have REAL power loss now!

C

crabdance

New Member
Well, while trying to trouble shoot and find out why I have a loss of power since changing carburetors, I now have a serious loss of power. I got a recommendation from a post about a replacement plug and I went to the local NAPA and got it yesterday. I road it around a little bit then put it up. This morning I got my bike out and went about 300 feet and the spark plug blew through the top of the head!

Don't know what the extent of the damage is.... don't even want to think about that at the moment (smile). But I am wondering what it is. Am I going to need a new engine?... a new head? I don't know much about these little engines. Just enough to get into trouble.

well..... I just wanted to "share" my morning with you all. Thanks for listening and I would appreciate any help in how much damage I might have done.

thanks,
cd
 
You might be lucky and just need to have a helicoil insert put into the head. You might be even luckier and get away with just rescrewing the plug in.

I had a humber throw number 1 plug once - you should have heard the racket. its an alloy head engine and it just screwed back in no problem.

Its more likely that you'll have problems if you had the throttle wide open because the more power the more pressure.

Hope your engine is ok... if not you will probably be looking at a new head, assuming the plug itself hasnt broken inside the engine.. which could make for more expensive problems.

Jemma xx
 
Well... I caught this one before anyone replied and I can tell you all how dumb I am :). Here's what the problem was; I did not tighten the plug enough and it vibrated loose and shot out once it was loose enough. I just put the plug back in (tighter this time) and took it out for a test drive and it drives great. I didn't blow the engine or anything like that at all.

thanks for listening,
cd
 
No the plug was not faulty... it was pilot error. I only hand tightened it at the auto parts place and never got around to giving it that extra twist to hold it good. It was not the original plug. I was trying to use a replacement to see it that helped with the power loss.

As far as the power loss goes... I'm beginning to think that it's just the carburetor and that's how it runs. I will try and get a new one when I save up the money and see how it goes. The good news is that I'm getting better at working on my bike! yea!
 
Forget about the spark plug thing. Lesson learned.

Let's get to the meat of the issue.

Engine starts easy?
Engine warms up nominally?
Bike has no low end power?
You wick it on and what happens?
Bike has no top end power?

Old Plug was black? After how long?

Your needle e-clip is where?

My guess right now is that you are running too rich, but that's just a guess. Need more info.
 
crabdance said:
No the plug was not faulty... it was pilot error. I only hand tightened it at the auto parts place and never got around to giving it that extra twist to hold it good. It was not the original plug. I was trying to use a replacement to see it that helped with the power loss.

As far as the power loss goes... I'm beginning to think that it's just the carburetor and that's how it runs. I will try and get a new one when I save up the money and see how it goes. The good news is that I'm getting better at working on my bike! yea!
Click to expand...

I noticed that another guy having the same problem found out that the supply fitting on the carburetor was restricted and gas wasn't flowing into the bowl quickly enough he thought. Check yours and let us know. Maybe it's a common problem for these. Thanks, Scott
 
engine starts easy
warms up great
has no low end power (or high end if I hit a hill)
new plug turned black after one day (could I be too heavy on the oil?)
e-clip is on the second level from the top (stock)

Thanks for asking, Pablo. I would really appreciate anything you could do to help this poor carburetor get some guts in it. It has about half the power that my last one had.

thanks,
cd

Pablo said:
Forget about the spark plug thing. Lesson learned.

Let's get to the meat of the issue.

Engine starts easy?
Engine warms up nominally?
Bike has no low end power?
You wick it on and what happens?
Bike has no top end power?

Old Plug was black? After how long?

Your needle e-clip is where?

My guess right now is that you are running too rich, but that's just a guess. Need more info.
Click to expand...
 
I just tried putting the e-clip on the 3rd setting and other than making the engine sound a little different the power symptoms are still the same. Any ideas?
 
what type of carb we talking about what type of spark plug and its gap and fuel mix.
Is the carb air cleaner clean is the choke off?
checked for air leaks? is the intake manifold gasket blocking the intake?
Did you try an o-ring to seal the carb to the intake which I think is the wrong thing to do is so is it still in place and not sucked into the engine.
your exhaust gasket restricting the port?
head bolts tight?
no leaks around the head or cylinders base?
do you still have the old carb? will it wok any better?
some of the carbs needles are not tapered correctly if at all mic top middle and bottom let me know your reading if you can. Pablo send me his problem child carb that I got to working correctly then sent it back to him.
just some of the things that you can check that might be causing your problem.
 
