Pani R refusing to fire up.

Was racing with my '16 pani R last week. Qualifying went well and bike ran without issue. Between quals and race, all that was done was fuel top up.
At race time, engine happy to spin with occasional backfire through exhaust (not airbox like older dukes), but it would not fire.
At track I tried a booster starter and also drained tank and added new/different fuel. No change.

Since getting it into the garage I have checked the following:
1, Fuses - all ok
2, All cable connections ok.
3, Replaced bar switchgear with alternatives to test.
4, Dropped oil - spotless, magnet has zero fragments.
5, Removed vertical plug and checked piston with borescope - plug is wet and has a build up of soft soot, piston crown unmarked and has a thin film
of wet sooty deposits. On the strength of this I have ordered a pair of plugs and will continue on to check front piston with borescope too.
6, Tank venting operating fine with no vacuum or overpressure noticed.
7, Have played with gear shift and clutch during start up in case of intermittent DQS fault.
8, Air filter spotless.
9, Have tried a spare new battery I had available. Spin up is no different and sounds correct rpm. Still to double check integrity of main connection to engine block.

There have been no undue noises during spin up and no faults showing on dash at any time.


I have a spare fuel pump to try when I do the full reassembly, but current unit sounds as expected during start up.
Bike has had 4 trouble free days at track since beginning of the season and no changes were made prior to race day.

While I wait for the plug set arriving, does anyone have any other suggestions?
My team mate suggested sabotage in the race garage, but if so, what could be done easily in a few seconds that I cannot find now?

Maybe. Thanks for that. I have a spare tank.
Will drop that on with my spare pump.

Did you manage to repair your sheared pipe, or was the tank scrap?

Thanks for that.
Have just pulled the fuel pump and checked. Pipe has not broken off at least.
Will try and rig something up over the weekend to see if it has any perforations.

Regarding this and the fuel pump start cycle, I remember with my older bikes, the pump
primes at "key on" and cuts out when up to pressure. I cant recall what the pani does.
With the current non starting set up, it carries on whirring away continuously. Is this
correct or is it supposed to cut out once pressurised?

Well, new plugs and exchange of fuel pump and it fired up first spin.
The fact that the other pump was running continuously but the new one cuts out
after about 3 secs after key on proves tank internal lines are ok and points more
towards the pump being gash or its internal filter being choked up.

Pump was a spare I picked up about 18 months ago for my track tank. I dont know its
history so it may have had a hard life before it came my way. Guess it may pay
to keep an extra in the race spares kit for the future.

Big sigh of relief when it started, as I have 4 days on track in the coming week.

Yeah, thats the guess. Either suction choked up or more likely element wear.
I know Endodoc has split them and done various parts exchanges quite cheaply, but there are so many used ones available on shitbay for under a hundred quid, that it doesnt seem worth the time or money dicking about, unless I start to have a run on these things.

It may be worthwhile getting a press gauge connection made up for the quick break on the tank however, so that pump delivery can be checked once in a while. Nowhere else to really T in easily for us shed mechanics. At least that keeps the tank lines monitored too.