I bought this 3 wheeler in bad shape. Had an electrical problem which I've fixed. Now trying to get it to run, with poor results.

What happens is this: I can get it to start with starting fluid only. It will start, rev up high, then quit. Will do this 3 or 4 times and then will only backfire after that, won't start no matter what.

I've cleaned the carburetor; pilot jet, needle jet, and main jet are clear. This carburetor does have a fast idle mechanism, which I have not messed with.

I'm fairly certain my problem is either carburetion, bad coil, or bad CDI box or bad pickup or pulser coil/signal.

Has anyone else been in this predicament? Any advice?

Thanks a bunch. Trent

 

1)Is your fuel pump working? Its in the middle of the frame left of the battery
2) take off the fuel line at the back of the carb, turn on the key, it should push fuel pretty fast.
3) if this is working take the sedement bowl off the bottom of the carb and see what kind of crap is in the thing.

Tell us what happens-- it is NOT the CDI

check the cam and valves I had a 250 do this, it had ground the lobs off due to an oil pump failure started ran for 10 seconds, exaust valve wouldn't open, died started, died, backfire through the carb not run for 2 hours, needed a new cam.

 

Hey thanks oldkawi. Fuel pump is fine, I replaced it, so pumping like a charm at specs.

Carb bowl and jets are clean, I cleaned them out and have checked the passages.

Will check on valves/cam following your advice, but not sure that is a problem, unless the intake valve not opening, exhaust seems to exit the tailpipe fine.

Curious why you cay its not the CDI? I don't know much about these, and don't know if bad CDI means no spark/ignition, or could mean poor spark/ignition.

 

pull the plug,hook it back into the plug wire, spin it over with the spark touching the head, do you have a spark?
yes, put the plug back in. No, change to NKG D8ES Plug.

Every indication is that if it fires on ether (don't do this to often) it will run on gas if its getting any does the plug get wet if you spin it over with the throttle open? if not its not getting any fuel(wet), your inlet on the carb may be plugged.

THe CDI on the KLT's ar notorious for failure, when they do its complete and total seldom weak or intermittent failure. They are also 400 bucks new, look for a little black box under the "hood" its attached to the crossmember just behind the key, right above the head (Hitachi 100 something) disconnect it very, very, carefully and look for any corrosion, make sure the ground is connected to the frame really well

I had the lobes almost round with a similar problem with a 250A it would fire through both the exaust and the carb at different times sometimes run for 10 seconds cut out do all sorts of strange crap Valves wern't opening enough to operate properly, anything more than 3.5 mm of wear will cause issues

 

Thanks again oldkawi. I have pulled the plug and grounded it, I've got great, consistent spark with both a NGK B8ES and Champion N2C.

The plug does not get as wet as I think it should be, wondering if the backfires are burning off the gas. I have chemtooled and blown out the main, needle, and pilot jets, and after cranking without starting I look at the throttle valve and its wet with gas, makes me think its pulling in air/fuel. One note, I'm doing this with the air filter and intake box removed currently, have also tried with this attached but no improvement in starting. Do you think that its pulling too much air and not enough gas without the filter set up?

When you say clogged inlet are you referring to the jets?

Plenty of fuel in the bowl when I check it too.

When I had the electrical problem I started at the CDI box. It had been opened and taped back up by the previous owner, I resoldered the leads to make sure they are good, and have checked continuity to confirm. I can't tell how good the components inside are, but do have a good spark, thats why I was wondering if its possible to have an intermittent CDI box issue. The way the whole things seems to me is that the timing is way advanced, and thats why it will rev but not idle. Unfounded opinion, but thats how it feels. Can you adjust the timing at all with a CDI box? Doesn't seem likely since they don't give you any way to adjust, but theres gotta be a capacitor or transistor (or some component) on there that sets the timing.

You say to make sure the ground is connected to the frame well on the CDI, mine doesn't connect straight to the frame, but is grounded to the battery via the center lead (black and yellow). Sound ok?

Regarding the valves, how did you ID your problem? Did you just open the inspection covers and measure travel, or did you pull the whole thing down and take measurements. If the former, do you know what the travel measurement should be? I think I need to check this next....

Thanks so much for trying to help me out on this. I've fixed a bunch of stuff on this thing already and want it to run soon, I have a job to do with it in January, so hoping to get er running by then.....

Trent

 

Check the timing, take off the "kawasaki" cover (2 or 3 Phillips screws, depending on the model)bottom left side of the motor, take off the round plate top side of cylinder left side pull the plug out, rotate engine till the "T" on the flywheel is visible in the bottom window, and then check to see if the timing mark on the cam gear is aligned with a little mark in the very top of the cam port, I've seen both top and bottom alignment, but it must be vertical.

Doesn't matter if you test with the air cleaner off, it'll run like crap on the top end if you rev up with out the air cleaner, though.

To see if your cam is wearing, take off the front valve cover (Exaust), take a long, dry Q-tip (electonic ones with a wooden shaft are great) and rub it on the inside of the head if you pile up metal dust, metal mud , its bad, I'll find the spec for the lobes if you find metal, then you'll have to pull it and measure.

 

Awesome, will take a look tonight and report back. Thanks!

 

OK, lined up the flywheel on the T, then checked the camshaft sprocket, the KZ200 stamp was dead center at the top. Looks correct to me.

Then pulled the exhaust valve inspection cover. Want to make sure I understand, you're suggesting I run a long Q tip down along the valve stem, around the valve seat and valve head, and scrape the cylinder head and see what comes out?

Thanks, Trent

 

yup Exactly, you should be able to see the cam rotate by looking in the port when you turn it over, you should see some oil up in the area, you should see the valve stem move
(Another thing you could try is --- spray a little gas into the plug hole using a big syringe, then put the plug in, fire it up, have the syringe ready with more gas spray it in very slowely in the carb as the machine is coming down off RPM's see if you can make it run for a longer period of time. sometimes this will force the machine into operation.
check and seal the rubber intake boot (if its really stiff boil it for 10 min in water, dry it and put it back on) between the head and carb, if its getting to much air it won't run either

Does it only suck through the carb turning it over or, does it blow air sometimes? Goes back to the cam issue

 

Eureka! Its running! Oldkawi I can't thank you enough for helping me think through this. You helped me isolate the problem, its wasn't ignition it was carburetion. After thinking on it last night I decided not to mess with the cam/valves for now, but to clean the carburetor again (5th time). I did so, and just cranked it, it will run as long as I want it to!

New problem is that it wants to rev even with me giving it no throttle. I still have the filter off, wondering if adding that back will get it to rev down by choking the air flow a bit. Any ideas on what may be going on here? I may need to clean/adjust the carb some more.