Last edited:
crabdance said:
I just tried putting the e-clip on the 3rd setting and other than making the engine sound a little different the power symptoms are still the same. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

By 3rd setting do you mean nearest the top or nearest the pointy end?

Go through Norman's list - he's opened up a lot of possibilities to explore.

Does it rev up just fine when you are sitting there with the clutch pulled in? (no bogging, sputtering or odd noises?)
 
don't know what type of carburetor. spark plug is a champion version of a NGK B6HS. The Champion is a 306 L86C. spark plug gap is between .020 and .025. Fuel mix is 32:1
air cleaner is clean and choke is off

Before I go further I want to take some of your questions and go outside and check my bike. Some of these things I just don't know and will have to look into them. It gives me more things to check.

I will get back with you in a bit.
thanks,
cd

Norman said:
what type of carb we talking about what type of spark plug and its gap and fuel mix.
Is the carb air cleaner clean is the choke off?
checked for air leaks? is the intake manifold gasket blocking the intake?
Did you try an o-ring to seal the carb to the intake which I think is the wrong thing to do is so is it still in place and not sucked into the engine.
your exhaust gasket restricting the port?
head bolts tight?
no leaks around the head or cylinders base?
do you still have the old carb? will it wok any better?
some of the carbs needles are not tapered correctly if at all mic top middle and bottom let me know your reading if you can. Pablo send me his problem child carb that I got to working correctly then sent it back to him.
just some of the things that you can check that might be causing your problem.
Click to expand...
 
Just a thought, check your muffler,see if it is all clogged up with oil residue in the baffles. Poor exhaust flow can make an engine really lack power.
 
spark plug is a champion version of a NGK B6HS
Click to expand...

That's a problem. IMHO Champions run on the cold (easily fouled) side of life. Throw a NGK B5HS on there and put a new SP wire at the same time.
 
wolverine said:
Just a thought, check your muffler,see if it is all clogged up with oil residue in the baffles. Poor exhaust flow can make an engine really lack power.
Click to expand...

That's something that could really be it. I've never got into the muffler before though. Mine has a small screw that opens up the baffles on the end, I think. Does that sound right? I'm not great at this stuff but I'm learning fast lol.

cd
 
Pablo said:
That's a problem. IMHO Champions run on the cold (easily fouled) side of life. Throw a NGK B5HS on there and put a new SP wire at the same time.
Click to expand...

Hi Pablo... the reason I got the Champion is because they did not have any NGK B5HS's in stock and the Champion plug was the replacement for the NGK. I tried to get the NGK first.
 
I answered you about this problem in the other thread you have about no power....I told you it was too rich....you moved the clip to the third notch making it even richer....do what I told you in the other thread and let us know what happens.
 
Hi Bikeguy Joe,

Thanks for getting back with me. Sorry about the other thread. I just recently learned how to change the e-clip (yesterday afternoon) and I was concentrating on this thread by then. I will go out and try it using the top notch this morning and let you know how things go. Thanks for being patient with me. I was not trying to disregard your help on the other thread.

Going to go change it now... will let you know in a little bit how it works out.

cd

Bikeguy Joe said:
I answered you about this problem in the other thread you have about no power....I told you it was too rich....you moved the clip to the third notch making it even richer....do what I told you in the other thread and let us know what happens.
Click to expand...
 
Ok... just got back from trying the top notch and everything runs about the same. The engine sounds a little different but runs about the same. I still loose mph going up medium size hills. The engine sounds the best (to my hears) on the 2nd notch.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm chasing my own tail on this one. Maybe the engine is running the best it can but I'm just used to the old carb that leaked gas all the time. The one that leaked gas had more power from the take off to going up hills.

What do you think guys? Is it normal to lose mph going up a small hill?

Oh and thank you for your help bikeguy joe.

cd
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top