Dead Predator

jowens

jowens

New Member
Alright Im a little agrevated right now.....for the past 2 weeks Ive been building a 99cc Predator onto my bike, only to finish the build and pull the starter and not be able to get the thing to crank.

Let me give you a list of what Ive dont to the motor and then I am open to suggestions.

First I removed the governor, and yes I made sure the timing marks lined up when I put it back together.
Second I swapped out the main jet to an #80 jet.
And thats it!!!

Now let me tell you what the engine is doing.
I definately have spark. And when I pulled the plug it was wet, so there is fuel flow.

Anyone please help!
 
dont have any way to tell how much compression is there.....but theres a whole lotta damn suction if you hold your finger over the plug hole.....then it does blow your finger off
 
Sounds like maybe you're jetted too big with the wet plug and all. Pop the stock jet back in and see what happens.
 
Appreciate the reply Scotto, Wayne also

You guys are a couple I follow on here religiously and have an enormous amount of respect for. There are a couple of others that share the same elite grouping you guys do also.

Scotto, I had the same thought myself so I did try swapping out back to the stock jet, it was the last thing I did before throwing in the towel for tonight. I only pulled on it maybe 10 times tho....should I try again in the morning? And actually expect the thing to fire.

I now really wish I had started it up directly after I had taken it out of the box but here I am now I guess
 
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Might just be too flooded to start. Try removing the plug and pulling the starter half a dozen times with the igniton off, to clear the raw gas. Then see how it runs if it starts.
 
Yes, do as Wayne has suggested and I think you'll have better results in the morning. Don't give up, these engines are fairly well made and I've yet to hear otherwise.

I do start my engines (after adding oil of course) right out of the box just to make sure they run. If they didn't, they'd go right back to HF for a happy exchange, they're good about that.
 
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I agree on the larger jet. My Preds have been very sensitve to jet drilling, more so than the Lifans. It only takes a small increase on the jet to make a large difference.
 
OK!!!!!....so I figured out what was going on with this thing not starting...

You would have never guessed what it was.....lol....nobody mentioned anything about opening up the valve cover and looking to see if the rocker arms were seated on the valves and push rods. My god how did I miss that one with a brand new engine. Not only was this a problem but the push rods had also come out of the tube that seat the rods to the lifters.....Anyhow desaster avoided and all is well with her now.

And I will say after my first run with this thing on my bike...........I will NEVER go back to a 2 smoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Glad to hear you got it sorted out. If it wasn't for the wet plug, I would think it was something more simple like forgetting to turn on the petcock on the carb. I've never taken the valve cover off for inspection for the initial start up of a new engine. Did you pull the cam out when you removed the governor.....? I'm thinkin ya did. That would account for the pushrods being out of place quite possibly.

dnut
 
You would definately win that bet Scotto.....the cam fell out and so did the lifters...lesson learned....although the 3 times I craked the case the cam came with the plate I was removing....so maybe unavoidable in this case. Nonetheless forced me to improve my mechanical ability.
 
jowens said:
You would definately win that bet Scotto.....the cam fell out and so did the lifters...lesson learned....although the 3 times I craked the case the cam came with the plate I was removing....so maybe unavoidable in this case. Nonetheless forced me to improve my mechanical ability.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sometimes the cam pops out with the cover....lifters will drop out followed by the pushrods and the rockers go off their rocker so too speak lol.

Sounds like you've got it figured out now......have a blast!

.wee.
 
When I get my predator build done, I am definitely going to tell my buddy to just disconnect the governor rather than completely remove it. Unless he really knows what he is doing. From what I have heard though, disconnecting it should be just fine. I really wish I had the money to build my predator bike right now. I have a feeling that my ht engine is on its way out, and I dont even have the money to replace that.
 
I forgot mention, with engine is lying on it's side (flywheel side down), when you pull the cover off the cam will remain intact and no oil will run out. That's the way I do it unless the engine is still in the bike in which case I'll lean the bike to the right side for the same result.

dnut
 
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How loud is the predator compared to a china lady? How do you disable the governor?

Is there any aftermarket mufflers that make 4 cycles like these quieter or more powerful like the aftermarket pipes for the china ladys?

Thanks!
 
With a good muffler it is MUCH quieter than a rattley Chinagirl. I use a 3/4" hotdog style mower muffler. Slightly loud but way more pleasent 4 stroke throaty sound. The stock muffler is very quiet if you can fit it to the build, but it does restrict power over a strait pipe or hotdog muff.
There's not much aftermarket available as mufflers for these, hafta fab something.
 
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