wont start

[jak1389]

hey guys, i have an 04 xr650L. cant get it to start and dont know why. at first the battery wouldnt hold a charge so i changed that. i could hear the piston kicking over but there was no spark. i checked the plug and it looked very dark so i changed it with a freshy. still nada. i dont know what it is. its a practically new bike that hasnt been ran in a few months, and now i cant get it to start. any ideas or pointers for me to try to get this thing out of my garage and into the woods.

[f4istunna]

You have no spark at all w/ the new plug? Check your electrical parts. Coil, make sure no broken or loose wires, plug wire is in the boot contacting plug etc.

did it just not start one day or something happen?


Have you tried to push start it?

[Dr89]

it'd help if you could describe more about what its doing...symptoms. like how does it act when you press the start button, does it turn over at all? what noises does it make?

if its turing over and everything its almost positively electrical, just a matter of process of elimination.

if its not turning over it could be a number of things...at worst it wasn't built right and one of the vlaves might be seizing up or something and making it hard to start. HIGHLY doubtful.

[jak1389]

well it turns over, sounds fine. just no spark. i was sitting for a couple of months and went to start it and nada. what should i look for?

[Dr89]

well with changing the battery and spark plug you've done the first two things i would have done...try starting it while its on the charger still, if you havent already, even if it is a new battery. have you checked the plug since you put the new one in? maybe its way rich and flooding before you can get it started...

also check the spark plug gap, it might be sparking but if its to widely gapped it could just not be making the jump. make sure theres not like dirt or somethin in the spark plug wire thats keeping it from making a good connection with the plug.

at least its turning over and sounds good, anytime i've had the same thing your describing its just been a bad plug or battery so i dunno....except one time with one of my engines the intake valve wasn't timed exactly right and it was turning over just perfectly but was hell to try and start because everything wasn't on the same page. if it's sat for a while now you may need a valve adjustment but i really doubt it with it having so few hours.

[jak1389]

yea well ill take another look over everything and see if some of my motor head buddies can figure it out. if not ill just take it to the local shop and let you guys know what went wrong with this bike.