Hi,
As a newbie, I'd like to add something to the discussion on hard starting. My buddy has a 2012 S10, and some time back, he ran into the hard starting issue. Bike would not start, and soon ran down the battery trying. I got involved to try to help and we checked spark, fuel, air - all good. So eventually we started the bike using jump leads off a running car battery. Lots of cranking, but got it going. My friend had washed the bike so water was a big suspect but I think the real problem was he started it briefly after washing it, then put it to bed in his shed. The next time her went to start it - the fun began.
A few weeks ago, the same hard starting issue appeared. New battery was fitted (old one 2 years old) but no difference. I again got involved after he had checked spark etc. What I realised was that the butterflys don't open when the throttle is twisted, until the engine fires. So if the engine gets flooded, it is very hard to clear this excess fuel out by cranking. I pressed the butterflies open by hand, then cranked and after some misfiring and backfiring, the engine ran and settled to smooth idle.
The issue seems to be that if you start the engine but don't warm it before shutting down, the next start is adding fuel to an already rich situation - I think this is well known. What was new to me was that although there is a cable from the twistgrip, this just positions a device which tells the throttle what to do, but the butterfly servo does not activate until the engine fires. Effectively, the system is "fly by wire" so WOT does not open the throttle for purpose of clearing a flooded engine.
So, next time, I will go straight to manually opening the butterflies before cranking and flattening the battery....
LB
As a newbie, I'd like to add something to the discussion on hard starting. My buddy has a 2012 S10, and some time back, he ran into the hard starting issue. Bike would not start, and soon ran down the battery trying. I got involved to try to help and we checked spark, fuel, air - all good. So eventually we started the bike using jump leads off a running car battery. Lots of cranking, but got it going. My friend had washed the bike so water was a big suspect but I think the real problem was he started it briefly after washing it, then put it to bed in his shed. The next time her went to start it - the fun began.
A few weeks ago, the same hard starting issue appeared. New battery was fitted (old one 2 years old) but no difference. I again got involved after he had checked spark etc. What I realised was that the butterflys don't open when the throttle is twisted, until the engine fires. So if the engine gets flooded, it is very hard to clear this excess fuel out by cranking. I pressed the butterflies open by hand, then cranked and after some misfiring and backfiring, the engine ran and settled to smooth idle.
The issue seems to be that if you start the engine but don't warm it before shutting down, the next start is adding fuel to an already rich situation - I think this is well known. What was new to me was that although there is a cable from the twistgrip, this just positions a device which tells the throttle what to do, but the butterfly servo does not activate until the engine fires. Effectively, the system is "fly by wire" so WOT does not open the throttle for purpose of clearing a flooded engine.
So, next time, I will go straight to manually opening the butterflies before cranking and flattening the battery....
LB
