Motor has no power.

[BarelyAWake]

16:1 is way too much oil, generally ppl break in with a 20:1 ratio - I daresay even 32:1 would be OK with today's quality two stroke oil.

Just about ALL of these engines run very poorly until they're broken in, 100 - 200 miles for most, so ya need to do quite a bit of riding (not a horrible chore lol). Check your plug color frequently while you're in the break in stage at least and adjust the fuel/air mix accordingly - yer lookin for a nice chocolate brown electrode (let yer motor cool before pullin' the plug else you may strip the threads). Black & greasy = too rich and move the carb's needle clip up a notch, gray/white = too lean (harmful to motor) and you'll need to drop the clip a notch. Sounds like yer runnin' really rich - a good place to try the clip is the second slot down and work from there.

Sorry I didn't see this post till now - hope ya get that sorted

 

[wes]

If you didnt take your time putting rtv or gsket sealer on the carb when you mounted it you will have an air leak,also let it sit at hand tight for an hour, then tighten the rest of the way, make sure you let the rtv dry a little before starting, i had this same problem and it drove me nuts, i used a tooth pic to get the silicone in the groves in side the mount clamp, if that makes any sense, just make sure there is a really good seal or you will get a leak, even with the leak my plug looked rich. and my motor took 300 miles to break in, at 250 or so it got a sudden increase in power and then seemed to use a lot less fuel as well. good luck,,, I mix 24:1 for break in

 

[devonalcorn]

16:1 is way too much oil, generally ppl break in with a 20:1 ratio - I daresay even 32:1 would be OK with today's quality two stroke oil.

Just about ALL of these engines run very poorly until they're broken in, 100 - 200 miles for most, so ya need to do quite a bit of riding (not a horrible chore lol). Check your plug color frequently while you're in the break in stage at least and adjust the fuel/air mix accordingly - yer lookin for a nice chocolate brown electrode (let yer motor cool before pullin' the plug else you may strip the threads). Black & greasy = too rich and move the carb's needle clip up a notch, gray/white = too lean (harmful to motor) and you'll need to drop the clip a notch. Sounds like yer runnin' really rich - a good place to try the clip is the second slot down and work from there.

Sorry I didn't see this post till now - hope ya get that sorted

I had already moved the clip up one notch making it the 2nd down from the top. It ran better, but still bogs at speed, has no low-end, sputters, pops and wheezes. I have been putting miles on it and it is running marginally better, but I have not had time to drain and remix fuel, not have I had the opportunity to seal the carb mounting with RTV as recommended. Funny, the end cap on my muffler fell off on my way to work, and now I sound like a noisy dirtbike motorcycle (which is far from what I want), though sadly, it now has more power. I can't find the darn thing so I have to order another cheapo.

 

[BarelyAWake]

If ya can - get rid of the dang thing altogether and get a tuned pipe (I really like mine from Sick Bike Parts), if ya cant - replace the bolt in the new factory muffler ASAP, those are so soft mine wouldn't flatten a lockwasher without stripping. I solved that problem with 3 lil spot welds, two on the lip of the can & cap, one on the bolt head (spot welds so I could grind 'em off later if I wanted).

Then I replaced it two days later when my expansion chamber showed up in the mail lol

As for the "bogging" - bet ya just need more miles, you made it a lil leaner and it responded - the rest does sound like a new motor learnin' it's role in life

 

[GoesVroom]

Funny that this is what my wife suggested also, just after the cap fell off and disappeared along a rural stretch of miles that I ride to work, but if I happen to find that darn cap during my next search and rescue attempt, tacking it back is my plan. The noise is embarrassing as I am a 5th grade teacher and am not craving both parent and student attention as I pull into school every day. The kids love it.

 

[devonalcorn]

Weekend update. Okay, drained the tank, and refilled with 25:1. Then I disassembled the carb, nipped off 1/16th of an inch of the primer pin's tip, so it would not interfere with the vertical movement of the float, slightly bent each of the little brass tabs up to allow the float to go higher in the bowel. Aired up the tires to max capacity, oiled my chaines, rechecked my nuts (heheh) and stuffed some steel wool balls in my muffler, put a redbull can with hose clamps on the end of my cap-less, noisy arse muffler, and it started RIGHT AWAY. Okay! Much better. Instead of huffing 200 meters to get it started, it started on the 2nd or 3rd pump of the pedals, still needed a bit of choke for a few meters, ran better than ever (which means better than crap for the 1st time). Still, though it runs better, it still sputters and tries to die when I am going along at speed on flat ground.

