All right, now I might have a problem. First of all, in the last week, my dad and I have been doing a lot of work with engines, and I have developed great interest in the mechanical side. He's taking apart a boat engine, and I've been messing with 2 4 stroke engines just to understand them. I'm getting a lot better with it, and I'm currently switching engine parts back and forth between them for experience. Last night he said "I wish we would have found something like a cheap old beat up Quadracer that needed some work, it would make a good project". Why I tell you this is because our problem may not be the worst thing in the world for the 2 of us...

The problem is... Today I went riding down to the river, went through a straightaway, slowed down to turn around, shifted down, etc..., turned around, and just as I finished turning around, my engine sort of slowly quit. If I hit the throttle, the volume got a little higher, but I didn't speed up, and the "voice" of the engine just wasn't there. Someone pushed me a long ways to start it(in gear), and the same thing, throttle did something to the noise, but the "voice" wasn't present, and it just wouldn't fire up. I had to be pulled to a phone and call someone to come get us. I'm now wondering...

What could have happened? Will the engine have to be totally rebuilt, or could it be something minor like the spark plug? Could that be it...the spark plug just went bad? I may take it to the dealer, but I was wondering what this sounds like to any of you. Thanks, any response is GREATLY appreciated.

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- 1986 Honda TRX250R, 1996 Kawasaki Mojave, 1998 Kawasaki Mojave, http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/B...8090/home.html

 

are you talkin about your R or one of your mojaves?

hmm if its the plug, heres a novell idea , take the plug out and see what color it is white-not enough oil (or wrong jetsize) brown-perfect black(oily)- to much oil (or wrong jet size) if it is black, try cleaning the air filter if it just started doing this. what are you mixing your gas (for the R?) pop a new plug in, and hopefully thats the problem.

 

Thanks man, fortunately, it was the plug! It was my 250R, and I ran over to Wal-Mart last night, picked up a SPLITFIRE spark plug, switched it, and it started up first kick. My old plug was black and crusty. Does this mean there was too much oil? I've been running it at 32:1-36:1, so the guy who had it before me(I've had it for around 2 weeks) must have used the 20:1 that it says in the manual. Way too rich. I rode for a few hours today with the splitfire, but tomorrow I'll have to go back up to the dealer to get the type it says in the manual. Thanks again

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- 1986 Honda TRX250R, 1996 Kawasaki Mojave, 1998 Kawasaki Mojave, http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/B...8090/home.html




[This message has been edited by RidE (edited 10-10-1999).]

 

yeah, glad i could help, like i said before, clean the air filter to, that will probably help. if ya got the stocker use kerosne, if its K&N buy a precharger kit.

i recomend running the plug that is stated in the manual. It will give you the spark that the machine was designed for. Other plugs will work, but the plug's spark might not be quite right. So just go by the manual, and i think you will be happy, yeah run 32:1 thats what the guy arond here with the R runs, and his is all stock except a few bolt on things like bumpers and nerfs, no performance things. I think the manual calls for it to rich to break it in, and just to be safe so you dont run it way to lean and blow your engine up, so they can at least say they had it called at 20:1 thats just my guess, i dont know.
oh well

Chris Jack
Friends dont let friends Drive Yamahas
and being dead comes before riding red
87 lt250r

 

Cool man, yesterday I bought 2 new plugs of the one in the manual(NGK "BR9ES", i think), switched it, and went riding. It worked OK, but I definately noticed that the SPLITFIRE performed better. First of all...bang, the SPLITFIRE started it right up. It also had a "hi-performance" feel to it, felt much smoother, kept the engine up smoothly, and just seemed overall better than the NGK. With the NGK installed, It took about 5 kicks to start it, and it wouldn't start if I didn't give it gas(it would begin to run and die out). From there, I had to keep giving it gas, or else it wouldn't keep running on its own. After about 10 minutes RIDING, it would idle on its own, but I was just thinking of how much better it seemed with the SPLITFIRE. You see "performance is everything" on the SPLITFIRE box...maybe it's true in this case. I'd like to find out if I can use SPLITFIRE on my fourtrax, in a safe way. How could I find out which SPLITFIRE plug to use, or is this something that I just shouldn't do? I'd like to use SPLITFIRE spark plugs if possible.

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- 1986 Honda TRX250R, 1996 Kawasaki Mojave, 1998 Kawasaki Mojave, http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/B...8090/home.html

 

RIDE,
I run a split fire plug on my '86 R. I have never fouled a Splitfire plug. I like to change the plug every couple of months though just to be sure. I don't know the number plug on my R but my Chaparral catalog says that the cross reference # for a 'BR9ES NGK' is a 'SF406B Splitfire'.

http://members.xoom.com/TheATVPit/current.html


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Tim Thibodaux

1986 Fourtax 250R