my bike died and now it won't start

[kenmcl]

I just bought a used 1997 Yz250 WR from a dealership in San Diego. My first tank of gas went great.

While running my second tank, the bike suddenly lost power and died. i was simply cruising in 2nd or third gear. i did not get the impression that something severe had happened. I tried kickstarting many, many times without success. 2 days later, still no start.

the bike was just serviced / tuned from the dealer before i bought it.

1) I checked the spark plug and it was not fouled despite the many attempts to start the bike
2) I checked for spark and there is spark.
3) when i lean the bike over, gas does pour on the ground
4) When it died, i thought i may have run out of gas, but there was plenty left
5) THere appears to be compression... i think this b/c when i kick the bike with no spark plug it is very easy to do. when i replace the spark plug, it is much more difficult to kick.
6) I was running 1:32 ratio

My non qualied impression is that there is a fuel problem with the carb.

I am hoping that somene can sugest some additional troubleshooting steps so that i fix this myself. If not, i will have to go back to the dealer..any suggestions are welcomed. thanks in advance...

oh yeah, i was about 5 miles from my truck when it died in the boreggo desert...lot's of fun getting home.... :bang: :bang:

 

[Jamir]

did you turn the gas on?

 

[Nathan Rubin]

Is fuel type different from the first and second tanks?

 

[biglou]

You won't have any compression with the plug out, so that isn't the big issue.

My list of possibilities:
1. Change the plug. Just do it. Trust me. :) (and by 2-3 new spares. You'll need them eventually)
2. Enough fuel in the tank?
3. Remove and clean the carb, checking the pilot jet for obstruction, especially if this bike has been sitting for a while.

 

[kenmcl]

i will try...

1) New spark plug and tonight i will take off the carb and clean it. I also will try squirting some wd40 into the spark plug holde to see if that shot of "fuel" changes the picture at all and confirms that the problem is indeed fuel.

i will post results when i am done. :ohmy:

 

[Masterphil]

Its really not a good idea to use any kind of starting fluid in a 2-stroke. If you have spark, compression, and fuel it should fire. Is the fuel fresh? After you kick it and it dosen't start, smell the end of the silencer. Does it smell like raw fuel? If it does, than you are getting fuel. What color is the spark? A good strong spark will be fat and blue. Is your plug gapped properly?

 

[kenmcl]

I will pass on the wd40 based on your comments

the fuel is fresh and i am using a ratio of 32:1. It was running great and i was on my second tank of gas when it just stopped.

I will check on the spark again and also smell the pipe as you suggested.

I will replace the plug, confirm gap and if that does not work, i will then i will work on the carb...

thanks for your feedback.

 

[Rcannon]

Did you happen to get water on your airfilter???
This will kill my sparkplugs faster than anything.

 

[slodad]

Does fuel flow out of the petcock?

 

[kenmcl]

it's running..

changed the plug, switched tank to reserve and i followed some of the starting instructions i have read in this forum...and it started...

i am not sure if the other plug was indeed fouled or if i ran out of gas in my primary tank...there was plenty of gas sloshing around in the tank but maybe the reserve gas supply is larger than i thought...

i guess i feel a little stupid...but i am pleased that it started before i took the carb of, etc.

thank you everyone for responding...

 

[nickyd]

out of gas...hmmm. the least you could have done was told us you changed the muffler bearings to the carbon fiber kind and the bike fired right up after you cleaned the flux capacitor.

 

[biglou]

I pulled the petcock out of the tank on my 2001 kTm 250 MXC when it was leaking a couple years ago. I was surprised to see how far up into the tank the "On" pickup was. Maybe 4-5"? The "Reserve" was just a stub right at the bottom of the tank, of course. My point is that the reserve can be a fairly significant portion of the overall fuel available.

But still, good news that it fired up. Cheap fix! ;)

 

[Fultoncm]

This same crap just happend to me, but I didn't run out of gas. I pulled the fuel hose off, turned the fuel tap and it comes out. Reading the first post is like deja vu. I'm thinking I have a bad plug though. How can you tell if a plug is fouled or bad?

I just put V Force reeds in, replaced the carb, new muffler, and rebuilt the top end. It was running great for hours and then just died...