Welcome to the forum 



Fred

Welcome to the forum 


Fred

Another possibility is a Starter solenoid that has failed closed.
I recently diagnosed and repaired my brother's 1999 Suzuki TL1000R for the same starter issue.


Fred

Yes, please report them. I check when I get on and the reports make it easy to remove the topics/messages and slam the ban hammer on those ip addresses.

We can do a credit card over the phone or PayPal.

I'd been reporting spam, this morning it seems really out of control.  Should I report it all, or is RPM aware?  Many thanks for hosting this forum.

First I would put a space heater on that engine for an hour to warm it up. If you live in a colder area the bike will be harder to start. See if it starts after the engine is actually warm. Was it significantly colder outside when you went to start it and it didn't start? Like below 45 degrees? My FJ runs great but I'm in NJ and now that it's colder when the bike sits for several days it can take a long time to crank before it starts, happened to me this past Sunday, bikes also need more fuel when the temps get colder so you could certainly increase pilot and main jet sizes if bike was tuned for summer temps and you plan to ride in winter.

If that doesn't work you can also take take the air filter off and spray some starting fluid into the carbs and try to start it, if it fires up for a second you'll know you have spark and that you're likely not getting fuel or not getting enough fuel.

If you just got the bike is the fuel valve in the on position to allow fuel to flow to the pump and carbs?

If the oil is 20-50 from summer you may want to put in 10-40 which will make winter starts easier. I have 20-50 in mine and noticed it cranks slower in the cold temps.

Quote from: RPM - Robert on November 11, 2025, 02:25:22 PMYes, the valves for $300 the prices seem to be fluctuating recently but $20 ea is what we got them listed as now.

Probably $150-200 to cut the pistons been a few years since I did any but it takes a couple hours setting each piston up and making passes.

Robert,

I'm gonna get the valves ordered up Friday when I get paid. How do we go about payment for the pistons, I can get them shipped out next week.

First you need to be sure if its a spark or fuel problem.

Pop out a plug and check to make sure you have a spark first, then check that you have fuel coming out of the fuel pump (pull the outlet pipe off and connect a short length of pipe to take the fuel to a can/jar) when you switch on and try to start the bike.

Once you've don this, you'll have ruled out a couple of possibilities, or confirmed your suspicions. Then it's a process of elimination to find out why the pump is not pumping.

Welcome to the family Filsurs,

You'll probably realise that we're not all on here every day, but most of us pop in regularly. Hope all goes well with your FJ and you thoroughly enjoy riding and working on it.