06 Honda Hornet Won’t Start | GTAMotorcycle.com

06 Honda Hornet Won’t Start

Wyled

Wyled

Well-known member
Okay, so a little background info. Shes carbed. I noticed as the season got closer to an end, she would have more and more trouble starting. I chalked this up to the cold weather, (if anyone could clear this up for me it would be much obliged). This was my first issue. There would be times, after having ridden and it sat while I was in class for a few hours, that I would come back out and she could not ignite. I would follow the manual’s steps of a flooded engine and open the throttle as I hit the starter which then in turn she would catch, and I would immediately close the throttle and play with the choke as she would already be running high rpms because of the ‘boost’ you could say I gave her when I opened the throttle on the start. I hope that makes sense and am curious as to what may have been happening that caused me to have to do such a thing.

That being said, I put her away and not even three weeks later, she was in a unheated garage I came to her and she would not start. I could not get her running but it was not the battery but I still hooked her up to a battery tender anyways. Then I returned from school once again, another three weeks later and tried the most recent time, with a full battery and have a hard time believeing the fuel has gone bad. It could not have gone bad just three weeks from the last time I rode it and the issues persisted but even a total of 5-6 weeks until where I am now I do not think it could have gone bad. Could anyone diagnose what is going on from the video I attached. Thank you!
Video here
 
When was the last time it got some maintenance love?

Your crank is obviously plenty fast in the video so battery isn't your issue.

Your gas won't have gone bad in three weeks, but given the crazy temp swings, you could have a puddle of water at the bottom of your tank.

Given that your bike has been getting harder to start over time, my top three guesses are plugged carbs, bad spark (replacing plugs is a great idea if they haven't been done in a while) or valves need adjusted (ugh).
 
All the above...+2 on the carburetor (likely needs service).
Kill switch or petcock set to off, by any chance?
 
GreyGhost said:
When was the last time it got some maintenance love?

Your crank is obviously plenty fast in the video so battery isn't your issue.

Your gas won't have gone bad in three weeks, but given the crazy temp swings, you could have a puddle of water at the bottom of your tank.

Given that your bike has been getting harder to start over time, my top three guesses are plugged carbs, bad spark (replacing plugs is a great idea if they haven't been done in a while) or valves need adjusted (ugh).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply!

It was serviced in the Summer around ajy which is when I got the bike. New fluids and a general maintenance from what I understood.

Shes kept indoors a garage so when you mean water do you mean from weather.

And, I replaced plugs myself this past September because I fouled them by riding with the choke open smh... as a new rider ive learned a lot. So i guess from what you said Id chalk it up to plugged carbs or valve adjustment?

Thanks again!
 
Gary said:
All the above...+2 on the carburetor (likely needs service).
Kill switch or petcock set to off, by any chance?
Click to expand...

No petcock but I tried toying with the killswitch even in the video i flip it back a few times. But thank you!
 
Check your air cleaner first (make sure mice have not made a nest in there)
Carburetors and fuel related problems go hand in hand. If you own a motorcycle with carburetors, ride it seasonally and store it in sub zero, sooner or later you will need to learn how to service a carburetor or be spending big bucks for a mechanic to do it. If you have been having it serviced at a shop, you should assume it has never been done unless it was for that specific problem.
Good news is those fuel related carb issues will all be in the bottom half of the carburetors.
Drop the float bowls without draining them first if you can and you might even see water sitting in the bottom of them. Condensation always happens in a motorcycle that is stored in the cold.
Fuel de-icer (basically alcohol) has the ability to mix with water and carry the H2O through the carb, but does little to nothing to cure dirt or corrosion material that accumulates mostly on the main jet tube (emulsion tube) that part has to be removed and cleaned manually. Don't take short-cuts like leaving the thing together and soaking it in solvent or using an ultra-sonic cleaner, that is a poor replacement for disassembly to clean.
When the carbs are apart, watch for green or white solids present. Green is copper leaching from brass parts, white is aluminum leaching out of the carb body. Clean it just as you would clean a gun, you wouldn't soak a gun in solvent to clean it, you would take it apart and use thin machine oil. That's the best practice.


No mention of milage or age but valve clearance can do it. Compression test is a good start point and never a bad thing to test for future reference. If the valve clearance is an issue the compression test might indicate that.
 
Wyled said:
Thanks for the reply!

It was serviced in the Summer around ajy which is when I got the bike. New fluids and a general maintenance from what I understood.

Shes kept indoors a garage so when you mean water do you mean from weather.

