Trouble starting...

[magicmonkey]

Today? Unlikely.
NGK CR9E - quite common. see here what they fit
Should find at a service station

yeah, just rang around the bke shops and none are open, doh! Still, supercheap are doing a sale tomorrow so I might be able to pick some up for cheap which would be good.

[T.W.R]

.................

[magicmonkey]

So, thanks to Richards Motorcycles (brilliant little shop ) I now have new spark plug and they're all happily in their holes sparking away, joy.

It still isn't starting very easily though, it needs the choke full on and the throttle seems to dip the revs until the engine is warm (that's just plain weird as far as I'm concerned!) The spark also isn't quite as strong as I was expecting it to be so I'm starting to think that there might be an earth problem. I've already cleaned the main connection onto the engine but I popped that off and made sure it was still ok and I'm pretty satisfied with that. I suppose the next place to start is the wiring that has been fiddled with by a previous owner (an even worse mechanic than me, if you can imagine such a thing) At the moment I've narrowed down the areas I know have been tinkered with as he used after-market sleeves for the wires rather than keeping the old sleeves. So, bits he's fiddled with are:

• pick up coil/oil pressure switch
• fan switch
• side stand switch
• neutral switch/alternator/temp switch
• handlebar controls (both sided)

Those are listed by the way they come out of the wiring loom, i.e. I know he's touched at least one of the components on each line.

At the moment I'm starting ti think that I should look at things which actually have an earth (the current at the battery is doing what it should be when running and off so I'm reasonably sure that current is bleeding rather than not being produced). I doubt it's the handlebar controls (only the kill switch should go straight to earth and that would just stop the bike) so I'm now thinking that the pick up coil is the most sensible place to start looking, I need to get a multimeter that does resistance though as my current one only does everything else, doh!

So, other than the electrics and the strange problem with the throttle dipping revs until the engine is warm, things seem to be more or less ok, I think ... I'll need to check the valve clearances and blanace the carbs and set the pilot screws properly and sort out the suspension and clean everything and fix the fairing and paint the fairings and blah blah blah but it seems almost on track and should be ridable once I've got this starting nailed ...

[Jonno.]

Err, doesn't that sound like a fueling issue?

[kwaka_crasher]

Yep, sounds like it. Too lean. Probably pilot screws.

[magicmonkey]

well, a lot of time and a lot of help later I've finally got it starting it'll even idle without the choke on now as well! Now I've moved on to carb balancing but I'll start another thread on that, this one is getting a bit long in the tooth!

Thanks for the help and advice guys, much appreciated

[Coldrider]

There are some carb balancing threads already available on KB.

[magicmonkey]

There are some carb balancing threads already available on KB.

yup, and I'll be reading through them, and checking you tube before I hassle eveyone too much

[Paul in NZ]

You can still borrow my gizmo btw ;-)

[magicmonkey]

You can still borrow my gizmo btw ;-)

Thanks again for the offer, I've managed to borrow one from someone who lives round the corner though so I'm all good

[Jonno.]

So was it fueling?

[magicmonkey]

So was it fueling?

well, the timing was out by 2 teeth, the jetting was all over the shop, the spark plugs and leads all needed replacing, the rocker cover was leaking oil into a spark plug well (only an o-ring problem thankfully!). There were quite a few things wrong in the end but none of it was so extreme as to write the bike off and most of it was done without having to buy new parts which is good. All in all, it's been a good learning experience so far and once I've got the carbs all balanced properly I will have learnt a heap more

I shaln't pretend that I didn't cause any problems myself though, I've done tons of stuff wrong! Still, i've learned from that too so it's all good ...

[Bad Gixxer]

I've only just come across this thread - you'll be pleased to know that we've all probably had similar experiences - the beauty of it is that in trying to fix one single thing, you end up learning heaps of invaluable hands-on information.

I won't tell you about the time I reassembled my 2-stroke RZ350 after a full carb and engine rebuild - everything ran just beautiful except it had no mid range power when I reassembled it. After 3 months of trying to diagnose the problem (virtually a full pull down, and I must have had the carbs dismantled about 10 times and cleaned to within an inch of their life!!), I finally discovered that I'd put the YPVS valves in the wrong way round - this meant that the power valve was open when it should have been closed, and vice versa. The funny thing was, I thought this may have been a possibility on day one, but my ego told me that there's no way I would be so stupid!

Moral - if your ego tells you something, ignore it!

[magicmonkey]

I've only just come across this thread - you'll be pleased to know that we've all probably had similar experiences - the beauty of it is that in trying to fix one single thing, you end up learning heaps of invaluable hands-on information.

I won't tell you about the time I reassembled my 2-stroke RZ350 after a full carb and engine rebuild - everything ran just beautiful except it had no mid range power when I reassembled it. After 3 months of trying to diagnose the problem (virtually a full pull down, and I must have had the carbs dismantled about 10 times and cleaned to within an inch of their life!!), I finally discovered that I'd put the YPVS valves in the wrong way round - this meant that the power valve was open when it should have been closed, and vice versa. The funny thing was, I thought this may have been a possibility on day one, but my ego told me that there's no way I would be so stupid!

Moral - if your ego tells you something, ignore it!

well, at the moment I've got it to the point that it'll start, but not very well. I noticed some smoke coming from the carb on cylinder 2 and found that it was down on compression so I'm now trying to decide if I should take the head off and do a proper rebuild on it or just flog it for parts. It seems I'm about to learn far more than I planned on learning!

[bogan]

well, at the moment I've got it to the point that it'll start, but not very well. I noticed some smoke coming from the carb on cylinder 2 and found that it was down on compression so I'm now trying to decide if I should take the head off and do a proper rebuild on it or just flog it for parts. It seems I'm about to learn far more than I planned on learning!

sounds like an intake valve isnt sealing properly, just thrash the shit out of it and it may come right