 

[BarelyAWake]

Sweet! Glad you made progress man, now comes the "hard" part - rack those miles up!

It really will drive ya a lil nuts trying to "fix" the engine till it breaks in, now that you've gotten the major stuff out of the way - ride! My 'Black Stallion' took almost 300 freakin' miles before it snapped out of it and ran right.

I prolly treated it too nice lol

 

[devonalcorn]

mine is a BS (Black Stalling) also. I have maybe 50 miles so far. I have not sealed the carb with RTV yet, but I did stick in a new squishy O-ring to help. I may still pull the plug to see how it is (lean or rich) still and get some RTV, but it can get me around with less frustration for a while like this.

 

[TheE]

Idk if this will help you, but I narrowed the jet in my carb by a very small amount and my engine got WAY more powerful. I filled the jet with solder, and while the solder was still "wet", I pushed the lead from a germanium diode through it and quickly pulled it back out. Didn't need any fancy drill bits, no fancy exhaust pipe or carb, just a $0.03 electronic component and some trial & error =D

 

[devonalcorn]

not sure how this happened BUT it appears that I am both DevonAlcorn and GoesVroom on this board. Dual personas?

Anyhow, got my ego all pumped up thinking all was doing so well on my bike now. So, I left in my work attire to attend a meeting last night for my school district. My accelerator cable snapped off, okay, so I reached down and twisted my idle speed adj. screw a bit to keep limping me toward my appointment. GOt there in time. My first night ride home with lights, helmet and tail light, and now the chain hopped off and got snared inside the engine sprocket cover...couldn't pull it out...jammed, couldn't remove the cover, because I did not have a correct wrench to accompany my screwdriver in the dark. It was a long walk home last night to help put my babies to bed. Forget about my dinner...jeesh. So, eventually, I ordered several new cables, a muffler and an extra clutch cable to be safe. Grrr 4 cables and a black muffler for $40 free shipping from ChinaGas.net

Let me know if I am foolish to use them.

 

[BarelyAWake]

There's a fine dance between substandard parts and gettin' everything just right. In addition, these really take some gettin' used to... A broken clutch cable could be it was simply a POS, not routed properly, over tightening the set screw and cutting it a lil - or all of the above.

Like yer sprocket/chain issue - it could be yer sprocket is out of line and/or offset, which is both the builder AND the "rag joint" style - it could be ya just had a lil too much slack from stretch...

The first month I put serious miles on my build I played a lot of "catch-up" - tidying things I had though good enough when I put i together, even trying to fix things that weren't broken - like the 4 cycling problem and a new motor.

All I can say is persevere, if you keep on top of things you'll catch up and learn the peculiarities of your specific build - then it's just fuel n'go. Honestly it's that "design, build, work the kinks out" part I like the most, now that my build is complete and all dialed in - I find I'm lookin' to build another already lol

 

[devonalcorn]

did not break any cables other than the accelerator, but bought a new clutch cable to make it add up to $38 to get free shipping. Out of the box, the kill switch did not work, the float had a hole, the jet was not screwed in at all. Once installed, and those items straightened out, I have lost the muffler cap, broke the accelerator cable, jammed the chain, and so far, I feel truely to blame primarily for the chain (rear wheel wobble, and not tight enough chain... and I can only retighten all the screws and nuts when I am not actually riding it)... fun so far, though I often admire the electric bikes and reliable scooters that EVERYONE else rides. I have to take the most difficult path, though. Had to have an italian car when I was 16, had to marry a blonde as my trial-wife, had to drive across mexico in an open jeep in July when everyone else I knew flew there, and the list goes on. Why on Earth would I simplify anything in the name of convention? fear of not being the wierdo, I suppose.

 

[devonalcorn]

When I installed my rag joint on my rear spokes/hub, was I supposed to sandwhich the rags on either side of my spokes? and if I did, would that bring my sprocket and chain farther out, thus maybe aligning my gear cogs and stress the chain less? right? Logic tells me that is the case, but I did only the inner rag, and here is why... 1st, I did not know of the forum at all, 2nd it seemed that the brake on my Schwinn beach cruiser with coaster brake would not clear the gear/chain assembly. Am I to bend out my brake lever?

 

[BarelyAWake]

Yeah - ya defo want to have both the pieces of rubber sandwiching the spokes, if for no other reason than spoke damage. I bet that'll help align the chain too. You'll notice that the kit supplied sprocket is dished as well, I forget exactly but I think the instructions say to mount it with the dish out... it doesn't really matter what they say though cause lining up with the front sprocket is what's important.

