Starting problems DRZ400

**BOB UK** · #1 5 Feb 2009

Hi All
I hope someone can help with this my son has a DRZ400 and is having problems starting it
We have done all the normal stuff
New battery
New plug
Which has made things better but it is still a pain to start

I have had a look at it today and have removed the small inspection cover on the left hand side of the engine
When I spin the engine over on the starter the engine goes round then sounds like its going to fire it then looks like its backfiring as the end of the crank goes back the other way if you keep the starter button pressed it then spins the engine back the right way and the same thing happens again
This is all happening very fast with the engine making a sort of popping noise like its going to start and most of the time in the end it will but every now and then the battery ends up flat and the bike Hasn’t started and as he rides it to work every day its starting to be a bit of a pain

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

My thoughts are Starter Clutch?
Or is the timing a bit out?

**Rebaseonu** · #2 5 Feb 2009

Try ThumperTalk DR-Z400 forum, many DR-Z400 users there.

**Big Yellow Tractor** · #3 6 Feb 2009

Is this a problem that's got progressively worse, or has it started messing about after some other work you have done ?

If it's become more and more difficult to start over a period of time, I might suspect valve clearances (i.e. there probably isn't any clearance) or maybe some crud/carbon on the seats. Do you have good compression ?

How many hours/miles has the bike done ?

Regards

BYT

**BOB UK** · #4 6 Feb 2009

Thanks for the replies lads I will have a good look through the Thumper site and see if I can find anything
And as for the valve gaps we did do them about a year or so ago when we replaced the cam chain but I must admit we haven’t checked them since then so that might be worth a look
The bike has done a lot of miles and I think that it’s had a hard life but it still runs well once it gets warmed up
I will let you know how I get on It will be a week or so until I can have another look at it because of work

Thanks for the help so far Bob