stork955

Gday, leave the lever fully out. Make sure it has a little amount of clearance between the pushrod and the piston first. That should get you sorted. Cheers, Stork

Gday, basic rule rule for mixture screws is - if it is on the inlet manifold end of the carb, screw in for leaner (usually around 2.5 turns out from seated). If it is on the aircleaner side of the carb screw out for leaner (usually around 1.5 turns from seated fully). Check the aircleaner is not dirty or over-oiled before you play with it. HTH Cheers, Stork

Gday, with the points open and condenser disconnected check resistance of the stator (source coil). You should see a small resistance but not open or zero and no circuit to ground. With the points closed you should see very low resistance to ground. this will check that side of things. For an output test you should see around 50 or more volts AC kicking. Coil tests - primary will be around 2- 6 ohms, not open or zero, secondary significantly more, around 3k - 6k ohms, not zero or open with the plug cap removed. Check the plug cap seperately, if a resistor type the value is on the side, around 5k ohms generally otherwise zero. HTH, Cheers, Stork.

Gday, as far as I know the centre tube is the same on 175 and 250 twin shocks. ( They use the same steering bearing set)Just the fork diameter varies. I only assume the Majesty's use the same part. HTH, Cheers, Stork

Gday, the only other air leak issue that you might have is a leak from the magneto side crank seal. If the gearbox one leaks you get heaps of smoke and lowering oil level in the box. The maggy side one just leaks air when shot. If your carb/airbox cleans dont solve it look here next. Often you can see dirt sitting around the seal when the stator is removed if this seal leaks, but not always... You would have to remove the flywheel and stator (probably) to see clearly. A leakdown test will show it up if you have the gear to do this test. Cheers, Stork

Thanks PeterB and JSE, that is how I remember this from trade school - so many years ago - I didnt have the words... Im no chemist but is it that running 100% coolant will reduce cavitation by "resisting" the low pressure boiling that causes it? And of course being more viscous than water does any "bubble" that does form collapse more slowly and so do less damage? Thoughts? This has never been a real major issue in Car Cooling systems - the ones I am familiar with anyway. I also wonder now if Boat Props cavitate less in salt water than fresh... Of course the only reason we need to run coolant aside from that is as corrosion protection and anti-freeze (which causes mechanical damage) so I wonder what these "Water Wetter" products hope to achieve. In a pressurized cooling system water boils at around 110C (?F) so what is its real purpose? Cheers, Stork

As Above Neo. Stator problems cause no ignition (no running at all)! A pretty black and white symptom. Cheers, Stork.

Air leak in the inlet manifold? The choke would mask this symptom when starting, and as you turn the choke off it goes leaner. Worth a look anyway. HTH Cheers, Stork

Gday, what colour was the spark plug that came out of it? ( Around the business end, on the centre electrode) Cheers, Stork

Gday Doogzie, It may be easier to do a few simple checks first - Ride the bike around close to the trailer until it gets hot and stops. Immediately check to see if you have spark at the plug. It would make it easier if you buy a generic spark tester from any car parts place but its not vital. If you still have spark obviously that side of things is OK. If not - ignition system checks coming up. The next check will be to see if you have fuel in the carb. The easiest way to check this is to open the drain screw in the float chamber at the bottom of the carb and see if fuel comes out. If it does you have a fuel supply still, if not it is starving for some reason as described above by Jon. This will give you a starting point to work from and save needless spannering! Let us know what you find and we can go from there. Cheers, Stork

Gday Graham, Im not sure about the Gassers, but certainly my Beta uses a generic japanese fan found on many small Jap bikes. I got a replacement from my local wreckers (read Breakers for UK, ? for US) quite cheaply. It may be worth checking that out. I think the manufacturer was Mitsuba (could be wrong here). A bolt on fit in every way. HTH, Cheers, Stork

Gday all, good explanation! So the upshot is that if you have a hole in your water pump, check out the underlying cause first - corrosion is a coolant related issue and can be sorted, cavitation is something we just have to live with. Unless you can re-design your pump. Its interesting to note that plastic housings and impellers dont seem to suffer from cavitation damage, prehaps this is because the plastic is more pliant and can absorb the shock of the cavitation where the alloys resist and suffer. Anotther important thing to keep in mind is that most manufacturers recommend a flush as part of coolant changing, this is possibly to help remove corrosive deposits from area like the joint face of the water pump where it collects and "sits". Either way though we end up with a hole when it goes bad. At least Aluminium is repairable to a certain extent. Cheers, Stork

That will do it. A low resistance indicates some shorted coils which will reduce the coils' output. Good work finding it. I should point out that a flywheel puller is a good tool to have, hammering the flywheel off is fraught with danger - both to the flywheel itself and the main bearings and crankshaft. Available cheaply from any bike shop. Cheers, Stork

