Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me sort this out. So I rode my bike to my mom's this weekend, no problem. Then all of a sudden, the next day, when I go to start the bike it won't start. The motor turns over and there are a lot of loud pops (after fires) but nothing. It sounds like it's on the verge of starting. I thought it might be the battery but I tried getting a jump and that did nothing. I checked the voltage of the battery and it's at 12.56V. I tried rolling it down a hill but that didn't work because of my second problem. As I was about to roll it down the hill, the clutch stopped working. Regardless if I pulled in the clutch, the bike wouldn't move with out a lot of effort. At one point it got so bad that I couldn't change gears anymore. After a couple of hours, the transmission unfroze and I was able to shift into neutral but I'm still having the same problem with the clutch. I don't know if this is related but prior to this, for the past two weeks, every time I started after it had been sitting for a while, it would make a loud pop. The bike only has 16000 miles and it's been two months since it's last service. Please help. This is killing me. Thanks.

 

I see you have the V&H Big Radius, how long ago did you have them installed? Did you add fuel management when you did? If so what kind of fuel management? Have you pulled your plugs to take a look at them, perhaps they are foul? I am just throwing stuff out their.

The two issues are probably unrelated.

 

I've been running the bike with this setup for almost a year with out a problem. I didn't look at the spark plugs and won't be able to do anything until this weekend when I can get out to my mom's again. When you say the two problems are unrelated. Are you talking about it not starting up and the clutch, or about the pop on start up. Thanks

 

The start and clutch are probably unrelated.

Pop on start up has me thinking Fuel, if you had done somthing recently that might have explianed it. Plugs can tell you alot about a bike, if it were mine I would start their after hearing a pop.

When I ran my battery down one afternoon, not even a jump could get me going. Do you have a battery tender or charger you could put on it overnight?

 

Here's a site I found that might help you troubleshoot

http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/tec...art/index.html

 

i have a 95 fatboy that has not been run in a couple of years. i replaced battery and it will turn over but not fire. Any suggestions?

 

Alaska, your new here so one suggestion would be to start your own thread. That way you don't Hijack the original posters problem when people try and trouble shoot yours.

 

Thanks Zacharia_11, you've been really helpful. That article you linked to is really great. I'm definitely going to follow it this weekend. Man, you've given me some hope that the bike is not a total loss and I'd have to shell out the big bucks to get it fixed. Who knows, maybe it will but I prey it doesn't. I'll update you after this weekend when I can work on it. In the meantime if there are any other ideas I'll be happy to hear them.
Just a quick question. You say you suspect the spark plugs, but I just had them changed in my last service which was 1000 miles ago. Can a plug go bad that fast? Does that mean there is an underlying problem or just a bad plug? Thanks.

 

What I meant was to check the plugs they can tell you alot about the condition of your bike. Take them out and inspect them, I attached a link.

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/maint...sparkplugs.htm

Before you do any of that try charging that battery.

 

Awesome. Another great article.

Will do. Thanks.