Rough idle followed by no start after oil change.

[Guest]

Hello, so after a lot of work I was down to my last few things that my 1980 GS850 needed.
I drained the horrible oil last night and let the loctite for the drain plug to set overnight. I also changed the oil filter.
This afternoon I put new oil in ( a little over 3 and a half quarts of 20w50 valvoline) and a new choke and clutch cable.
After everything was back together and tight I started the bike, and it would not stay on without some choke or throttle and then proceeded to die after a few minutes.
It wont start for anything now and makes a noise I haven't heard before..
The bike was NOT started before I had the new oil in.
I'm at wits end here, after everything the last thing to do before I could ride it and now it wont start!
It started fine with the old nasty oil, sheesh..(wasnt ridden but would start and idle fine)
I'm hoping it's something stupid but I haven't figured it out yet. Please help

[Chris G]

May be you've dislodged a cable or connector when you put the new cables on, do you have a spark at all plugs?

[Zack]

May be you've dislodged a cable or connector when you put the new cables on, do you have a spark at all plugs?

I looked and didnt see anything, but that is possible. I should probably take the tank back off and look around.
As for sparks, I really have no clue. As I said it started right up before oil change so its so confusing

[Dogma]

Looking at connectors won't reliably give you much info to assess if they're OK. You won't know you still have spark until you've seen the spark when testing it.

If the new clutch cable isn't adjusted exactly like the old one, you may simply need a different amount of choke from what you were used to before. Or maybe the choke cable was adjusted tight to compensate for clogged idle circuits in the carbs. Either way, new oil and cables can't cause these symptoms. Something else is in need of attention.

[Zack]

I actually didn't need any choke before for it to start.
So the clutch cable can affect the engine starting from neutral?

[Rob S.]

...the clutch cable can affect the engine starting from neutral?

I've never heard of that.

[1948man]

I think he meant to say choke cable. That what I was thinking too. If it would start without choke before and now it wants to die, maybe it is being heavily choked. Barring something accidentally dislodged, the changing of the choke cable is probably the only thing you have done that would cause these symptoms.

[Zack]

The choke cable was broke so it was relaxed. So nothing has changed in the amount of choke.

[Dogma]

Yes, meant to say choke. Sorry.

[Zack]

I just took the tank off and checked stuff, everything looked solid.
All I get is one small sputter sometimes if im lucky with or without varying amounts of choke, on prime or regular.
Im out of daylight to work on it but I really would like to have some stuff I can try for early tomorrow morning.

[jbthomp]

I would check for spark on both 1&2 cylinders that way you know both coils are firing. If that is good then you need to make sure fuel is getting to the carbs. Pull the drain plugs and make sure fuel is getting to all of them. Maybe the fuel line got pinched somehow in the process of monkeying with it. You can give it a LITTLE ether and see if it will crack off on that. If it will fire on ether then you are sure to have a fuel issue. Im sure you are right. It probably is something easy you just need to go through the process of elimination and start checking things off the list. Fuel, air, spark, compression.

[habsdoc]

Loctite ???

You put loctite on your drain plug??? Usually a new crush washer will work for several changes before they start weaping.

[Zack]

Plugs are very black, going to test for spark.

[Zack]

I have spark and gas in the bowels.
Now what?

[tom203]

Plugs are very black, going to test for spark.

This would be a good time to check petcock for correct operation- so you can rule it out as a problem and move on to carbs. Disconnect fuel line at petcock - in "ON" or "RES" no fuel should flow or dribble if engine ain't running.