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I can't get my Suzuki Bandit to start after the winter?


The Bandit is a small sport bike, 1996, 600cc. I parked it over the winter in Colorado and started it a couple of times last week. Now the bike won't start. I tried flushing the gas tank, but no luck. I pulled one of the plugs and there is alot of gas on the plug, but it won't fire. I also checked to make sure there was spark. I thought I may have flooded it, but I have let it sit for an entire day and it still won't happen. Any suggestions? If you have time to go back and forth and let me troubleshoot..... thewillies99@yahoo. Thanks.

When gasoline is left inside the carburators it evaporates slowly and leaves behind a residue that clogs up your carburators. They may send gasoline to the motor, but not in the right mix. You can try off-the-shelf carburator cleaners or fuel injection cleaners (Techron is good), but reality is that you may have to take the carburators apart and clean them out completely. At the shop I worked before that would cost about $600.

The only way to avoid this problem completely is to ride the bike on a regular basis, but there are products out there that is supposed to help prevent this. Basically the problem is when the bike sits for more than a month or so (depending). This is much less of a problem with fuel injected bikes because the fuel doesn't evaporate in the same way.

fresh gas
SMALL amount of carb cleaner in tank
spray the carb good with carb cleaner
if it still floods,take carb off and clean it in carb cleaner,make sure the float is free

time to strip those carbies boy!
leave them over the winter with fuel in them and the residue from the petrol clogs them up.
You may need to have them ultrasonically cleaned if a simple strip and clean wont sort them out

Get some of that "winterizing" gas treatment stuff into the gas tank next time...

Drain ALL the fuel from the gas tank, float bowls, carbs, and all fuel lines. Clean the carbs with carb cleaner. REplace the spark plugs. Check the float bowl height with that nifty float bowl height tool (see your local bike dealer/parts shop).

Check the battery, too. Was it on a charger/maintainer while it sat? If not, get a new battery.

Then, fill up the gas tank with new gas, and put some STP Gas Treatment in it. Then try and start it. If that still doesn't work, send me an email and I'll talk to my partner (who's a motorcycle mechanic/journalist) and see if he has time to offer any other suggestions.

Go look online for "winterization treatment" for motorcycles about what to do next time to make sure your bike will start in the spring. I'd just tell you myself, but I don't really know all the ins and outs of winterizing a bike, having never done it. I ride year round here, rain or shine or snow or sleet.... :D

My buddy had the same problem - same bike.
Turned out it was the kick stand safety switch. Try bypassing that once.
------------------ but if you checked and have spark --------
then I am off base.,

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