ok from the begining,

im assuming its a standard carb on my zilla and i know nothing about carburettion,

theres a choke lever - right?

the engine will only start and run with the lever in the down position wich presume is with the choke on, it doesnt matter how warm or how hard i rev the engine if i put the lever up it dies,

it seem to me to be ticking over to high although its probably ticking over corectly if the choke is on, however, every few seconds i get a slight pulse and the engine reves just a litle bit higher just for a split second i asume this isnt how it should rev,

upon initial start up im having to blip the throttle ocasionaly cos the engine wants to die,

when im riding i find that sometimes the engine just doesnt want to rev into the serious power range but eventualy gets going, odly enough this situatiuon seems to be helped by setting of in second gear(dont know why that should make a difference but it does)

after maybee an hour of riding the engine dies if i leave it for 10 mins or so it will fire up and off we go again,

however tonight it wouldnt get going evern with a tow,

its my first quad and im just keeen to get out riding and have tried to push alll this to the back of my mind but now im getting a nagging doubt in my mind as to wether im gona cause serious dammage if i continue to over look whats happening and i know prevention is cheaper than cure,

if any one can provide advise and settings i would be most greatfull

an idiots guide to carb set up would be great especialy any advise on getting it to run without the choke on,

im running on 95 octain pump gas but am planning to go on av gas wich i think is 110 here in the uk,

please please help - if you have a litle knowledge please share it,

Thanks In Advance

ukzilla

 

Usually if you push the choke towards the front wheels you are turning the choke on, if you push it backwards towards the rear wheels you are turning it off.

 

thanks but its definitly up and down on this not side to side

 

The choke lever definitely operates up and down.... I think RideRed is referring to a different model.
IF it still has the stock carb in place (Mikuni flat slide?) the choke lever is a metal tab off to the left side of the carb. Pushing down actually lifts the choke plunger up right?

I'll try to help you out with this...

First, pull the spark plug... what's the color look like? Our target is a nice chocolate brown color on the electrode, and perhaps a little darker.
To be honest, it sounds like its really lean. A really light colored / white plug would confirm that.
Especially if it has an irratic idle and doesn't want to settle down to an idle.

The methodology is merely seat of the pants. I would say start rich and work your way down (Safest method)
Put in a pilot jet that is ... say 10 steps bigger than where you are now, and also bump up the main jet by a few sizes... and try it... If it blubbers, we went too far, and need to lean down until the motor cleans up and runs crisp.

Jetting isn't rocket science... but if you ignore it, KABOOM!
Do some searching on the web... there's a TON of info out there regarding plug chops (reading plug color) and carb tuning... Most carbs operate the same in theory regardless who the manufacturer is...
Do some homework, and learn what's going on inside there... Once you understand it, it's not so intimidating to tinker with it and get it perfect...
A perfectly tuned machine runs WAY better than one that's "close enough"...

Good luck to ya!

 

thanks for that,
ok before i read the reply i decided to take a closer look at the carb so i removed it,

ive heard of terms such as air screw, pilot jet main jet but i dont honestly know whats what, heres what i did,

i took the bowl off the bottom all was nice and clean, smack bang in the middle is a brass hexagonal with a hole in i know this is a jet but dont know wich 1 (main pilot etc) i left the innards alone and removed the needle the c clip was positioned centre so i moved it up 1 to lower the needle and re asembled,

on the outside of the carb there is a small wheel that can be turned by hand and from inspection sets how far the sliding guilotine type thing can lower (i could to to know the proper name for this)

on the other side of the carb there is a small, slightly recessed brass screw presuming this was the air screw i wound it right in then backed it out 2 full turns,

i reasembled the whole thing put a new spark plug in and gave it a kick, to my amazement it started first time,

i left it ticking over for about 20 mins and made little twweks to the wheel and the brass screw in an effort to get a feel for how these affect the engine tickover i settled on prety much how i had initialy set it and left it at that for today,

it now ticks over nice and steady with the choke off and will continue to do so for as long as required,

i didnt get a chance to ride at all but at least the choke is off and its ticking over nice and steady,

however if i blip the throttle it revs ok but takes time to fall back to tickover and this can take anything between 10 seconds and as much as a minute,

im prety pleased with my progess cos at least the choke is now off, im gona take your advise and have a good look around for set up tips tonight and attack it again tommorow,


the plug i removed was wet from trying to tow start the quad unsucsessfully but it seemed to be black,

im gona pull the plug in the morning and see what sort of state its in after a 20 min tick over, not sure if ill gain anything reliable from doing this but its woth a look for a reference point

thanks for the advise

im gona have a look on bikebandits.com and see if i can get a diagram of the carb to learn the names of the different components,

oh yeah it now dies if i put the choke on , LOL

i also notice that the needle can be waggled dont know if this should be hapening,

 

HI BRO:
sounds to me like your dumping raw fuel into the engine, this is why it won`t get into the power band range until its all burned up.
next time you find it won`t start, try pulling the plug and see if its soaked , i bet it is.

i think your float is sticking.

pull the carb and read the manual clean and reassemble. dood its not hard...

my 2 cents hope it helpsnull[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

thanks for that any advise is greatfully recieved,

i found a parts diagram for the carb so i know what bits are what now,LOL

ive reread the carb set up guide on the douglas racing site and im prety confident i can tackle the job and get it running right,

ill try and post my findings when i can cos it might be usfull to others who are inexperienced at jetting,

 

One more thing....

If it takes substantial time to return to idle after blipping the throttle... it's lean... It's called a false high idle = lean lean lean lean.... lean = kaboom if your not careful

Proceed with caution

 

hmm, so ive now lowered my needle and that should make it even leaner,LOL

i even put it on the bottom setting and i didnt fancy that so i put it back to second 1 down,

ill pull my carb later and get it to bits and post what jets are in there maybee it will give a better idea to someone,

i pulled the new plug today and it was dry and dark not quite black but that could have been cos its only run for 20 mins

 

i can oly get my main jet out for now but its a 360

as far as the engine goes it has a standard pipe dg end can cool head with 62cc dome and has had some custom porting done by the previous owner but to what extent i dont know,

i had it run on a dyno when it landed in the uk and its making 47.8 hp