84 shadow carb 500 help!!!!

[ant335]

ok so i got this bike for free from an older guy and he said all i needed to do to get it running was a tune up since it been sitting for quite awhile he said he put a single carb on it as you can see in the pic, but my thing is that the engine doesnt seem to be getting any fuel cus the position of the carb, alos the bike turn over but wont fire up cus of what i think is the problem i just stated, if you have any answers or suggestions please let me know thanks

[vukhoa_le]

WOW, single Carb ? I've never seen it before on VT500C
Yah, I guess from that position, the fuel cannot go thru to where it should go. Have the PO told you it actually ran with a single carb ? I think you might need to buy the stock carb again on ebay.

[ernie12b]

Well check the easy stuf first. do you have spark? is the battery new and charged? can you test the compression. if all is well in those areas. give it a small squirt of starting fluid. if it fires on that then you are not getting fuel. not sure how that is connected to the heads but if if is solid i would see if the carb needs a cleaning. it might work. if you have money and the plumbing comes off easy then get a set of original carbs and boots and the snorkle. assuming you have the airbox still in the bike.

[nraluke]

A lot of single carb conversions on Yamaha Virago's. They state that they work well. www.viragotech.com then find forums and search for single carb conversion. These guys all have the same motor's and have been feeding off each other until they found setups that will work on their engine's. With 2 cylinders being fed by 1 carb, the manifold pipe needs to be a Y with equal supply to each cylinder. Once you have the correct Y, then you have to find a carb that will give you the correct amount of fuel. I think your going to have to put the original setup back on to get it running right.

[still_bluenoser]

The only people who attempt those single carb conversions are the ones who cant work on their dual carb set-up. So why would they have the knowhow to install a non stock carb??

Thats junk.... Looks like the manifold isn't fully seated in the forward cylinders insulator.

I'd say just pull that crap off and get a set of stock carbs. Or you can try cleaning the carb thats on there, and try to find a filter element that isn't gona be stuck another 4 or 5 inches out to the side...

[ant335]

thanks for all of your answers back to this, im just going to go stock since its easiest, i did clean the carb and battery was new since i bought it, everything elictrical is in good shape and has a good spark, it did sound like it was about to start but didnt have enough fuel so im just guna get stock carbs