Hey guys. My roommate's Blast has had this thing against starting while it's cold for some time. We never really did anything about it because it was always merely an inconvenience and because of her budget restraints. I'm curious if you could help me figure out what is going on with it though, because she will be selling the bike in the Spring and we'd like to get it working right first.
Basically, you need to open the throttle, press the starter, and roll the throttle off while you are cranking the engine to get it to start while it's cold. It has a carburetor but no choke. Cold starts are supposed to be aided by what's called an auto-enrichener which heats up as the bike warms up and closes off the extra air and fuel when it's not needed anymore.
To keep the bike idling, she has to keep the throttle on. It pops and hiccups the whole time too. To me, it sounds as if this auto-enrichener has failed. Once it's warm, the bike runs beautifully.
Any ideas? I'd just replace the part and see if it helps, but it's not my money. Before we go in, we'd like to be sure we're getting the right part.
block off (most) the air intake with your hand while it's idling cold, if it runs better, it's probably the auto-choke.
All I can say is when I start the bike when cold the thing starts right up an the engine revs up automatically, once warm the revs drop so I'd see if you can find the connection for the enricher. The blast shakes so damned much that it beats up itself, sort of self destructs, wires get lose and break over time. Good luck!
benzbaron wrote:
The blast shakes so damned much that it beats up itself, sort of self destructs, wires get lose and break over time. Good luck!
Haha. Yeah, I noticed that actually. Yeah, this thing doesn't idle at all when it's cold. You need to keep the throttle on or else it just dies.
Well, at the risk of stating the obvious, the automatic choke isn't working. Do you have a shop manual on it? Is there a Blast specific forum somewhere with a bunch of pictures?
Sometimes, just taking the carb apart and cleaning it all thoroughly and putting it back together can fix a whole lot of problems.
And all Harleys shake. Some worse than others. Anything with a solid mounted engine tends to shake itself apart a lot worse than the rubber mounted bikes.
Dr. Hess wrote:
Well, at the risk of stating the obvious, the automatic choke isn't working. Do you have a shop manual on it? Is there a Blast specific forum somewhere with a bunch of pictures?
Sometimes, just taking the carb apart and cleaning it all thoroughly and putting it back together can fix a whole lot of problems.
And all Harleys shake. Some worse than others. Anything with a solid mounted engine tends to shake itself apart a lot worse than the rubber mounted bikes.
I always tell people, "they shake a lot and make a lot of noise. It's why I love them!".
We cleaned the carb. Also, we have a good shop manual for that bike. I think even that points to auto-enrichener. I told her this morning that it's what she probably needs to replace. It's literally a tube filled with wax and maybe silicon that heats up and pushes a plunger out that closes off the excess air and fuel. It's fried.
Thanks everybody!
