Will not start

[Howard J]

Recently bought a high mileage 2010 twin cam GSA, have stripped down the rear to repaint the subframe this week and took off the exhaust to clean up. Today I put it all back together and it won’t start, electrics all seem ok, turns over, but will not start, checked the plugs and have a spark, fuel gauge is dodgy but I can see fuel sloshing about through the fuel cap, was full when I collected and I bunged another £15 in around 70 miles from home. In the end I drained the battery from trying to start, so tried it with a jump start pack and still no joy. Riding home the 240 miles last Sunday was no problem although it was a wet ride home, started her up the next day fine, any ideas? Thanks. One thing I can’t hear is the fuel pump priming, would this prime each time I turn the ignition on and off? If I wire the fpc to the battery I can hear it prime but at the moment the battery is too dead to try starting with the fpc bypassed.

 

[Tractors are go]

Recently bought a high mileage 2010 twin cam GSA, have stripped down the rear to repaint the subframe this week and took off the exhaust to clean up. Today I put it all back together and it won’t start, electrics all seem ok, turns over, but will not start, checked the plugs and have a spark, fuel gauge is dodgy but I can see fuel sloshing about through the fuel cap, was full when I collected and I bunged another £15 in around 70 miles from home. In the end I drained the battery from trying to start, so tried it with a jump start pack and still no joy. Riding home the 240 miles last Sunday was no problem although it was a wet ride home, started her up the next day fine, any ideas? Thanks

If, you've got a nice blue spark at all 4 plugs are they damp from fuel ? If not that suggest that fuel isn't being injected, possibly fuel pump.

If you don't have a good spark, secondary coil ?

My first thought, check all the connections, use contact cleaner (not wd40) then silicon grease. Also check earth's.

Finally could be hall effect sensor, they "can" give spark/fuel but not start bike.

Hopefully Steptoe will be along to give the proper answer.

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[Denz0]

Recently bought a high mileage 2010 twin cam GSA, have stripped down the rear to repaint the subframe this week and took off the exhaust to clean up. Today I put it all back together and it won’t start, electrics all seem ok, turns over, but will not start, checked the plugs and have a spark, fuel gauge is dodgy but I can see fuel sloshing about through the fuel cap, was full when I collected and I bunged another £15 in around 70 miles from home. In the end I drained the battery from trying to start, so tried it with a jump start pack and still no joy. Riding home the 240 miles last Sunday was no problem although it was a wet ride home, started her up the next day fine, any ideas? Thanks. One thing I can’t hear is the fuel pump priming, would this prime each time I turn the ignition on and off? If I wire the fpc to the battery I can hear it prime but at the moment the battery is too dead to try starting with the fpc bypassed.

I would take one of the injectors out and see if is creating nice mist ... if not check fuel pump or fp controller my friends Gsa wasn't starting like this two months ago when I took fuel pump out I've spotted that all the fuel is on right side of the tank. Bike was running fine when topped up but didn't level of the fuel in the tank.
When I installed different pump was back to normal...
So make sure there is plenty of fuel in the tank first...


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[Howard J]

The plugs don’t look wet even after all the trying to start, if the tank was full (GSA) and I did 240 miles, but put another £15 in 70 miles from home there should be plenty I think? If I look into the tank filler and move the bike slightly on the centre stand I can see fuel sloshing about. Was wondering if it was anything to do with unplugging the wiring after stripping the rear subframe, but the wires seem to only be going to the rear lights/indicators/ and tyre pressure sensor box.

 

[The Big Dog]

Have you taken the tank off? It’s very easy to pinch the fuel line. Also make sure the connectors on left hand if tank (ad you sit on it) are fully “home”

 

[Howard J]

No, tank not been off. Checked the plugs again and the lower ones are wet, I do wonder if I have just flooded it? Will take out and clean the plugs tomorrow and try again as the battery is now on charge. It sounds as if it’s trying to start....

 

[andeebee]

Did you reconnect the side stand switch wiring as well, although not sure if it would turn over at all if that was suspect? Just a thought...

