Starting

[MaltaBike]

Hello guys,

I wish to share with you a thing that my bike does.

If I use it every day, it starts without any problems, almost as soon as the starter button is pressed.
If I do not use it every day, it takes longer to start - the longer I do not use it, the longer it takes to start. This morning, after a week in the garage, it took almost a minute of starter to get going. Once started, it's ok.

This behaviour is very repeatable and does not seem to be related with ambient temperature.

I am unsure whether this is a characteristic of this type of bike or not, but I cannot understand technically why it does this . Do you have any ideas?

Thanks

[Mezo]

Sounds like your battery is getting old.

Mezo.

[MaltaBike]

Hmmm, I never thought about that as it is only 6 months old. But now that you mention it, I'll be checking the water levels just in case.

[Mezo]

Well easy way to prove is to take off the battery, top up the water & give it a full charge, then after a week put it back on the bike & if it fires up right away you know your battery is duff.

Mezo.

[nolimits]

hi there to the group, would all this starting issue have anything to do with mixture screw adjustment ????
Does it make any difference if you use the choke ????

[xtrider]

It does sound like the choke maybe isn't working, but it should be more temp related than just time. Seems like the gas needs to refill and get primed after sitting.
Low compression ? Longer the bike sits, any oil in the chamber drains off and no piston seal till oil gets re-circulated to bring compression back up? Just guessing on that one.






.

[MaltaBike]

Hmmm, I never thought about that as it is only 6 months old. But now that you mention it, I'll be checking the water levels just in case.

Soon after I wrote this I went and checked ...

The water levels are ok. I also connected the battery with a charger and it reported it in full charge as soon as I turned it on; so the battery seems in good shape.

[MaltaBike]

hi there to the group, would all this starting issue have anything to do with mixture screw adjustment ????
Does it make any difference if you use the choke ????

When using the bike every day, I pull the choke only for getting the engine going. I have to push it back in very soon as otherwise the engine would choke and turn off again.

If I leave the bike off for a couple of days, the choke does not have any effect; it still has to take its time of cranking to get going.


Regarding the mixture screw, once I tried adjusting it - to my horror, it would not have any effect on the idling speed no matter which direction/how much I turned it!! It is also supposed to choke the engine when open/closed too much - in my case nothing happened. I wondered whether I have a physically damaged mixture screw/screw housing as I suspect signs of overtightening.

When looking at the spark plug, I can tell signs of richness as there are black deposits which are easily blown away.

[MaltaBike]

It does sound like the choke maybe isn't working, but it should be more temp related than just time. Seems like the gas needs to refill and get primed after sitting.

Would this be something to do with the fuel pump? Or maybe a stuck carb float? A couple of months ago I dismantled that carb and cleaned it thoroughly, also replacing the items that come in a standard repair kit.

Low compression ? Longer the bike sits, any oil in the chamber drains off and no piston seal till oil gets re-circulated to bring compression back up? Just guessing on that one.

In the back of my mind I am also wondering this - in fact I am awaiting the delivery of a compression tester to be able to make this test myself. If you see my other reply to the issue of the mixture screw, which in my case does not have an effect on the engine idling speed, I read somewhere that compression has this effect.

I will keep you posted on this.

[xtrider]

It takes compression to suck in fuel, It's weird that the mixture screw does nothing, maybe do a check for all parts in there and look for damage up inside the hole where it seats, could be that the hole is messed up and flow goes through no matter what the screw is doing.

Low compression should also mean a weak power output and smoke, any of that?