Engine starting issues.. Carb blocked?

[3lemental]

Went out this morning to start the bike (which usually has issues starting in the cold) and it wouldn't start. I checked fuel tap, put more fuel in the tank and tried again. I ran the starter for almost a minute, the engine was definitely turning over but wouldn't catch. Seemed as though it wasn't getting fuel. In the end i had to rush to get to college by bus, but when i get home i'm going to check fuel lines and carb for an obstruction.. anything else that could cause these issues? Choke was tried full on, full off and half.

[The Pastor]

check and clean the spark plug, drain the carb.

while you have the sparkplug out you might as well put the kill switch to off (very important) and hit the starter and see if any petrol come out the spark plug hole.

but first i'd check that the killswitch wasnt set too off

[The Stranger:Me]

drain the carb.

+1. Do the simple stuff first.

[3lemental]

check and clean the spark plug, drain the carb.

while you have the sparkplug out you might as well put the kill switch to off (very important) and hit the starter and see if any petrol come out the spark plug hole.

but first i'd check that the killswitch wasnt set too off

Cheers, worth trying. Yeah killswitch was definitely on, just forgot to mention it

[motorbyclist]

experience says drain the carb.

then check you have spark.

then drain the tank.

problem still not found? do the air filter for good measure then start looking at cleaning the carby, spark timing etc

[3lemental]

Turns out water had gotten into my tank cheers to bad weather, then settled on the bottom after a few days of use. Drained the tank and carb and it works fine again.

Cheer for suggestions.

[YellowDog]

Water and petrol don't mix. Best avoided.

BUT when it won't start and you re sodding around with the choke, try full choke slowly reducing to small choke as it's turning.

Always worked for me with my old bikes.

[merka685]

Interesting, I also had the same problem this morning, we had some shocking torrential rain yesterday and I just had the mechanic clean my carbs (4 cylinders is a bit to complex for me). So drain the tank and carbs to get the water out?

[jim.cox]

So drain the tank and carbs to get the water out?

Yup. Water is heavier than petrol, and it sits at the bottom of the tank. Its almost always water contamination if the bike dies when you switch to reserve

Just refilling the tank will not fix the problem.

Small amounts of water can be removed by adding a little metholated spirits to the tank. But the meths can attack carb seals, fuel lines etc, so its not really recommended.