Intruders-Alert

Hey everyone. So I'm having some issues getting the ride started now that the weather is warming up. Over the last couple months I took the carbs out of my 06 VS800 and cleaned them. Put everything back together last week and it wouldn't start. If I sprayed some starter fluid I could get it to turn over a couple times, but that's about it. Finally got around to pulling the tank back off and checking the fuel lines. All three lines had fuel in them so I'm not sure what's going on.

I also pulled the spark plugs and checked those, which caused even more confusion. The plug for the front cylinder (No 2) was moist and smelled like gas, so I left the plug out and covered the the hole into the cylinder with a shop rag to let it dry out. Not sure what else to do there. The confusing thing is the plug in back (No 1) was bone dry and couldn't smell fuel at all. Is it possible for fuel to be routed through the rear carb to the front but not through the rear carb into the engine?

The only culprits I can think of are there's a leaky seal somewhere between cylinder 1 and the rear air box or the float needle is stuck in the carb and not letting fuel into the float bowl, but I'm honestly not sure.

If anyone has any ideas where I may have gone wrong putting things back together or suggestions I would appreciate the help. I plan to pull the carbs out sometime in the next few days and crack the rear one open again but if it sounds like a different problem then I'd rather not create any unnecessary work for myself. Getting some anxiety about not being able to get out on 2 now that it's getting into the 50's and 60's here. Thanks in advance for any help.

Alright guys and gals, final update (hopefully) on this one. I finally got around to taking the carbs back out. Popped open the float bowl on the rear carb and wouldn't you know it I seem to have put the floats on upside down. I remember during the initial reassembly the float bowl cap seemed like it was going on a little funny. Definitely a dumb mistake, but I got most everything back together last night and without too much persuasion via the starting fluid I was able to get the engine fired up and running well.

Going to go through and torque all the bolts to spec, check the balance on the carbs and change the oil + filter, but hopefully I'll have my first ride of the season tonight.

Lesson learned here. Definitely pay more attention when reassembling parts. This problem definitely gets filed under noob mistakes, but I was still pretty happy that as a relatively junior wrencher I was able to diagnose the issue, fix it and get everything reassembled.

Just wanted to tie this up in case someone stumbles across the thread in the future. Thanks and ride safe out there

Thanks for the update.