So close- possibly a carb problem?

Have you check the clutch. It might need to be tighten.

when i first started mine,it took quite a bit of coaxing,between choke and throttle i got it to run.if the engine is warm,there would have been some combustion.
it would start to fire,than i would turn off choke and slowly roll on the throttle.once it seems like its running,i pull in the clutch and let it warm up a little.

if it doesent want to go,perhaps you need to pull spark plug.
if its wet,it is flooded. the smell of gas is an indicator its flooded.
also,the plug wire boot is designed to have no tip on the spark plug,it unthreads with pliers if its too tight.then the plug wire will fit on the threaded part.

What carb do you have? That's important info....
Perhaps you flooded it out? Did you inspect the spark plug? Was it wet with fuel, bone dry, white and new looking, does it look like it has fired at all? If the plug is bone dry then check if fuel is flowing from the tank properly or your carb jets or needle valve may be clogged? If the plug is wet then dry it out, before you reinstall the plug turn off the fuel valve on the bike, let the clutch out (so the motor turns over) and roll the bike around a bit (don't take the bike for a "ride" with the plug out, just roll the bike around so the motor turns over handful of times). This will force out any built up fuel from the head and clear the flood condition, so make sure the plug wire or any other spark or flame is not near the spark plug hole to ignite any fuel that may come out. We dont want to start our bike (or crotch) on fire! (Search the forum for that, OUCH!) Now put your clean dry plug back into your flushed out head and give her a go...
This is what I went through on my very first motor, was frustrating getting her to run for a little while, she was flooded out pretty badly.

puffing out between cylincer and head,means you have an issue,perhaps you should remove the head,make sure its flat,as well as the cylinder.if your kit is anything like mine,it came with a spare gasket.
i dont know if you have a torque wrench,but the head needs to be properly torqued.
if you just crank on the nuts,you risk pulling the studs out of the block.

roswen said:

....Is this a lack of fuel or an engine issue? I've noticed that if I push the bike forward with the clutch engaged I can feel air puffing out the top of the cylinder. Is this normal? ....

Click to expand...

No, that is not normal. If you feel air puffing out from the head then you have a leak and are loosing compression, and I would say THAT is your problem.
I would assume that you have head bolts that are loose, or at least one. You could either inspect the head, check the bolts for tightness. If you find they are obviously loose you might torque them down and give it a try. If they seem tight then you should probably pull the head off and see what is going on under there. Could be a blown or missing gasket, could be a warped head or cylinder, or a chunk of metal or something pressed in there preventing the head from sealing to the jug. As the previous poster mentioned, it's best to use a torque wrench when tightening down the head. Tighten the bolts a little at a time in a criss-cross diagonal pattern until all the bolts are torqued down evenly. I also like to use blue loctite on my head nuts (and pretty much every other nut on the motor). I dont have the torque spec here at my fingers for the head bolts, maybe someone will chime in, but it's not too high. Don't over tighten these bolts (or any bolt on the motor) cause the bolt or threads in the block WILL strip out on you if you over tighten them...

2door said:

8mm studs? 130 to 150 inch pounds. But if you have a head gasket leak take the adice offered above and remove the head and check the gasket and the sealing surfaces of the head and cylinder.

Get rid of the chrome acorn nuts and replace them with hex nuts. The acorns are notorious for not allowing the head to be torqued down properly.

Tom

Click to expand...

Thanks for adding the torque specs. I was pretty sure I had torqued mine down to 145 in/lbs but didnt want to put that in writing on the forum because I wasn't SURE, and can't seem to put my finger on the piece of paper where I had the torque specs written. It was a build guide from someone here in the forum, I'll have to print that out again next time I run into it.

On the torque wrench, I had a big old torque wrench with the needle which I found completely useless on the HT motor. It was too large to fit in the places where the nuts were and the needle measured FOOT lbs instead of INCH lbs. Converting in/lbs to ft/lbs gave me a range that was too small to measure accurately on that torque wrench...

I purchased what's called a "Click" torque wrench, which has a dial setting on the handle to select the torque, the head will "click" over when the dialed torque is reached to let you know to stop. I bought a very small 1/4" click wrench, the head is the same size as a standard 1/4" socket wrench so it fits in everywhere. With the click you don't have to read the needle, just wait for the click, so it is easy to use at odd angles. They only cost about $20 bucks...

If you (OP) didn't get it by now, I am suggesting you might want to buy a small click style torque wrench to use on your motor. It helps make sure things are tight, or should I say "properly tightened", because over tightening can be worse than loose (you can easily correct a loose nut by tightening, but once you rip the threads out by over tightening you have a bigger project on your hands!) Get one with a range around 20-200 in/lbs, that's perfect for working on this motor. Here is an example, but do your own shopping because I just did a quick search of amazon to find an example of what I am talking about....

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Microme...7433&sr=1-4&keywords=1/4"+click+torque+wrench