That photo looks like corrosion. Especially as its around the perimeter of the pump housing and has traces of coolant/crusty stuff in it. Cavitation will usually be around the impeller area and quite clean. Nothing to do with boat propellers! Cheers, Stork

Gday, Check the bore carefully for damage. Dont hone it! Also make sure that the ports have a little chamfer on them. Clean the exhaust while its off, check your airfilter as well. Cooling system all OK? It pays to do all this so you dont destroy all your hard-earned's! PS - Check the spark plug is the correct type and heat range and check ignition timing as well. Cheers, Stork

That sounds like standard corrosion. I havent had a look for the piccys to be sure. Also, cavitation isnt preventable as far as I know, it happens when low pressures around the impeller effectively boil the coolant and bubbles eat the case. Its really a design thing. Someone might clarify that a bit better than me. Cheers, Stork.

Gday all, Hmmmm interesting - it sounds as your source coil may be connected backwards. Have you checked timing with a light? Mark TDC on the flywheel and get your mate to kick it over while you have a look and see whats going on. It should happen a few degrees before TDC ( around 10 mm before your TDC mark) Let me know what you find. Cheers, Stork.

Gday all, careful here that we dont confuse Corrosion with Cavitation. Cavitation around water pump impellers is almost impossible to do anything about and fairly common on many things. You can tell the difference as the holes remaining look "formed" and clean, corrosion in alloys always leaves that chalky residue. So far my 10 year old Techno shows no signs of either. Cheers, Stork

Gday all, Coolant changes annually can help reduce the chance of this - water and anti-freeze in roughly 50/50 mix works for me. The anti-freeze also has corrosion inhibitor which is the important part. Do your car/van/truck while you're at it - it is the most common cause for engine failures in any vehicle - if that coolant is the colour of rust you're in trouble! HTH, Cheers, Stork

Gday all, If the woodruff key has sheared it will still have spark! (Just at the wrong moment...)So this is not the problem here as Lee has said it has no spark... We need some good wiring diagrams for Beta's so I can post diagnosis procedures for the ignition systems on them. Anyone? I dont even have a good one for my 99 Techno... Lee, your stator will likely have 3 main parts - a Source coil to power the ignition, a lighting coil to power the lights and the trigger to tell the CDI when to spark. If you can work out which is which you should see around 50 to 70 volts AC from the source coil when kicking (take the plug out to make it easier), about 30 volts AC from the lighting coil and about 1 volt AC from the trigger. generalyy any coil will fail to open circuit so you do a simple resistance test on each to ground and there should be a minimum of an ohm or two on any coil. Zero resistance is not good. Individually the source coil will probably be around 300 ohms, the trigger around 150 ohms and the lighting coil ??? - not much, maybe under 100. That wont affect ignition anyway. Also - the flywheel must have strong magnetism - it is not unknown for flywheels to lose their "grunt" and lower coil outputs, but usually on very old bikes. The ignition coil is pretty easy, test the primary side with an Ohm meter - you should see about 2 ohms to ground and roughly 20 000 - 30 000 across the secondary (spark plug) side. Significantly more or less means the coil is no good. Check the plug cap too - these are known to fail - you may notice a high reading on the secondary side, remove the plug cap and then it looks OK will tell you that this is at fault. Some plug caps are deigned to have some resistance, typically 5k ohms, if this is the case allow for it and replace it with the same type! (using non-resistor caps on systems designed for them can make the CDI fail... you have been warned!) HTH, Cheers, Stork.

If your plug colour is good DO NOT play with the carb settings - they are already OK! As suggested it is likely to be carb icing if you are in cold weather at the moment. Also keep in mind that the mixture screw only adjusts idle mixture - when the throttle is closed. Float levels affect all settings from closed to fully open. If the bike is starting ok from cold chances are all low speed settings are fine, and if it accelerates without hesistation and runs big throttle openings cleanly all the rest is ok as well. Your trouble sounds intermittant - does the bike only play up a few minutes into riding, only on very cold days or very hot days etc. See if you can take note of these conditions and let us know, it may help! Cheers, Stork

No spark is probably a failed Stator. Search around previous threads, there are many on this topic. You are on the right track with your testing, the CDI is very rarely at fault, the coil is slightly less likely to be a problem. Cheers, Stork

Clean the exhaust from front to rear, repack the muffler and leave the carb alone! (Check and clean the airfilter though!) HTH Cheers, Stork

Quick PS - Solvents are OK to use on carbs, just remove all the rubber/plastic/anything else not metal bits first! The part you are looking at is called the float valve or needle and seat. It will require adjustment after it is fitted, the Sherco lads will probably have the specs for you. Cheers, Stork

Gday mixture screw is roughly one and a half turns out. Fine tune for your bike. In for rich, out for leaner. This will only effect idle and to a very small degree starting and just off idle conditions. HTH, Cheers, Stork