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Got my new battery and petcock yesterday. Hook everything up and! .... Nothing. Seems like it's not getting any spark. I have fuel for sure . After a few kicks and I pull the plug and it's moist from gasoline (not soaked) it seems to have good compression and turns over smoothly. I suppose it could be either the coil, the kill switch, the ignition barrel etc.
so it pouring rain today so decided to try some more troubleshooting on my bike.
1. bike will not start at all. turns over smoothly, it is getting fuel
2. i installed an in-line spark plug tester and the bike is creating a nice strong spark (when grounded to the engine block)
3. when the in line spark tester is connected to the spark plug, it no longer shows a good spark (minimal at best)
4. spark plug bench-tests good with a multimeter. does not appear fouled and i have cleaned it
so i suppose i should replace the already new spark plug? it seems more like the actual plug is not grounding properly once it is installed. bleh i dunno
wires were fine. i just double checked all the wiring and replaced the spark plug from a b8hs to a b8hs-10, which can handle a larger gap distance. adjusted the carb further and bam! shes starting up strong and running well.
so for 3 months of insurance it was about $90 LOL. so the bike is not fast. it cruises at 60km/h in 5th quite well. could probably hold 100km/h but haven't tried yet. it will be a geat second bike for the inner city rides to the corner store and back, but i would definitely not pencil it in for a big road trip to duffy lake lol
small update. went for a longer ride around richmond. im slowly easing the bike into service again, i really want to make sure its sound. the only things i noticed were
1. there is almost a "second neutral" between 4th and 5th. twice today it went into this neutral when trying to shift into 5th. but no grinding and slamming it up put it in gear
2. after about 35min of straight riding it starting chugging and slightly backfiring sort of, almost like it was being starved for fuel. it was full of fuel and didn't feel overly hot, pulled over, everything checked out fine, started right back up again and then got to my parents in another 5 minutes and parked it for a while.
for number 2 im worried this is the dreaded overheating ive heard so much about on these bikes. almost always happens after 30min and always mimics a fuel starvation. there is a small plug on the side of the carb where the choke plunger is that goes missing on 99% of these bikes. it causes a tiny air leak past the "throttle plate" of the carb and thus causes it to overheat. i can only assume due to being slightly more lean of a mixture? im not really sure.
i tried plugging it up before i got it running but any plug i had would inhibit the choke and jam it open, so after a few moments it would flood and die. i rode around perfectly without it but now since i did hit the golden "half hour studder", im worried that may be the issue. i'd like to try again just to be sure.
ps: my girlfriend passed her class 6 yesterday so yay we can go riding now. i still have to go take my skills test but it doesn't work at all with her and my schedule, and of course richmond doesn't have their fucking testing centre anymore. cunts.
so its on the road, but im having some difficulties. i will put it in point form
- after 20 to 30 minutes of riding, it starts to sputter, jolt, cough and lose power
- once this starts happening, it idles fine but under load or anything it surges bad
- fuel cap is venting properly, and gas is flowing freely.
- engine never seizes, and after i pull over and turn it off, it always kicks right away
- thought it was overheating, but after i pulled over i touched the engine with my bare hands and i did not burn myself. i could hold my hand against the fins on the cylnder head and block
- let it sit for 10 minutes and it will ride just fine like it never happenned, only to happen again another 10 minutes down the road.
you will see at about the 20 second mark i turned left into burkville. i could feel it starting to surge and pulled over. you can hear it doing the weird surging and coughing once i make the turn. you will have to turn your speakers up to hear it, but its obvious
Not sure if this is the case -- but I'd want to check if it were my bike.
My buddy's bike, a 1979 Kawa KZ200 (also a thumper) had a very similar problem. Basically you could ride the bike for about 30 minutes before that would happen. You'd feel it losing power and giving it more throttle at that moment would do nothing and you'd get about 30 seconds until the motor would stall... however after playing around with it you could very very lightly feather it back to life and continue riding. The head-gasket was on the verge of needing replacement so we always assumed it was that.
The bike got ridden around for about two weeks or so.. about 100kms. Eventually it wouldn't start so we took it in to replace the head-gasket. Turns out that the cam-chain had come loose and had basically cannibalized the camshaft and all the associated parts. Full top end replacement needed. Apparently this is very common among the 200 series bikes. However, not sure if this is applicable or if the 100 architecture is even similar at all.
Good to know. This Kawi has the "30 minute hiccups" but for a million different causes it seems
- not enough fuel, bad fuel cap venting
- overheating
- condenser or coil overheating
- small plug on carb causing tiny air leak
- leaking crank seal?
- blue moon or Friday the 13th lol
Not sure if this is the case -- but I'd want to check if it were my bike.
My buddy's bike, a 1979 Kawa KZ200 (also a thumper) had a very similar problem. Basically you could ride the bike for about 30 minutes before that would happen. You'd feel it losing power and giving it more throttle at that moment would do nothing and you'd get about 30 seconds until the motor would stall... however after playing around with it you could very very lightly feather it back to life and continue riding. The head-gasket was on the verge of needing replacement so we always assumed it was that.
The bike got ridden around for about two weeks or so.. about 100kms. Eventually it wouldn't start so we took it in to replace the head-gasket. Turns out that the cam-chain had come loose and had basically cannibalized the camshaft and all the associated parts. Full top end replacement needed. Apparently this is very common among the 200 series bikes. However, not sure if this is applicable or if the 100 architecture is even similar at all.
His bike is a 2 stroke, it doesn't have cams or valves
^^ serious or sarcastic? can't tell... for someone who has been custom fabbing his own cafe racer, i assume its sarcastic?
my friend mentioned something as well, the carb isn't on the outside of the motor. its under a cover that feeds air from another side. so its possible the carb is getting too hot (even though the fins are cool to touch on the cylinder) and possibly causing this poor fueling. the next time i go for a ride i'll remove the cover and run it in the wind. i'll see if that makes a difference.
you can see the cover on in this pic, and off in another.
Completely serious. I have a two-stroke but I've never had a plan to tear-down the motor so I never looked into how it worked. Had it rebuilt and resync'd by a shop a couple of years ago and that was it. Should probably look into fixing it for some illegal offroading this winter...
Good luck on your hunt! These old bikes... hahhaha
just a bit of fun yesterday. booted out to superstore to grab some kitty litter, and she revs up quick like nothin else. had some fun on the way home and the second i pulled into the driveway it started acting up again. you can see the huge difference from me revving it up from the beginning of the video
could it be that the fuel bowl isn't refilling fast enough?
did you say that when it dies out from the 'chugging' it starts right back up?
might be enough fuel getting through to idle, but not to sustain any load..
How hot does this thing get? No idea what the fuel/exhuast setup is like, but is it possible fuel is overheating causing the fuel to evaporate in the lines?
HUD, it gets hot but not concerningly hot. Carb always stays cool to the touch.
Raiden, the only way to check if it's the fuel bowl is to spend 10 minutes taking off the carb. But logic dictates that if I can ride for 20 minutes and not cause the fuel bowl to empty, then another 1 minute of riding isn't going to do it
good point hud. if it has a multi-leg stator like most bikes, when it starts acting up, try turning on the headlight. or go highbeam if it's already on. that will activate another let of the stator and increase output. if that changes the way it runs, charging may be your issue.
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