And, I replaced plugs myself this past September because I fouled them by riding with the choke open smh... as a new rider ive learned a lot. So i guess from what you said Id chalk it up to plugged carbs or valve adjustment?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
When temperature changes, if the tank is not full of gas, the air above the gas expands and contracts. The tank is vented, so this results in pumping moisture laden air into the tank. The moisture then condenses and falls to the bottom of the tank. That is why people say for storage the tank should be either empty or full. If you leave it empty, just drain it again in the spring. If you leave it full, it should get much less water in it as it pumps much less air..
 
Carburetor cleaning is dead simple if you have somebody who is good at it help you the first time out.

The float bowls on the carburetors are also only half full of gas and they are vented to the atmosphere, that is the major source of carburetor problems vs fuel injection which has a closed loop fuel delivery system.

Almost 90% chance it is a carb issue.

I'm impressed you made that video without the use of swear words, that must have been difficult.
 
I assume you are trying to start the bike on full choke. If not, start there. It’s winter and the bike won’t start without full choke.

Have you tried starting it with the fuel tank cap popped open? You may have a vacuum/fuel flow issue caused by a blocked tank vent.

I would also try cranking the starter for much longer than in your video as you say there is no petcock so must be a fuel pump. Fuel needs to move to all four carbs.

Check your air filter is clean and dry so not restricting air into the carbs as previously mentioned.

If it still won’t start, pull each of the spark plugs one at a time, reattach to the spark plug wire and lay it against the motor. Now hold it there while trying to start it and make sure you are seeing a good spark at the tip of the spark plug.

If all four plugs are getting good spark, move to the carbs. Remove the float bowl drain screws and make sure the carbs are getting fuel.

These are all the checks I would do prior to pulling the carbs or dropping the float bowls.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Wyled said:
No petcock ...
Click to expand...
You certain of that? If you don't have a fuel petcock then you almost certainly have a fuel pump.

Parts diagram I found indicates you have a vacuum operated fuel petcock.

No real harm in flooding it until you smell gas, if you never do smell gas you are not getting fuel.

Is also safe to try starting it without the air filter in place as long as it's not dirty all around the air box, there is little to no airborne dust in the winter time, that's why lots of snowmobiles never even had an air filter.

If you park your I-4 carburetor bike on the side stand over winter, the carb on the side stand side will typically be in the worst condition out of the 4 carbs.

BTW: If you ever do try to use starter fluid on a motor, WD-40 is actually very slightly safer to use instead of ether base quick-start. Also keep in mind the object of doing that is to slightly enrich the fuel air mix, you don't want to try and run a modern motor on raw ether, they don't do well with that.
 
Last edited:
FWIW - try starting it with the gas cap cracked open. I seen the cap vent freeze, then the tank gets a vacuum and no-start.
 
wow, thanks for all the helpful replies. sorry for the weird lowercases and spelling issues now, a fifth of my laptop keyboard has stopped working all together.

@Trials air cleaner is good. double checked no nest or debris.
good call, it's probably a carb issue then and i will have to learn that because thats the only place i can store it. im gonna try the de-icer and give that a shot. then will proceed to your steps in cleaning it. and practice that. thank you, as for mileage its got 30k km and ill look into that compression test.

@GreyGhost my mistake, i figured this would not be possible on a full tank of gas which is what i believe i had when i put her away so didn't think any differences in pressure would be able to form.

@Trials thank you gonna check that when i get back home...and believe me, lets just say things weren't as pleasant off camera.

@Robbo yes ive tried full choke but good idea, i havent tried with the cap open but i did unscrew it between starts to try and relieve differences in pressures just incase. but from my understanding i have an air hole in my cap anyways.
i will crank for longer i am just petrified of ruining my starter.
air filter is good as of now double checked.
i just did the plugs two months back but will look into them again, i have a strong feeling it is the carbs unfortunaely

@Trials i must be mistaken then. sorry for the confusion. any chance you could link me to your parts diagram, the manual i have is not the clearest. but thank you for that i will double check. ill flood it hard next time and give a shot of wd-40 and maybe quick start and see if i can get her on. then move onto the carbs starting from the one you said followed by the steps of other members.

@TK4 gave that a shot to no avail but i will try once more.

cheers everyone thank you for helping so much. when i am back home i will post an update here as to what the scenario is. much obliged
 
Don't try to make it actually run on quick start, just use that to trouble-shoot a potential fuel delivery problem. If you can at least get it to sound like it is trying to fire on WD spray, then that will confirm it is indeed a no fuel issue.

Will see if I can locate you a proper service manual.
 
