250sx

[doon]

thinking about buying a 1985 250sx, went out to see it, wouldn't start, but the guy said he had it running on the weekend and it idled and worked great. he cleaned the carb checked for compression, spark, still wouldn't start, any ideas on how to get the bike started.

[bigredhead]

check for gas going to the carb....petcock..

kick it over and then check the plug tip to see if it's dry or wet.. if dry. no gas.. means carb is cloged up.. if wet.. look for another problem or try pull starting it !

[doon]

ya he put gas in the head, and sprayed it in the carb still nothing, we tryed kickstarting it, nothing, blew out the carb, so should be gettting gas, gas tank very clean shouldn't be glogged up

[chris200x]

There's a battery in a 250sx correct? Charge it and make sure all connections are good.

[doon]

elecrtical doesn't work on the bike

[bigredhead]

Don't need the battery to run it.. but have you put the plug on the wire.. and touch the tip to the head.. kick and checked for spark that way ?

[chris200x]

Did you pull the plug and hold it agianst the cylinder to see if there was a pretty blue spark?

[doon]

ya, the guy buys and sells trikes and he checked evything, spark was good, changed it in case not the problem, he set the valves too, said he just set time too.

[doon]

my cousin was out there when it as running sid it ran good sounded nice, but now wont start at all

[New2ATC]

Try pop-starting it. Once you get them running they are bullit proof.

[doon]

ya thats the only thin we didn't try, next time im out there ill talk to him about it

[bigredhead]

now's the time for a low offer !!!!! :P if you make it run.. he'l want more !

[Huffa]

Bypass the carb circut totally by spraying just a bit of carb cleaner in spark plug hole. Now try and start it, if it starts you now know it is not being fed fuel from carb.

You can also do this method with air box off and spraying some thru carb throat with throttle opened fully. If it starts this way and you keep blipping a bit of carb fluid in and it keeps running this also tells you carb problems.

Oops, i see some of this was mentioned already. If you have spark, fuel in cylinder, compression and timing is close to specs, it HAS to start.

[yater]

Yep, if you've got spark, fuel, and air, it has to start....unless he's BSing about setting the timing (or did something wrong). Either way, tell him you won't pay full asking price unless it's running. Whatever the problem is, it should be an easy fix

[Maine_Triker]

It's an 85, it could have a cold start problem.
If you can, wire the machine's electrical system directly to a 12 volt source (such as a battery charger) and start it then using the electric starter. That's how we get the Big Red to start when it is having trouble.