How To Start A Dirt Bike That Wont Start

Yous might think that a pull starter, similar on a Rokon, would be better than a kickstarter, but it's not nigh how you spin the engine, but almost the burn triangle (fuel/air/spark).

Similar a temperamental car that needs to have the steering bicycle smacked before a plow signal volition glimmer, or a machine starter that won't engage until y'all jostle the central, a motocross wheel can be temperamental. The MXA wrecking coiffure has had its share of bikes that won't start. Over the years, we've come up with a brusk list of two-stroke bike-starting strategies. Let'due south skip whether it's out of gas because that'due south too easy.

THE BUMP Starting time

If y'all've kicked until you're blue in the face, it's time to try the crash-land-first method. Get a buddy (or two) to button the bike to terminal velocity. And so, pull in the clutch, shift the bike to second gear (third on a big diameter) and popular the clutch. Once the bike starts to churn over, keep it moving until you can clean the flooded gas out. Ride information technology around for a few minutes to clean up the plug. At that place's one problem with this method, though. If the wheel doesn't start, you lot will most likely find yourself at the bottom of a hill.

CHECK THE PLUG FOR WETNESS

If kicking and bump starting the engine don't work, it'southward time to expect for a cause of the malady. Pull the spark plug out of the engine and requite it the eagle eye. Is it wet with gas? A wet plug indicates two things:

(1) That you lot've flooded the engine by trying to start it, or that the lower end is loaded up (because you left the gas petcock on).

(2) That there is no spark (thus, the plug is moisture because the plug never ignited the fuel).

Fixing a moisture plug (from a flooded engine) is piece of cake. Remove the plug and replace it with a new i. If the plug continues to foul after riding, effort using a dissimilar rut range plug. The lower the number on the plug, the hotter it is (a B8EV is hotter than a B9EV).

If you lot think the lower end is flooded (known as being loaded up), kick the engine over a few times with the spark plug out. This volition aerate the lower end and get the excess gas out. Exist conscientious not to kickoff a burn down or to push the cycle without the plug in (electronic ignitions don't like that).

WHAT ABOUT A DRY PLUG?

Two-stroke plugs are easier to become to for a reason.

If the plug is dry out, yous've got dissimilar bug. A dry plug means that no gas is getting to the combustion sleeping room. Offset, take the gas line off the carb and plough the petcock on to see if gas is flowing to the carb. If gas rushes out of the petcock, and then the restriction is in your carburetor.

Before delving into your carb, clean the engine as thoroughly equally possible. You don't want dirt falling into the carb or intake while you're working on it.

The quickest style to check the carb is to loosen the carb clamps and swing the float bowl far enough towards yous that you can have off the float bowl (this isn't possible on every model of bike). When you accept the float bowl off, use care to try and preserve the fuel in the bowl-it might have clues in it. For example, is there dirt in the lesser of the float bowl? That dirt could be jamming up the works. Is there water in your float basin? Water will bead up in gasoline and definitely louse upwards the works.

ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON

The inkling you don't want to observe is that the float bowl has no fuel in it. That means you can terminate in your tracks and remove the carb from the wheel, Once you accept the carb removed, follow these bones steps:

SUB-MID

(1) Brand sure the floats move and the needle-and-seat move freely. Occasionally, the floats will freeze because of a small piece of dirt. A pocket-sized tear-downwards and spritz of carb cleaner will fix the trouble.

(2) Hold the carb upright and blow in the fuel line while moving the floats up and down. If you can't experience air moving through the arrangement when the float bowl is all the way downward, or experience information technology shut off when the floats are lifted upwardly, then the needle-and-seat are jammed. Dirt, small pieces of debris or pieces of plastic flashing (from the gas tank) can clog the needle and seat. Make clean it thoroughly.

IT COULD Be DEAD

Some other possible reason for a dry spark plug is worn-out piston rings. Your bike relies on the vacuum created by the piston and rings to suck fuel and air into the motor. If y'all've raced your bike nonstop for half dozen months and it suddenly refuses to start, it's because the piston and rings take become so loose they don't seal against the cylinder tightly enough to create suction. The solution to this trouble is easy. Supercede the piston and rings; not only will the bike showtime, merely you'll also appreciate the new horsepower.

CHECKING THE PLUG

In nearly cases, if your bike absolutely refuses to start, the problem is electric. The quickest manner to find out if information technology's electrical is to bank check the plug for spark. Remove the spark plug from the cylinder head and pop it back into the spark plug cap. Hold the threaded portion of the spark plug against a cylinder head nut and accept a friend kick the engine over. While the cycle is existence kicked over, look within the spark plug to come across if you tin run across a spark jump across the gap. Y'all may have to cup your mitt to provide a shadow. If yous see spark, is it blue or yellow? Blue spark is adept. Yellow spark is bad. If you have yellow spark, try a new spark plug. A give-and-take of caution: if you mishandle the plug, you lot could get a mild daze. It'due south non plenty to hurt you lot, but it will wake you lot up.

WHAT IF There ISN'T ANY SPARK?

Jeremy McGrath'south CR250 2-stroke started every time because he was the Male monarch.

If there isn't whatever spark visible when kicking the engine over, follow these steps:

(1) Check the metal cap on top of the spark plug and brand sure it is tight. Give information technology a gentle twist with a pair of pliers if information technology isn't.

(2) Make sure that the spark plug lead wire is solidly continued to the spark plug cap. If yous suspect the spark plug cap, pull the atomic number 82 wire out of the cap and expect at the end of the wire. If the core wire is not visible or looks burned, cut 1/4-inch off the end of the wire and reinsert it into the spark plug cap (using the proper procedure, either prong or thread-in lead).

(3) Disconnect the impale button lead wire from the wiring harness. Kill buttons are prone to shorting out and lack of spark can often exist cured past disconnecting the kill push button. Obviously, you should supplant the impale push button before riding to avoid the ominous overtones of the button'southward proper name.

(4) Remove your gas tank and bank check all the electrical connections. Not only practise they come loose, but they also become h2o in them. Spray the connections with contact cleaner, plug them solidly together and wrap them with electrical tape to insure that they stay put in the hereafter.

(5) Pull the ignition encompass and bank check the flywheel. Wait for loose stator bolts or croaky wires. If the ignition shows whatsoever signs of moisture or dirt, clean information technology with contact cleaner and let it to air dry.

(6) If you're lucky enough to have a friend with the same bicycle as yours, infringe his black box. Information technology tin be pulled off one bike and plugged into another in a few minutes. If your black box is bad, putting a working one on volition point yous in the right direction.

(seven) Pull the seat and take a close look at your air filter. Pull it out of the bike and look for rags in the intake (it happens, frequently as a applied joke). An extremely dirty filter can finish an engine from starting (air is required for the spark to ignite the fuel).

(viii) If none of the above fixes requite you spark, and then the trouble is deeper. Y'all volition either take to keep replacing parts from your buddy's bike until you have replaced everything or take the cycle to your dealer.

WHAT YOU Demand TO KNOW

Bikes need three things to run (ii-strokes and iv-strokes): fuel, spark and air. This is know every bit the fire triangle. If you find that you lot have all iii, then your bicycle should run. If it doesn't, sell the bicycle and purchase a mount bike. It only needs air in the tires.

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