Trials said:
Don't try to make it actually run on quick start, just use that to trouble-shoot a potential fuel delivery problem. If you can at least get it to sound like it is trying to fire on WD spray, then that will confirm it is indeed a no fuel issue.

Will see if I can locate you a proper service manual.
Click to expand...
Smaller engines I fire on propane to get them going. That both proves that spark is decent and shakes the carbs/heats up the engine a bit so often they will keep running when you take the propane away. I havent tried it with a 600. I would guess you probably need ~4 unlit torches to get enough flow, but that much loose propane doesnt make me happy.
 
Ok, here you go, closest I can find, go to Motorcycle service manuals for download, free!
scroll down to Honda service manuals, search for Hornet, download the one called 'hornet 98 service manual' yes that is an older generation bike but I wager you will be amazed how close it is to yours. Read the whole thing, pay particular attention to chapter 5 plus the trouble shooting section.

... I think you might find that liquid propane and petroleum distillate are major components present in WD-40 spray ;) MSDS data sheets might even confirm that.
 
GreyGhost said:
Smaller engines I fire on propane ....
Click to expand...

Propane is a VERY good idea.
Ether, or Quik Start has a bad habit of washing the cylinder walls. No bueno

OP: How old is the gas in the bike?
Gas doesn't like cold. It doesn't atomize very well in colder temps... instead of a nice mist, the fuel comes out in blobs, that doesn't burn very well, which exacerbates any other problems... so if your bike isn't in top shape, it will have problems starting in the cold.
Gas companies change the formula of pump gas in the winter, to make it atomize better. They call it winter gas.
 
? thats a hellagood service manual I linked you to Wyled, did you download an memorize it yet?
There will be a test in the morning.
 
Lots of great info here obviously, but seeing "vacuum petcock" made me instantly think of an old ATV named the king quad 300 - they were notorious for leaks in the vacuum fuel pump line and a very common mod was to plug the vacuum line and convert to a gravity fed petcock system. If you find you have a clean carb and are still searching for problems, definitely look into that vacuum petcock system next! g'luck.
 
Wyled said:
... put her away and not even three weeks later, she was in a unheated garage I came to her and she would not start. I could not get her running but it was not the battery but I still hooked her up to a battery tender anyways. Then I returned from school once again, another three weeks later and tried the most recent time, with a full battery and have a hard time believeing the fuel has gone bad. ...
Click to expand...
Here's the chemistry behind the rip off; the fuel has not gone bad as such, it contains water likely starting right from our source, the gas station.
Next time you are at the local gas station pump, take note of the sticker that says "May Contain" ? Lets say that sticker reads ; May Contain 10% (or heaven forbid even) 15% Ethanol.
Ethanol is an alcohol and alcohol is hygroscopic which is a fancy word for it loves to combine with water from any source. Alcohol is so good at combining with water that the so called gasoline you just paid ridiculous money and taxes for, could in theory already contain a near equal amount of water along with the ethanol in your diluted gasoline. Now you have a nice expensive blend of gasoline, alcohol and water. Then we put that in your fuel tank where the alcohol content collects even more water that it finds inside the fuel tank. Then we let this chemical concoction sit for a couple three weeks where that water content either becomes too much for the alcohol to absorb, or it settles and separates from the alcohol, which is even more likely to happen in cold weather, because that hygroscopic nature of the alcohol is diminished due to lower temperature (that is another feature of the hygroscopic nature of alcohol, in extreme cold it can not contain as much H2O as when it is warm)
Carburetors hate water and we all learn that through bad experience. How do we fix that problem :unsure: Well of course we go out and pay crazy money for a little bottle of isopropyl or rubbing alcohol packaged and sold as Gas Line Anti-freeze and we add that to make the water pass through the carburetor where it eventually exits the exhaust pipe in the form of guess what, Water!

:eek: Now you know how all that water got into your motorcycle, we paid big bucks for it!

... did your motorcycle suddenly develop a vacuum problem while sitting in the sub-zero cold for a few weeks? Not very likely unless the rubber rotted away in that time or the mice bit into a vacuum line, but you can bet it did collect a whole bunch more water.
 
TK4 said:
FWIW - try starting it with the gas cap cracked open. I seen the cap vent freeze, then the tank gets a vacuum and no-start.
Click to expand...
As a side note to this particular problem; for the vacuum inside the fuel tank to be significant enough to restrict fuel flow to the carburetors, the fuel level needs to drop significantly and that happens after the motor has been running for a while.
While the fuel tank vent may indeed be plugged with frost ice, it is unlikely to manifest on initial startup, even less likely if the gas cap has been opened to inspect the fuel level and I imagine that was one of the first things the rider did when it failed to start.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom