difficult starting...

[newguy]

Had the tops of my R80 leaking. Drilled a hole through the caps, are they copper??, and pulled it out with the pliers. Replaced it with rubber grommets. Worked fine. Dont seem to have taken proper pic of it, maybe you can see here

 

[SJRoome]

My thoughts on Steptoes suggestion of pouring boiling water over the carbs are that warming the carb body makes the fuel easier to atomise, and that this worked means that either the mixture is a bit too lean, or the enrichener device is not providing enough extra fuel. This can be due to a blocked hole in the disk in the enrichener device, but as John said, is often due to an air leak.

Any chance someone could PM Steptoe to see what his thoughts were?


Steve

 

[(RIP) Proff]

Paging Steptoe !! Paging Steptoe !!!!

come on yer dozey git,
Put us out of our misery

you are the GURU after all

 

[mavis cruet]

ive checked the mixture with a colourtune and all seems well there. the bike has never needed choke to start in 80,000 miles, but now only starts (badly) with choke on. hmmmm. looks like im gonna have to re- investigate the choke area again unless we get something different from mr S.

 

[cm246]

Had a similar problem took out the idle jets as Steve suggested gave them a good clean and its all fine now.

 

[mavis cruet]

hello?

anybody able to get hold of mr steptoe to save me from my misery please?

 

[jez]

Here you go Karl Steptoes website

 

[mavis cruet]

still waiting for mr steptoe. pllllllease !

 

[(RIP) pastyman]

Had the tops of my R80 leaking. Drilled a hole through the caps, are they copper??, and pulled it out with the pliers. Replaced it with rubber grommets. Worked fine. Dont seem to have taken proper pic of it, maybe you can see here

I recon the hot water is to kill the weeds growing out the carbs.

In the absence of Steptoe I recon we should put our collective brains to work

If it is just the water blocking any holes such as in gaskets, why does it need to be hot.
If it expands the body to release stuck bits inside, why would they work as soon as the engine fires, slides, diaphragm etc.
Normally the engine should fire with a closed throttle so diaphragm, piston needle etc should not come into it.
this leaves choke, idle jet and fuel supply.
hot water would...... oh F>>>>>>>>>>>>

STEPTOE!!!!!!!!

 

[mavis cruet]

i can think of 101 effects of hot water, what i want to know is WHICH ONE IS IT !!!! i dont really want to strip the carbs and replace gaskets again, without knowing where i should be looking...

 

[MickDB1]

Could someone please inform me why the kettle of hot water helps the starting,
and it does for me tooo, I cant keep the kettle on the cooker for ever
is it the top center cap on the carb body that needs re-sealing or what
thanks if yer will / can

 

[bumpmuncher]

i can think of 101 effects of hot water, what i want to know is WHICH ONE IS IT !!!! i dont really want to strip the carbs and replace gaskets again, without knowing where i should be looking...

come on give st'eptoe a call you just know he is watching this thread and having a good chuckle at all the diferent replys go on spoil his fun and GIVE HIM A FECKING CALL and put us all out of our misery Please

 

[SJRoome]

Mavis Cruet

I have been investigating this. I was right about the hot water warming the carb body and making it easier to atomise the fuel. Apparently it was a standard trick to help with cold weather starting on early cars.

If the bike started from cold without using the enrichener it was running too rich and you have now corrected this. Turning the engine over with the kickstarter without firing is called priming and is a way of getting extra fuel into the cylinders. All this points to your enricheners not working.

Possible causes of this, like John says, are an air leak at the enrichener gasket, or a distorted float bowl gasket. Other possible causes are blocked holes in the plate within the enrichener and having the left and right hand enrichener parts swapped over. Check that the tiny jets in the float bowls are not blocked.

I presume you have already checked that the enrichener level is moving to its end stop when you are moving the "Choke" lever?

Mick

If you are worried your top cap is leaking simply spray some WD40 or carb cleaner over it while the bike is idling. If the idle changes you have an air leak.


Steve

 

[MickDB1]

thanks for the help
Already tried the oil on the carb cap trick so I didn't think it was that
My tuppence/two pence thinks the cork casketing swells when warm and wet
creating a seal and bobs yer uncle
I will try the other bits icluding cleaning out the atomiser
Thanks again

 

[mavis cruet]

as mr s couldnt be bothered to answer this i managed to bother the man at a gs doo where he mumbled about heat expanding things to form a better seal. oh what helpfull people there are in the world.....