Hey all,

Just the other day (Saturday) I got my first bike. My 81 Yamaha virago 750. The man who delivered it to me started it twice with no effort. After he left, I was able to start it 2 or 3 times with relative ease, but the last time I ran it, it was hard to start, then it would stall on take off and I haven't been able to start it since. I suspect that it was flooded. I have removed the plugs and dried them twice. (I should probably also note that they were black.) Left the cylinders open for over an hour to dry out and I get no improvement. I can tell that it wants to start, it turns over and the exhaust putts a little bit but no go. I think by this point the battery probably also needs to be charged after all the attempts I've made at starting it. Am I missing something? Please help, I want to be excited about my bike again.

Thanks

is it out of petrol by any chance?

No. I thought about that and tried to start it on reserve with the same results.

  mil-3 said:

No. I thought about that and tried to start it on reserve with the same results.

so its got fuel in the tank then? for all i know it could be empty...you havent said

My bike had the same problem that yours sounds like. First I turned the pet-cock to PRI and opened up the carb plugs to see if there is gas getting into your carburators. I pulled the fuel lines and blew air through them to make sure they weren't clogged. Then I pulled the tank and cleaned up the pet-cock, pulled the filter on the other side and blew some air through it to clear that up. Then swished the remaining gas around in the tank and strained it out of the tank through a fine paper strainer to get out any rust particles that might be clogging up your fuel intake, and filled it back up with clean gas.

You might want to give that a try since our bikes are notorious for clogging up the filter.