Im still in diagnosing mode but figure id get some opinions.

Last ride i loaded the bike up and left from home never starting the bike til the riding spot. It wouldnt start, took like 5-10 mins of cranking then it finally started. I had the gas drained out of the bowl on the way there then turned it on. Ran fine all day. Got home to hose it off wouldnt start again. So i have been diggin into it. Swapped spark plugs, no good. It has spark. Wouldnt run on starting fluid. Drained all the "old gas" got fresh gas, no good. Took air filter off. The only thing at this point i think it might be is the valve clearances. It ran fine the last time i rode it, didnt have any trouble. What do you guys think? It cranks and cranks, but no fire.

 

No abnormal laboring while cranking over?

If not, my gues is somethng with the carb or maybe the carb vents. Any difference with choke on? If so, maybe the pilot jet has some junk in it. If choke makes no difference, maybe try disconnecting all vent lines from the carb then trying to strart to eliminate a blocked vent hose. If that doesn't do it, maybe on to more fun things like taking the carb apart and cleaning it.

Good luck man. Hope you fix it soon. Summer is precious.

 

Dont think its a carb issue, bike wont even try to start with starting fluid... if it wasnt getting gas i would think it would still kinda stumble with starting fluid...

 

Don't know how many miles on your KLX since last valve adjustment, but you may be on the right track there. There's an almost identical thread over on ADV with this scenario that turned out to be valve adjustment on a Honda CRF250. When the valves close up just a tiny bit, hard starting is a common trait. Internet diagnosis can be difficult, but when you have spark and a fuel source, the air cannot enter properly for combustion. It's really amazing how it seems to come on suddenly when we all know valve adjustment change is a relatively slow process...but when the valves reach that critical point, hard starting is the result.

Obviously it could be something else, but with spark and starting fluid, you'd expect much easier starting. On the spark, however, sometimes a weak spark will look fine with the spark plug out and grounded against the head but won't spark under compression bolted into the head.

 

Alright, Bro. Well, keep us informed on the outcome. Hope you find it soon.

 

I know this will sound stupid, but jump the F'er off a strong car batt, bet it starts. You still on the first battery? A lil while back all of a sudden my 06 would not start even though it cranked fine....finally got her going on the kicker...new batt and she fired right up....yeah I know it makes no sense.

 

Has to be operator error. lol

As mentioned above, timing may be abit off with the valves sucking up and causing you the starting issue. good luck on that and tune up your ride more frequently. sheesh. lol

the battery idea is actually a good one FM

 

+1..give it a try. Mine starts easier since I put the batt on a conditioner (optimate 3) which restores the capacity of your batt if it's not too far gone. Another thing I've done is added a headlight on/off switch for colder mornings and doing maint with the key on.

 

Yep, what i though, there was no clearance between the bucket and the cam, on the intake side, exhaust was good. So i had to adjust the valves. Just need to stop and borrow my dads torque wrench to get it all back together.


But why it was weird to me is that it was fine one ride then the next ride just wouldnt start, before when the valve clearances were getting tight it slowly got hard to start. Not this time.

 

Yea i am, i kinda have been wondering about it.... lol. I just put a new big crank battery on the KLR.