I think I must have forgotten to put Stabil in my fuel when I put the VFR away.  VFRs on carbs have a somewhat nefarious reputation for hard starting if not used regularly in cold weather.  

Even with Stabil in the fuel, I find that to avoid problems, I need to start it and run it for twenty minutes, once a month.

This year it was last run before Xmas and I do not think the fuel was dosed.  No start.  Full arms crossed across the chest refusal to play ball.  The cylinders are so full of bad fuel that even starter fluid only produces pops and bangs.

With tank off, I can get to the rear bank of plugs and took them out.. Soaked through.
Putting a blowlamp flame to them it was a full five seconds before the liquid was warm enough to ignite and change the flame colour to yellow.  No chance of burning in the cylinder with a stone cold engine.

Plugs back in and it ran on 3 and 4 using starter fluid for a couple of seconds before cutting again.  Yup, flooded plugs.

You need to remove the front bodywork and take the radiator off it mountings to access the front plugs, so no point doing that until sure that all the crap fuel is gone.

Nothing for it but to get the fuel system cleaned out from the filter, fuel pump and carbs.  May as well do a full job on the carbs..

Carbs removed, stripped and cleaned in the ultrasonic.

Carbs full of horrible barely flammable liquid.  Might be good for lamp oil.
​​​​​​


All stripped apart and getting "the treatment".


Looking much better.  All back together, bench synchronised and squeaky clean inside and out. What a horrendous job putting them back together.  100s of parts.  You do not want to to finding that you accidentally deleted your reference pics as you roll up your sleeves to do battle with them.



 

My sympathies. A reason I prefer single cylinder bikes, lol. It seems carbureted bikes don't handle aging fuel as well as FI bikes. 

Retirement in 2017 and then lockdown meant that my once daily rider, Suzi 1250 Bandit, spent ages with old fuel in, albeit it was started quite often.

Went to get it MoT'd after lockdown, but it wasn't running correctly and so it was shoved to the back of the garage whilst I concentrated on my RD and enduro projects.

In December I decided I ought to get it sorted and so my local bike shop picked it up just before Christmas. In January they told me that the petrol tank, pump and float were all rotted and fubar   Thanks EU/HMGov/ethanol. 

I managed to source used parts from fleabay and fortunately they were all good and the bike shop now has the engine running nicely. I was also lucky in that the injectors look to be ok, although I have had to order a new fuel hose, as the clips have ceased to function as they should.

Fecking ethanol.

Where do you source your STA-BIL from? Wouldn't surprise me if some lowlifes were flogging counterfeit of that as well.

So is all fuel mandatory ethanol across the pond? I've seen 10% ethanol here in the states melt certain plastic filters in a couple months. Really nasty stuff.

We have the option of 5% or 10% - I don't think that 0% is available anywhere now.

The 10% has a warning on the pumps, saying that it isn't suitable for some petrol engines/vehicles and to check with the manufacturer. 

Just in case you guys haven't seen this before, to contemplate as an option.  Probably not a viable option for longer rides requiring a fill up.

Next years regimen will be to drain the tanks, plastic bag the vent hoses of the Dts and fill them with a litre of Alkylate fuel each  to keep some fuel in the system for the occasional start.  I am about to order five litres.

VFR will have the tank drained and removed for indoor storage and the same Alkylate fuel left in the system and the pipes plugged.  All this was my own fault, I failed to winterise the bike properly.  I always said I wanted to keep it a useable condition just in case, but really it was lazyness.

Alkylate fuel, Too expensive to run a bike on.  Its a £6 a litre.    but will save a lot of hassle down the line.  You put just enough in to fill the carbs and fuel lines to give you an instant start next time and it does not need stabiliser.

Aspen Alkylate Petrol | Alkylate Fuel | Aspen Fuel


Sta bil: Amazon UK.
STA-BIL Storage Fuel Stabilizer - Keeps Fuel Fresh For Up To Two Years, Effective In All Gasoline Including All Ethanol Blended Fuels, For Quick, Easy Starts, Treats Up To 40 Gallons, 16oz (22207),Red : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive Amazon UK.





 

I guess I’m lucky that I have a gas station 3 miles away that has non ethanol gas 

I've had hit and miss results with Stabil. I think they've changed their formula since I last used it years ago so it might be better now.

I've use Star Brite Star Tron enzyme additive for many years now. I had my Chevy Suburban stored for nearly 7 years with a full tank of Star Tron treated ethanol fuel. A couple of weeks before I planned to start it up again, I added Star Tron Fuel Tank cleaner to the 30 gallon tank... fully expecting to have to pump out all the fuel and replace it. The strange thing was I was not hit with that "bad gas smell" when I removed the fuel cap.

After changing the oil and pressurizing the oil system with a external pump to make sure the internals were lubed before cranking, I installed a battery and cranked it over. Much to my surprise, it fired right up and ran great!

I went ahead and pumped the old fuel out of the tank, which took the better part of a day... it did not smell bad but was darker than normal. I ended up adding a few gallons at a time to a tank of fresh fuel to dispose of it.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D3IEIY0
(they make smaller bottles that cost less, this concentrated formula is the most cost effective for me as I use it in everything)

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001HWY7UE
(this is the fuel tank cleaner, I normally don't use this)

One last note... Always remember to run the engine a while after adding stabilizer to the fuel so that the stabilized fuel fills the carb. It's easy to forget this. Don't ask me how I know!

Thanks for the contacts, gentlemen.