Guy's I really need your help. We have 4 KLX250's 3 with HMF pipes and 1 Stock that will not start no matter what we do after they sit for a little over a week in warm or cold weather. My dealer has been working with Kaw for 2months and they have had them try many thingswith no luck. Kawasaki customer serviceis about worthless. I decided I would call kaw myself today and got told that my bike needed to be put back to stock and I was not starting it properly. I told the sarcastic jerk on the phone that the dealer also has a stock bike there and it also will not start. We have hadthe issueswith these bikes even before we added the pipes. He would not even hardly talk to me.I have been online and know other are having this issue also. I think some of you have added a Pumper carp but I am not about to put more money into a bike with an obvious design issue.I could not even e-mail kaw a letter today about my experience with there not so great customer service because supposedly they do not have e-mail. I sure like my bike but this is frustrating enoughI am about to get rid of the bike. Thanks to any who gives me any ideas. I have read about every 250KLX posts and all you guys have great idea and tips.

Thanks again for any input
Jeff

 

The stock bikes are hard to start because of the air/fuel mixture screw on the bottom of the carb. From the factory its set too lean to meet emissions standards and is also plugged with a metal cap so you can't adjust it. But that is really only half the story. Anyway you should have removed said cap when you put the pipes on and turned it in until lightly seated and then backed it out 2 to 2.5 turns out, that will help with the coldblooded nature of the bike and you may not need to use the choke to start it. Go too far and it won't idle properly though.

The other half of the story is that the gas either "goes bad" in the KLX carb or there is a pressure or lack thereof and the gas doesn't flow freely when trying to crank the bike. The only surefire method thus far is to let the bike run out of gas at the end of the day. Turn the petcock off and do a few laps around the yard and then let it idle out of fuel and park it. It should fire up darn quick whenever you go to use it next time, just turn the fuel on and wait a few second for the bowl to fill up and yer set. My bike was sitting for a week or more at a time in 40 degree weather (+or- 10 degrees depending on the day) and this worked for me.

Deej is the only person I know of who has tested this method long term.

 

Hey noob, and I mean that in the best way possible, and trust me I was right where you are a few months ago, and while I don't pretend to be an expert on anything, I have tried this and it works every time. If you are curious you can read the entire thread, and if I was you I would just to see the feed back I got from this post. Here is the link, and below that is the procedure that, and I guarantee will end the hard starting once and for all times period. Let me know what you discover using this procedure. Good Luck Jeff, don't forget to let us know how you do on this.

Link to thread. https://www.kawasakiforums.com/m_96672/tm.htm

The short (or long of it)

Shut down procedure.

1. After riding as you are pulling into your driveway, or to speed things up you can do this a block from your house, turn off the gas.
2. Let the bike run until it actually dies from gas starvation, (this may take 2-5 minutes) But that's ok it will give you time to put away your gear.
3. Park it and now you're ready for the next time you ride whether that be in a day, or a month.

Start up procedure.

1. Turn on the gas
2. Wait for 10 seconds
3. Start the bike as you always do

Now I know some of you are asking why not just drain the bowl and then you can start the bike. Well there are two reasons. It it harder to drain the bowl by hand than to let the bike do this as it runs out of gas, and by running the gas out using the motor, it assures that all of the small areas that would otherwise still have this junk they call fuel will be empty, ready for fresh, (fresher) gas to get in and do its job. Now all of that being said, I came up to work yesterday to let my son ride the moped up on the lawn and I cranked on the bike for a few minutes, and then I thought I wonder if I can drain the bowl and do the "after thought" procedure to get this thing going? Well I drained the bowl, turned the gas back on and two kicks and it was running. Keep in mind that the moped is a two stroke, and it has been sitting up at work in a mechanical room for about 2 months. So either way, whether running the gas out using the motor so you are ready to go next time (which I think is faster and more efficient) or you drain the bowl using the screw at the bottom of the carb, the results are the same, you get your bike started.

And I even guess some people would say that this is a hassle, but I gotta tell you that cranking on a bike for 5 minutes off and on only to run the battery down and still have not started the bike is way more of a hassle than a little time taken to get ready for the next ride. This last summer I rode my bike everyday for about 3 months, and it always started right up, but there are a couple of reasons. one it was warmer out, cold weather affects fuels in a negative way, and more importantly by riding the bike everyday I had gas in the bowl that didn't have enough time to "change". Next summer I will probably go back to leaving the gas on and not draining the bowl. but on the wife's bike the procedure will always be to run it out of gas since she doesn't ride as often as I do.


HAPPY RIDING, BECAUSE AFTER THIS YOU WILL SPEN ALL YOUR TIME RIDING AND NO TIME STARTING YOUR BIKE!!!!

 

I'm keeping a TTR 225 in my garage for a friend and it is a MUST to either run it dry before putting it away, or drain the float bowl before even trying to start it if it sits for more than a few days. This doesn't make a helluva lot of sense to me...but it works.
This also reminds me that I'd really like to install a kicker on my new KLX 250.

 

Is this problem because of the ethanol in the fuel? How about adding stabil to everytank of fuel? Snal, is it possible to add a kick starter? This is something that concerned me about the bike before I bought it. I know with my boat I have to buy a marine battery because they say that the cells on a regular battery get beaten to death from rough water. You would think a bike beats the hell out of battery also. I guess you could pop start the bike if the battery died while riding and away from jumpercables. Thanks in advance to you, yyyguy and cwgoff for the brake protector. It is very unique to have people help each other like they do on this site

 

Well I'm not going to have to add anything even if it worked, turning off the gas is free. And as far as the kick starter goes, yes there is a kit available, but trust me if the bike won't start using the e-start for 2 minutes, then a kick would not work any better. But if you want a kick just as a good back up, then I'm with you there, although I don't want to spend the money, and the small portable jumper cables I made for the 12 v plugs on both our bikes works great.

 

I have to do this with my daughters TTR 125. Every time!

 

Actually when you finally get into the routine of doing this, its not even an inconvenient anymore, but cranking on a bike for quite awhile only to run the battery down, now that's an inconvenience. Remember if you ride everyday you don't have to do this, its only when the bike is going to sit for days or weeks or longer, so I have even gone out to the garage and restarted the bike and run it out of gas because I decided to go somewhere for the weekend, or the weather changed and I knew I wasn't going to ride for a while, or because I forgot to do the shut down.

 

I'm a bigtime boater too, and the only advantage to a marine battery (deep cycle) would be that they are made to take emptying and recharging alot...this shouldn't be the case with your "starting" battery if the boat is used alot...trolling motor batteries is another strory. If you're using the same battery for both purposes...then yeah...go deep cycle with high cranking amps. I always use stabil in my boats, simply because I have no idea when the next use will be. Using stabil in a bike that's gonna be used within the next few weeks doesn't make any sense to me...but then again...neither does the bike not firing up because it sat for a week with fuel in the bowl,but it happens. Old gas (fall till spring)is very bad for outboards.

 

The bike is in a garage at my wifes work. I was down there today shoveling snow, and admiring my bike. I should have been running the gas out instead. I do know when I bought it the carb was all gummed up and wouldn't run for sht. Probably best to run stabil and run the carb dry before sitting it. This new gas sucks, it really plays hell boats too. Thanks for more great info