Trying to bring her back to life

[Justin]

Hello all!

I bought an 07 key west that was part of a local companies rental fleet last summer. Unfortunately it sat outside in the Maine winter this past year and Im struggling to get it to come back to life. I can find my way around an engine for the most part and can turn a wrench but really am lost when it comes to diagnosing what is actually going on and  whether things look the way they are supposed to. So far I have topped off the oil (oil light had come on) and replaced the spark plug. The battery died over the winter and was unable to get it to take a charge so I have just been trying to kick start it. (Do I need a battery for it to run?) Although I have gotten it to fire up using a little starter fluid sprayed into the air intake. It will fire up for a few seconds then quickly stall out. All of this leads me to think there is some sort of fuel problem. But I don't really know where to look. Going over the forums and manuals the carb sounded like a likely suspect. So I took the air box off and can look into the carb and it looks pretty damn clean in there, not sure how much you can actually see from there though. Do I need take the whole carb off and open it up to see the true story? Another area I've read that could be an issue is the fuel filter. Is that another thing I need to disconnect to really tell whats going on inside? Just looking at it you can tell there is fuel in it. All my fuel lines look to be in good shape. I don't really know how to go about testing the petcock to see if thats functioning. The fuel in the tank is the same fuel from the end of last summer could that be causing some sort of issue? Sorry for all the questions but Im pretty inexperienced when it comes to these things and am trying to teach myself as I go essentially. Just hoping for a little guidance on where I should be looking.  I got the bike for cheap and figured it would be a good learning experience to work on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! I just want to get out and ride again!!!

THanks!!

[harry]

yeah man lots of questions.
good you gave it a shot of liquid dynamite and your right  thinking
it fired and stopped  so its a fuel issue  or delivery issue.
to test the pitcock:
find the vac hose on the carb  you will find it at the rear of the carb
remove the fuel line at the front of the carb and put it in a jar.
get yourself a syringe (5cc) at a hobby/craft shop stick it on the hose
   and open the syringe  -- fuel should flow at a good rate.
then put everything back and drain the fuel bowl on the carb
 id drain the fuel tank just for good measure. also about
 fuel  buy the best and if you can find it get gas without ethanol.
 ethanol  attracts moisture .

oilyhans

[Justin]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I checked the pitcock today and fuel flowed right out when I applied suction to the vacuum hose. So I went to drain the fuel bowl and for some reason on my bike the screw for it was pretty much right up against the frame. so I couldn't really access it without taking the carb off. So I went ahead and did that and drained the fuel bowl and what came out smelled like gas but had a blue tinge to it. I'm assuming that was just oil that was also mixed in there since it separated in the container. Correct me if im wrong there though. I'm wondering if at this point is the carb my next likely culprit and should I just go ahead and disassemble it since I already have it off? I have to say, looking through it while still together the carb looks pretty darn clean, but I guess thats not necessarily a good indication of whats going on inside. And one final thing, If I do have to take the carb apart would you recommend replacing the gaskets automatically or is it ok to reuse them as long as they look ok?

Thanks again for your help!