 

[Howard J]

Day 2

So this morning all charged up, still will not fire.
I removed all of the plugs and cleaned them, the 2 secondary plugs were very wet and I could see the orange glow of fuel burning off them as I put a flame to them, tried all plugs and all coils and get a spark from all, although I didn’t think it was a brilliant spark....so not sure on that one?
Pulled off the injectors and gave them a wipe over, good spray from both. There is a smell of fuel in the air, but that maybe just from me trying to start her, any more ideas?
Reset the TPS before doing all this. At times she sounds as if she is trying to start.

 

[UturnTony]

If you have a correctly metered and timed fuel delivery.
If you have a correctly timed spark at the plugs.
If you have enough compression and the engine is turning over.
It should run.

At risk of being accused of stating the bleedin' obvious remove one or more of these things and it won't go so, i'm guessing, at least one is missing.

Edit: What you say about not hearing the pump priming sounds fishy to me by the way.

 

[Howard J]

Great stuff.....she’s alive!! Tried again and nearly flattened the battery, so hooked up the jump start pack, she seemed to be trying to start so I just kept the starter going and she eventually coughed into life, warmed her up and she started fine after that, I think that because the last time I had her running I did not get her up to temperature and flooded the plugs and bores?

 

[UturnTony]

Great stuff.....she’s alive!! Tried again and nearly flattened the battery, so hooked up the jump start pack, she seemed to be trying to start so I just kept the starter going and she eventually coughed into life, warmed her up and she started fine after that, I think that because the last time I had her running I did not get her up to temperature and flooded the plugs and bores?

Excellent

Your reasons for it's reluctance to start do not stack up and i wouldn't rely on them for the answer if i was you.

I recently had experience of a 2006 1200 GSA that was running fine one day, the next day it was really reluctant to
go, just like yours; it was noticed that it was now displaying low fuel warnings which it wasn't previously when it was
running ok. Anyhow, fuel was added from a can and once started (and it did take some churning) it was fine and
it travelled the 90 or so miles to it's home having been re-fueled on the way; it didn't take as much as it should
have done if empty so i couldn't have been, empty.

It turned out the fuel strip had failed and that was the only thing different from the previous day.

Strange, very strange.

 

[Bendy toy]

Great stuff.....she’s alive!! Tried again and nearly flattened the battery, so hooked up the jump start pack, she seemed to be trying to start so I just kept the starter going and she eventually coughed into life, warmed her up and she started fine after that, I think that because the last time I had her running I did not get her up to temperature and flooded the plugs and bores?

I did much the same when fuel pump packed up and killed the starter motor.

The fuel pump was moving fuel but it was weak so engine wouldn’t run but I could get a spurt of fuel from the line.
An ADV with a weak fuel pump, gets about 8 litres trapped in the tank right hand side. You run dry with 1/4 tank remaining.

 

[Fluffy Bridges]

Quite right, Bendy.

Fuel strip failure results in no transfer of fuel from RHS of tank. Esp. aggravating when there is 7ltrs or so in there and it runs out .

I had a fuel strip fail on my GSA (which I had new in 2007) and did the barbecue lighter thing which I was convinced wouldn't work but it did.

There is no point in the large GSA tank if it won't feed from one side to the other so I've been looking making up a balance pipe to circumvent this.

Pipe and fittings are OK, sealing the fittings into the plastic tank is the puzzle at the mo…..

Fluff.

 

[Howard J]

Thanks for the info’ gents. My fuel gauge does read full when full and does reduce with the mileage but is nowhere near accurate. After I eventually managed to start the bike I took her out and rode around 30 miles on the same tank of fuel, no problems starting since, filled her up earlier and the cost was around £22.50, forgot to look at how many litres this was to fill.

 

[Denz0]

I did much the same when fuel pump packed up and killed the starter motor.

The fuel pump was moving fuel but it was weak so engine wouldn’t run but I could get a spurt of fuel from the line.
An ADV with a weak fuel pump, gets about 8 litres trapped in the tank right hand side. You run dry with 1/4 tank remaining.

This is what friend of mine has experience on his gsa bike was running fine but didn't level the fuel in the tank this happened about week after fuel strip replacement and bmw technician forgot to reattach return fuel line to the tank


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