Hunker down behind yer bike and sight down the chain like you would a rifle - the front and rear sprockets should line up perfectly, the sides of the chain acting like yer sights. If it's off to one side or the other - that's what chooses which way to dish the rear sprocket. If you can get yer bike off the ground - spin the rear tire (clutch in ofc) and sight down it like that too. Not only will a chain "walk" to one side or another - where the teeth are poking through the chain helps to figure offset too. If they don't stay in the middle as you spin the tire, you've got offset and/or wobble. If they are on one side of the chain at the top of the rear sprocket - but in the middle or the other side halfway down and stay like that, yer rear wheel is crooked and you need to straighten the axle in the dropouts. Don't forget to make sure your tensioner/guide is in line as well or it'll quite happily act like a derailleur.

Also remember to do those tests spinning the wheel the other way. Oftentimes a chain will stay on the sprockets turning one way but not the other, still an alignment problem - just not as severe.

Another important test is tension. If you have 1/2" of slack in your chain but it gets a lil tighter/looser when you turn the rear wheel - the rear sprocket isn't centered. This will cause a LOT of vibration at speed and the "wrenching" action is responsible for many of the engine mount failures.

As for bending the brake arm - I hear that's not only common but easy as well - I've just been fortunate enough to not have a coaster brake lol but it's around the forum somewhere

 

[devonalcorn]

well, while I await some new parts, I can't ride it anyhow, so it is time to take it apart again and start over.

 

[BarelyAWake]

did not break any cables other than the accelerator, but bought a new clutch cable to make it add up to $38 to get free shipping. Out of the box, the kill switch did not work, the float had a hole, the jet was not screwed in at all. Once installed, and those items straightened out, I have lost the muffler cap, broke the accelerator cable, jammed the chain, and so far, I feel truely to blame primarily for the chain (rear wheel wobble, and not tight enough chain... and I can only retighten all the screws and nuts when I am not actually riding it)... fun so far, though I often admire the electric bikes and reliable scooters that EVERYONE else rides. I have to take the most difficult path, though. Had to have an italian car when I was 16, had to marry a blonde as my trial-wife, had to drive across mexico in an open jeep in July when everyone else I knew flew there, and the list goes on. Why on Earth would I simplify anything in the name of convention? fear of not being the wierdo, I suppose.

Yeah man that all sounds 'bout right for these builds heh, yer sufferin' no more than most. People generally think "kit" as bolt it to your bike and go, a more accurate view would be everything IN the box is a kit - engine included.

Like all kits, nothings finished - even the humble twist grip assembly could use some work. Stuff like headbolts not tightened at all is commonplace, let alone torqued to precision. Once all the details are attended to you'll not be "swamped" by failures anymore - it's a stifling feeling, I remember it well.

When it's all done and said you'll be laughing as you dust those others though Conventional is so boooooring anyways *yawns*

 

[Yoshua]

Weekend update. Okay, drained the tank, and refilled with 25:1. Then I disassembled the carb, nipped off 1/16th of an inch of the primer pin's tip, so it would not interfere with the vertical movement of the float, slightly bent each of the little brass tabs up to allow the float to go higher in the bowel. Aired up the tires to max capacity, oiled my chaines, rechecked my nuts (heheh) and stuffed some steel wool balls in my muffler, put a redbull can with hose clamps on the end of my cap-less, noisy arse muffler, and it started RIGHT AWAY. Okay! Much better. Instead of huffing 200 meters to get it started, it started on the 2nd or 3rd pump of the pedals, still needed a bit of choke for a few meters, ran better than ever (which means better than crap for the 1st time). Still, though it runs better, it still sputters and tries to die when I am going along at speed on flat ground.

I found drilling some holes in the dirty air side of the air filter housing helped a bit. While you got the housing off check that you choke cap is fully clearing the hole when its in the choke off position. the choke leaver can also vibrate its way back into the choke position if its not tight enough.

 

[devonalcorn]

I ordered the parts on Monday at 11pm right before going to bed, and they arrived yesterday, Wednesday FedEx (free shipping) from ChinaGas (goes by so many names apparently also Kings and National and ???) Anyway, I am pleased. BTW, I am going to put a couple of tack welds on my muffler cap to keep it on, will RTV goo my intake, drill some holes in the dirty side of my air cleaner, realign my gears to prevent further chain hops and stress, and will see. Update soon.