Got this fantastic lil machine from a friend of a friend for cheap. Guy tells me that he had just done a tune up on it. Oil, spark plug, filter, and adjusted the valves. It ran great for the first two weeks I had it but then my brother in law came over and had him and his eight year old on it. Kid accidentally dumped the clutch and killed it and then my brother in law flooded it trying to get it going again, claiming his shoes were too worn to kick it good enough. This thing ALWAYS started on the first or second kick prior. Now, sometimes as many as 20 kicks...! And I have to play with the choke to even get it it to fire then. I'm not super versed in this stuff but am willing to dig in with some wisdoms. The manual I have is ****. No help besides knowing the gap on the new plug I got. First, anyone know what's going on given what I've said so far? My initial thoughts are do the new plug and clean the carb. Reading though too that adjusting the valves would help a bunch possibly.

Sounds really bad but, where the F is the damn plug on this thing and can anyone offer advice on adjusting valves? Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks

 

[QUOTE=Nykkenn;3341547]Got this fantastic lil machine from a friend of a friend for cheap. Guy tells me that he had just done a tune up on it. Oil, spark plug, filter, and adjusted the valves. It ran great for the first two weeks I had it but then my brother in law came over and had him and his eight year old on it. Kid accidentally dumped the clutch and killed it and then my brother in law flooded it trying to get it going again, claiming his shoes were too worn to kick it good enough. This thing ALWAYS started on the first or second kick prior. Now, sometimes as many as 20 kicks...! And I have to play with the choke to even get it it to fire then. I'm not super versed in this stuff but am willing to dig in with some wisdoms. The manual I have is ****. No help besides knowing the gap on the new plug I got. First, anyone know what's going on given what I've said so far? My initial thoughts are do the new plug and clean the carb. Reading though too that adjusting the valves would help a bunch possibly.

Sounds really bad but, where the F is the damn plug on this thing and can anyone offer advice on adjusting valves? Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks

 

I've owned a few mojaves. The plug is accessed from the right side of the engine. It is hard to see because it is pretty deep in the head. Look just above the coolant hose and back through the space between the cam cap and it's hidden in there.

 

So I figured out the plug and did an oil change, air filter looks ok but still tried about 480 times to kick it and nothing. Couple of backfires but otherwise nope.. So we stuck a tow strap on it and and pulled it. Popped right off! Ran great, idled fine, etc. Do I have a flywheel/kick issue? I'm hearing that the valves shouldn't need to be adjusted if they were just done before I got it.

 

You need this free pdf service manual that goes from 87-2004 models.http://redirect.viglink.com/?format=...4.PDF%20%20%20 If you have to pull this thing off to get it started then several things could be causing this. Low compression is one thing it could be,either valves adjusted wrong or too tight or a worn top end.The manual shows you how to check/adjust valves. Also can be that you can't generate enough spark kicking it. Weak spark from the coil,stator,the pick up coil,etc could be the problem. The manual addresses these and other checks and tests along with carb service and maintenance.

 

Thanks man!