I have 1998 zx9r that I let sit for about a year and now it won't start. It have battery power (new battery) and just turns over. At first it would try to start and then backfire. After trying for a while (choke on and off) it stopped firing all together. I sprayed carb fluid to determine if it was carbs or not and still no fire. So does any one know how to test the cam and crank sensor? Or have any ideas?

 

The worst enemy of carburetors on motorcycles is the gasoline we have available to us today. Your carburetors need to be cleaned, in particular, the jets. You might get lucky and get by draining ALL the gas out of the tank, draining the carburetor float bowls, adding some fresh gasoline [TRY to buy gasoline without ethanol. It's out there, you just have to look. http://pure-gas.org/] I'd buy a bottle of Gum Out Regane or Chevron 65740 Techron Concentrate Plus Fuel System Cleaner [NOT Pro-Gard] and ignore the bottle's recommended maintenance dosage and dump in a therapeutic dosage, maybe half a bottle to two gallons and try to get it started and see if that will clear things up. I've had good luck on single carburetors, but the odds of getting all jets on multiple carb banks like yours is slim. Nothin' ventured, nothing gained....

The fact the bike won't fire when you spray stuff into the carb intake doesn't mean much. It may of sucked in a dose of water from the carburetor bowl due to fuel phase separation, maybe a hit of low octane gasoline from phase separation, a hit of water laden alcohol from phase separation, or maybe the air / fuel mixture you're spraying in there isn't right to combust. The gas in the tank has absorbed atmospheric moisture [humidity] and is useless in a carburetted engine because it has separated, and while it was idle, formed a varnish in and on your jets. It needs to go away. Start fresh and see what happens. The float bowls need to be drained, because that is the fuel the engine will get first, and water, dirt and poltergeist gather there. For the most part, I don't subscribe to better living through chemicals, but considering what our gas does to our bikes, it seems our best option. If this doesn't do it, the carb bank needs to come off and disassembled, and thoroughly cleaned. Not rocket science, however, you will need an attention span greater than a hamster and some basic comprehension abilities. And a few tools. Let's start with fresh fuel and some chemical assistance. And get a charger on the battery. You'll need all the voltage you can get. Nothing sucks worse than juuuust about getting it to fire and you're faced with "ara, arrra, aaaaara, click click click". One thing to be said about kick start only bikes......doesn't take long to convince an owner to clean the carburetors, where a bike owner with a magic button seems to think "maybe if I just crank it another 20 minutes it will all clear up".

 

+1^ Fuller. I'd suggest a thorough flush of the fuel line, tank, carbs. Clean the jets. Use a very fine wire to poke thru the jet holes to clean the crud. Many guys think they can run some sort of caustic fluid thru to clean these; not true. DO NOT sit on the starter button and "grind" the thing to death! Give your plugs a light touch-up with emery paper to ensure a good spark. Flush, clean, report back. If it was running fine before your "storage," it should be reasonably OK with fresh fuel and a good clean. What plugs? CR8E's?

 

Thank you. I will disassemble the carbs tommarrow and give them a good cleaning an report back what I find. Thanks again.