issue keeping my plugs from being soaked. I'm not real sure where to start now, but I know after the work I did and the fact that it will start, I'm almost there. Do you (Or anyone else for that matter) have any suggestions on where I should start? The plugs arent "fouled" per say, just a little wet when I take them out of the engine. But the bike fires right up when I wipe them clean and reinstall them, which is a hell of a lot more than I had when I initially wrote this thread. Thanks to anyone who can help, and a big thanks to Triangles for the push in the right direction.

[Triangles]

Sounds to me like you have a loose electrical connection in your relocation mod. Either that or you have an intermittent short somewhere. I would suspect your plugs are getting wet because they are not sparking and cranking the engine will pull gas in from the carbs. The other thing that it could be is that your engine is getting choked and stalling because it's getting too much gas.

From your post it sounds like you've fixed your carb problem with the floats and that you now just have a spark problem. It might be helpful to pick up a "spark checker" or whatever they are called from an autoparts store. It's a device that you put in between your spark plug and spark plug wire. They are safer for both you and your ignition system than just pulling the plug to check for spark.

When it stalls after you get it running is it like someone hit the cutoff switch or does it bog down and die? If it bogs down you may still have a carb problem, if not I'd be looking at your ignition switch wiring.

Since it's been sitting for so long you likely have gummed up carbs. I've never seen it so bad that it would cause problems with the engine stalling although you may have to use a little more choke. Don't be surpised if it runs aweful and practically dies when you go to give it gas once you get it running. This is typical when a carb as been sitting for so long. Some carb cleaner and a few tanks of gas should help clean things out in the carb. You'll just have to deal with the hesitating for a while.

I'd also strongly recommend that once you've got it running that you change your oil! When you flood the engine some of that gas washes past the cylinder into the oil. If your carb float bowls have been leaky it's possible to get a significant amount of gasoline in your oil and you may want to just change the oil now if it has a lot of gas in it.