Won't Start after storage

[boysan1954]

My 1980 CBX has not been run for a year. Prior to that, no issues. It's had all current maintenance prior to this issue. It has been stored with no-ethanol gas with Stabil in the tank. I have 5 other Hondas that all started no problem under the same storage condition. I put a fully charged new battery in prior to starting. I pulled the plugs and cleaned them as well. After unsuccessful attempts I tried using starting fluid which resulted in it firing and running at a low idle for a couple seconds. What am I missing here ?

[EMS]

Your float bowls are most likely empty. Your 1980 CBX has a vacuum fuel valve and will allow fuel to flow to the bowls only when cranked/running. It will take quite a while for them to fill and start up. If it was running on starting fluid a little, it should have been enough to fill the carbs, so I am guessing there may be something wrong with the vacuum valve. Take the tank off and rig some fuel lines from the petcock directly to the carbs without going to the vacuum valve. You will need a "T" to split from one to two lines.

[daves79x]

Did you actually drain the carbs when you stored the bike? It is an absolute necessity for long-term storage and has been harped-on here for years. You can let a CBX sit for years with totally dry carbs and they'll fire right up. Mike may be onto another problem with your vacuum valve (if you still have it), but my guess is you have plugged idle circuitry from gas left in the carbs slowly evaporating and leaving deposits in the idle jets. Also, is there any chance gas could have slowly seeped into the carbs over the last year due to a faulty petcock/vacuum valve. This will plug the carbs for sure.

Do a test to see if the carbs are actually getting gas. Either crank the engine or blow into the vacuum valve vent hose. Or just turn on the petcock if you have no vacuum valve. Open one bowl drain at a time and see if you have gas to all bowls. If you do, then you have plugged carbs. Off they come.

Dave

[wyly]

yeah vacuum lines to the petcock have caused me repeated starting problems on my GS1150...

[chrispyduck]

I would be interested to know what is classed as "long term storage" ?

[daves79x]

Drain the carbs if the bike sits more than a month. Keep the tank full also.

Dave

[Larry Zimmer]

Drain the carbs if the bike sits more than a month. Keep the tank full also.

Dave

And, with those little bowls in the CBX, might consider draining if it is going to sit more than 3 days. Only takes a few minutes. By-pass the vacuum valve and starting is only a few seconds wait time -- about as long as it takes to put on a helmet. Beats the snot out of doing a jet cleaning!!