Can't start Flathead - need help

[NicoNP]

Update. Spent time this last weekend & went through carb. I was a bit disappointed, was hoping to find them gummed up. Passages seem to be clear. Pulled low & high speed needles, nothing looked bad. Wiped them down, a little carb cleaner in the passages and used the air compressor to blow through passages.

Plugged the bottom hole of the float bowl, filled with water to make sure float was “floating”. It was. Dried it out before reassembly.

Pulled both plugs . . . they were sparking at “big” & “small” part of dist cam. Again I was disappointed not to find something wrong . . . dang!
Primed once . . . shot of starting fluid . . . nothing.
Primed twice, 3 x’s. Got just a pop.
It sure seems like it want to fire but feel like I'm missing something . . . something simple

[indianut]

Look at this link and scroll down to the bottom of page 40 and the top of page 41. If you do not have a Service Manual you Should Get One. By the way the Timer goes Counter Clock Wise to advance. This should explain what people have been trying to tell you to do.
http://www.hydra-glide.com/phpBB3/vi...p?f=109&t=7017

[Buster]

If all else fails, check to see if you have a cam out of time. I had a freshly rebuilt flathead motor that would fire on one cylinder and then spit raw gas out carb due to person that put motor together had one cam one tooth out of alignment. Either pull cam chest cover or pull head off cylinder which is not firing and it will be apparent that valve is out of time. I had an intake valve that was partially open when the cylinder fired.

[NicoNP]

Yes I have 2 service manuals and Palmers book. Thanks for the imput.

[NicoNP]

Guess next step would be to pull cam/gear cover. See if they're lined up right. Just doesn't look like that cover's been off for 60 years or so.

[foxman86]

this may be a bad idea or a good 1 but think be for u do this. i had a honda 350 cb and the starter was out but ever thing workd so i put a little starter fluid in her and push run form nutral down my street and jump on it and hit the 1s gear no problems, HOW EVER u have an old harley cant say it should or shouldnt work or be wise .

[sirhrmechanic]

Technically, you should be at full retard to start... not advanced. You advance the spark as the bike catches and your revs come up. At full advance, you get pops... and on a big twin with high compression, launched over the handlebars. ;-)

But sounds to me like a timing thing.

A couple of days ago, KNUCK posted on here about being able to set the 45 timing 180 degrees off... wonder if that could be part of the problem??

One question I didn't see answered... did the bike run previously? Have you run and ridden it without problems.... then after it sat, you had it not run? That kind of eliminates a timing problem. If that were the case, I would leaning toward bad coil or similar.

Just some thoughts.

Cheers,

Sirhr

[JohnR]

Did it run before sitting for a year? If so its not cam timing. Put a compression guage on the motor. If there is no compression it will not start. Its possible to get what appear to be clean spark plugs wet fouled enough not to fire. Install a new set of correctly gapped plugs & give it a try.

I once removed the cam cover on a Sportster looking for incorrect timing. Then later found it was fouled plugs stopping the motor from starting. Check the compression. Might have some valves sticking after sitting for so long?

[David]

Have you checked the coil? It may be weak and will fire the plugs ouside the cylinder, but under the pressure of the compression stoke it may not be producing enough secondary voltage to jump the gap. This is a common problem with older original coils and many new after market ones. David

[c.o.]

I had exactly the same problem as David explained this past summer with my Panhead. I was several hundred miles from home and I double checked the whole timing routine, etc,etc... The bike was in stubborn mode when it came to starting. It was narrowed down to the coil but it periodically had enough life in it to get me home. In fact the ol' sickle ran pretty good most of the way. It wasn't until I was about 5 miles from my place that it started to cut out again. I cussed the re-pop coil and will be going a different route coil wise next year.