I would bet the valves are to tight , Kawasaki had several models a long time ago that had soft valves , when the valves would get tight the ATV would not start when it was cold but was fine after it warmed up , I had one myself , all I would do was loosen the valves just a couple of thousands when I started getting hard to crank and that would fix it.
Have a good day

 

Hmm.. Tight valves? Thats a good possibility, as we had the head re-done with a valve job shortly after we got it put together... We had trouble getting it to start, and after some checking found out the valves wern't seating properly. It ran "good" after the valve job, but has always been a chore to start COLD.


So you mean tight as in how- what is too tight??? Also, you do realize I mean "hard to start" as in it cranks fine- but just won't fire without alot of rpm's, right??? ( thats where the pulling behind a quad comes in)

 

Mine would get to the point where it had to be pulled off to get it to start when it was cold but after it was warmed up it ran fine , not sure what the clearence on the valves is suppose to be , just pick a good round number maybe .010 or so on each and give it a try , it would be better to have them a little loose as opposed to tight , which might warp a valve. Hope this helps you.

 

THANK YOU!! This really sounds promising!! I can't wait to get home and try it!!

I can see this being the case since the guy who did my headwork(new intake valve, new guides, new valve seats) has had some bad reviews- so maybe he did set the valves too tight.


I still am not positive on how this would cause hard starting, though.. You are speaking of the lash- or clerance between the rocker and the valve, right? How does this affect starting?

Thanks again

 

The valves get a little looser after it gets warmed up but they will tighten back after it cools back off , not sure exactly how it affects the cold cranking , it may not even be your problem ,but from how you described it that is where I would start first , I had a mojave back in 87 that was the same way , when I would loosen the vales I could crank it with my hand using the kick started but when the valves got tight I had to pull it off to get it to start. Let me know what you find .

 

Well, I tried checking the valve clerance, and while I found the Intake to be a little tight, it didn't get it started with the ol' pull-rope....


I'm getting good spark, and tried spraying carb-cleaner into the cylinder, but still couldn't get it going..


Could my timing be off? Its been like this every since I took it apart to get the head worked on- come to think of it- before that, we didn't run it much at all- but it started without haveing to pull it behind a quad... Hmmm, maybe I should go check the timing...

 

Well, I checked the valves, and they seemed okay. The intake was a little tight, so I backed it off alittle.. I checked my timing again too, and it was "good". Still, I pulled till I was blue in the face with no results--- And then today I pulled it with my quad, and bam!- fired right up and actually ran good!


After I shut it off- it would fire right back up on the first pull!

After it cooled down though, same story- I was pulling and pulling with NO result..


Can anybody give me an Idea of what to try next??

Could be a bad sparkplug wire- It was shocking me- I have heard they aren't supposed to if they are good.(I also did a continuity check, and it did show bad, But I put a new wire on, and it still didn't start pulling the rope...)

 

Hey all- Just an update


I believe I have tracked down my problem- LOW COMPRERSSION!

I have a good amount of blowby/high crankcase pressure- I believe my rings are SHOT.

Which is good I guess, that means after I bore this little guy and get new rings- it should really fly!

Thanks all for you help!!!!!!!