200X Hard to start revisited

[Frankencelery]

A month or so ago I posted a question about my friend's 200x that's hard to start. I had some good suggestions about this, which I've followed. Here's what we did:

Scraped the paint for the coil ground and made sure all the connections were good. This seemed to improve the spark, which had seemed weak to me.

Rebuilt the carburetor. We didn't have an exact manual for this, so we had to guess on a couple things. This is where my questions are. If somebody has a manual for a 1985 200X, maybe they could help.

1. The needle valve position. We found it in positon 2 from the bottom, which was where we put it on the new one. Also, how are those numbered, from the bottom or the top?

2. The pilot screw- what is the correct number of turns? We have it currently at 2 turns out.

3. We had two jets included, labeled 108 and 110. Which one is correct? The 108 was in there, so that's the one we put back.

The big issue is that it is still difficult to start, although it runs fine once it's running. After the carb rebuild, it will only start with no throttle. If you give it any gas, it will not start at all. If the idle is set too high, it will also refuse to start.

If someone's got the carb specs I'd sure appreciate it, and any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks!

[chris200x]

1985 200x carb settings:

Main jet #108

Initial pilot screw opening 1 3/4 turns out
needle jet clip position 4th grove

float level 14 mm

idle speed 1,300 +- 100rpm

[Frankencelery]

Thanks for the info. I still need to know how the grooves are numbered, from the bottom up, or the top down. If you start at the top, we have it right.

[chris200x]

Ok I don't think that pic will help much but the top notch is lean (high altitiude setting) and the bottom notch is the richest setting (the 1st notch toward the point or bottom of the needle. Figuring out these carbs is a big pain in the ***** isn't it? It says in the manual for the 85 to put it in the forth notch... one above the middle (towards the top or away from the point). :crazy: :rolleyes:

[Glenn J]

Sounds like you guys are on the right path. Have you adjusted the valves at all? Also, you may want to test the exciter coil resitance. You'll need a multimeter to do that. I just did that last week on my machine, very simple.

[hondatrikesrule22]

Do a compression test. I bet its low on compression.

[hondatrikesrule22]

Do a compression test. I bet its low on compression.

[hondatrikesrule22]

Do a compression test. I bet its low on compression.

[hondatrikesrule22]

Do a compression test. I bet its low on compression.

[hondatrikesrule22]

Do a compression test. I bet its low on compression.

[Frankencelery]

So are you thinking I should maybe do a compression test? :-)

Ok, it was probably a glitch.

I'll do it tonight and let you guys know.

[wanta250r]

Lol, thats some funny stuff. That happened to me one time. :lol:

[TeamGeek6]

Id have to agree with doing a compression check, because the throttle has to be closed to get enough suction to fire it. Might not hurt to remove the head and look at the valve seats.

[Frankencelery]

Well, I didn't get it done last night, but I was gonna do it tonight....really. Then we started jumping the ditch in front of my house, and we broke the frame. The frame broke in half right above the front engine mount. My buddy's going to take it to a local welder tomorrow and see what he can do about it. Until then, we're not going to worry about a compression test.

[Solid Snake]

Holy crap, well you know what they say...**** Happens!! Seriously though I hope you can get it welded or find one on ebay or something because I can imagine a new one will cost a pretty penny.

[firefirefire90]

Chrisr200x, i dont have that(in picture) in either of my carbs. am i screwed or whats happening here.

[Glenn J]

You don't have that needle inside your carb slide?

[chris200x]

Yuor screwed cause you cracked the frame. like Glenn said...that needle is inside the carb slide that is on top of your carb... the part where your throttle cable comes in.

[Frankencelery]

Believe it or not, we have it fixed already! We found a local welder who got the frame welded back together in one afternoon, and all for the bargain price of 38 bucks! The welder said "No more jumping ditches", so naturally that's the first thing we did. In fact, we've caught more air today than we ever have! Sometimes you gotta just throw caution to the wind.

So yet to do is that compression test, and to move the needle clip from position 2, which it's in now, up to position 4. Hopefully moving the needle will help the hard starting, but we'll see....

[Glenn J]

Try messing with the pilot. I backed mine out a turn or so and it starts much easier now.

[firefirefire90]

ohhh ok i found that part...nvm :lol: :D

[TeamGeek6]

Franken - Im gonna be in Elk Horn IA here shortly, if you cant sort it out, bring it out and we can either fix it, or take it out back in the field and blow it up. Ill have the Red Devil along.

How much black powder will the frame hold? :naughty:

Slide needle should have no effect on starting. Since you found a bad connection on the coil, Id concentrate on that.

[OldSchoolin86]

The needle should have little no effect on starting. I'd sort out that coil first.

[Frankencelery]

Huh? What coil? There must be another conversation going on here, because I didn't have a coil problem!

We adjusted the pilot screw from 2 turns to 2-1/2 and then 3, and this made no difference at all in how it starts or runs. So then I warmed it up and sprayed starting fluid around the intake (waiting for a fireball to engulf my eyebrows) with no change in engine speed, so it doesn't appear to be an air leak. Someone suggested a leak around the gasket where the throttle screws in, but I didn't think of that last night. Finally, we did a compression test, and found that the average 3-kick compression is about 100. I'm not sure what spec is on it, but that's pretty low.

Is this the whole cause of my problem? Maybe I should try adjusting the valves?