Mike,
What exactly happened when you went to fire it up? Dead battery or just engine turning with no boom? Mine started right up with the choke, but then tried to die if I didn't feather the throttle for awhile. But, when I go to my family's farm tomorrow to ride it I'm going to adjust the idle first and let you know how it works. From all the cold starting searches and other posts, it sounds like a matter of a little xtra idle speed and......possibly some tweakin of the fuel mixture screws. I'm going to first do the "Idle" adjust, as Lightman sugested. I'll tell you about it after this weekend.

My main question to this post was the inquiry about the engine heater mainly for my own satisfaction of not starting it @ 6 deg F in the winter...or below while the oil is jelly. Nobody else has had a problem from what I hear after the minor carb adjustmet, I just wanted a little xtra [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] info on a heater.

Miks

 

Try this if you have idling problems in cold weather - drive long enough to get some heat coming off the engine (5 minutes or so). If the idle speed varies a lot or won't idle at all, shut the machine off and let it sit a minute or two. The engine heat will warm the carbs and the idle will be good from then on. Even though the 650 carbs are water heated, they can't overcome an icing condition caused by freezing weather. After stopping to allow engine heat to thaw the frosty carbs, the carb heaters will keep them thawed out. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

mnmike
kawi650 is right check to see if the 650 has a pump on one of the carbs, it probably doesn't have one being a continental us bike ,except alaska models. we did a thread on this one time but got very few replys, figured canadian and alaskian models have pump. newyork state dont have it , but no one replid from more northern states. if it does give it about 5 pumps at 0 deg f this works great . I have no chokes on mine and it will start down to -40 f.
There is a hose that runs from rad towards the back of engine that is about 5/8" it would be suitable for a heater hose type heater.

 

I have had problems starting mine in really cold weather too. I found an in line coolant heater kit that I thought might work. It's towards the bottom of the page, take a look at it and see if you think that might work. Heater Link

 

I would have to say that the engine heater should work. They say its for sleds and ATV;s so i see no reason not to try one. You may want to take it out for sumer time use as some of these heaters have a ball in them or other blockage which may cause your quad to over heat because of less coolant flow. The reason the p650 starts so darn hard is because of the retarded timing it has for detuning. Cant wait for bearmans CDI as that should aid in starting. I dont have a problem getting mine to start. It seems to start just fine but i have to hold the throttle for a minute or two before it will idle on its own. I just give it full choke hit the button til it starts then back off the choke while holding the throttle on keeping it running. After i hold it a while it idles on its own.

 

Mtecate - you symptoms sound EXACTLY like mine before I adjusted the idle setting. Have you tried this? The prairie is NOT hard to start anymore. Pull the choke, hit the button, it fires instantly, as low as 40F (sorry i'm in fl). When I first got it, i'd have to use the throttle to get it started, and nurse it along till it held an idle. Also it was h ard to shift, sometimes requiring a blip of the throttle. Try turning up the idle!! Kaw didn't make these bikes to be hard to start...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

OK, I tried the idle adjusting first. It kinda worked..half a$$ed. The olnly way to to keep it running was to totally turn the idle to the max with the choke on. Then after all was warm the idle was too high to shift into any gear. So after turning the idle down a notch definitely not stock slow idle speed, but just a little faster. Then I did the fuel mixture adjustment on both carbs...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] This woke it up a bit. now no more cold coughs, starts fine and idles great with no need to blip the throttle to get it into fwd or rev, like before. Basically I counted the turns and from the factory both carbs were exactly 2.5 turns out... now exactly 3 full turns out.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] Perfect.

Another subject that was also accomplished this last weekend were the springs in the clutches. My p650 came with 28"Gators on black ITP rims. So, I don't know what kind of power loss was done by adding 3" taller & 2" wider tires. I do have the stockers just as spares. Adding the Black spring was no prob but I didn't notice much. I had 2 shims between the driven sheaves, I removed the thickest one. The belt now chirps when left in fwd or rev, but I heard this means your belt is tight. My chirp is so minimal it's unnoticable to the unknowing. I just flip it to neutral when not driving it @ idle. The Red spring was not to my liking. Installing it in the driving clutch was a piece[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] of cake. I just didn't like the jerky motion of rolling @ 40 coasting down and then gassing on it to hear a noisy clutch or just noticing the engagement of the belt. Basically just not used to it. I'll try it again later. But I removed it for now. I will probably try that heater when I bring the quad up north for more winter riding. I'm not too worried about it now that the carbs are to my liking.

Thanks for the help Folks,
Matthew

 

lightman,

I have already adjusted the idle to as high as i can with out it taking off on me in gear. I have the red spring in so it idles pretty high. Mine starts great to about 10f. After that i need to use the hold the throttle trick. Below -40f theres a hole other trick to it. If i was in FL like you i probably wouldnt have a problem starting either. LOL!

 

Any time that any machine has been sitting for 2-3 weeks or more, the best thing is to not even hit that start button until you drain the carburator some then hit that start button (even if you use a fuel stabilizer!). Especially on the p650's. If you dont you will most likely foul the plugs. If you are in that extreme cold you should always use a fuel stabilizer.