No start after sitting for 2 years...

[Duke8]

Greetings! New member, 1st post, looking for a little help or some tips to get this bike running again.
It's 1998 GL1500 SE 50th Anniversary Edition with 30,700 miles on it that was recently given to me by my father. It ran like a top the day he parked it, but had been sitting in his garage for a little over 2 years without being started before we trailered it to my garage and, you guessed it, it will not fire up
I've siphoned the old gas out (was pretty stinky), filled with fresh 87 octane and 1/3 can of seafoam, and installed a new agm battery. Crossed my fingers it would fire up, but the starter just cranks and it doesn't even sound like it's trying to run. It will, however, run ever so briefly until it burns through a couple squirts of starter fluid sprayed down the carbs, then dies, so I assume it's a fuel delivery or carb issue. At this point I'm not sure what to do or even check next. I've watched a couple videos I found on these forums on how to remove the carb, but I'm really hoping there's some other things to check or clean or replace before that nuclear option is necessary!!
Thanks in advance for your replies.

[CrystalPistol]

GL1500s like having good voltage when starting. You don't want to run the starter for long periods, it can overheat. You can even use jumper cables from a car or truck to ensure good voltage after several attempts. You may need to remove the seat depending on clamps.

When you open the gas door, is there any signs of leakage in the tray, like towards the vacuum operated petc0ck?

You are applying some choke? It can take some more tries.

[Duke8]

Thanks CrystalPistol. It's a brand new battery, and I have a trickle charger on it, so it's always fully charged when I try to start it. Haven't cranked overly long though, for the very reasons you stated. Choke on/off/midway it doesn't matter, it's not even trying to fire.

I have the seat off as well as the side fairings, the top panel that houses the radio and tape deck, and the entire air filter box - upper and lower sections, so I have good visibilty in and around the carbs. There is no signs of fuel leaking anywhere....I'm just not sure anything is making it to the carb.

My immediate plan is to install a new fuel filter, check out the petcock, pull some spark plugs for inspection, and verify that the fuel pump is actually pushing fuel out of the tank. After that I'm not sure what to do.

[thebruce]

I agree with CrystalPistol's entire statement.

A few 3 second bursts of the starter are enough to open the petcock, if it is working, and fill the float bowls if the valves aren't stuck shut.

If it doesn't respond to that wait 30 seconds for things to cool off and try again.

If it fires with starting fluid you are definitely looking at a lack of fuel.

I have recently learned that the gasoline south of the 49th has some serious quality issues. Even here using decent quality gas floats stick within a year sometimes.

I'm sure there is a method to bypass the petcock, if that is the problem you are laughing. You can also pull a fuel line off a carb and turn it over for a few seconds to see if it dumps gas. Use caution as gas tends to be flammable/explosive.

If the fuel is getting to the carbs, I have sometimes gotten a sticky float to function again by sharply tapping the carb body with a wrench or pair of pliers. Not hard enough to break anything, but if there is just a light coating of the distillate gunk in the carb the tapping and weight of the float may break it free.

I haven't had to access the carbs on my 1500 yet so I don't know how or if the above method could work.

If you do wind up cleaning carb parts, I like to use 99% isopropyl alcohol for most jobs. There are better products, I'm sure, but it works most of the time for me.

Good luck. I'm sure it won't be terribly hard to get that little piggy rocking again. Change your timing belts...

[Duke8]

Well, I've determined that the fuel pump is not working. Will be starting a new thread. Thanks for the help all!