Hello,

I have a XT600E that is a right bugger to start. I have cleaned the carb, fitted a new spark plug, checked the battery connections and the tank has fuel.
The problem is cold starting, if I leave the bike overnight and try and start it in the morning the starter motor will turn until the battery is flat. BUT, if I kick the bike into 3rd gear and slowly push it a few meters, then start it, it works fine! The bike fires up no problems even when its very cold.

Has anyone had this same problem or solution to this?

Help and comments apreciated.

Thanks
JRM

neutral switch? on the bottom of the engine, left hand side under the gear pedal. a small wire(blue on my '97 600E) goes onto what looks like a 10mm bolt head.

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dave

May be the neutral switch ...a trick sometimes necessary to start all XT's and TT's (and also other bikes like DRZ) after some time is to drain the carburettor bowl before start , on the left side of carburettor is the bottomest screw .

Does'nt know why, but it works!

My current thinking is starter motor contact bushes... is it turning the engine over fast enough?

For what it's worth....

If it's the neutral switch surely the engine would cut out again if you put it in neutral at a set of traffic lights etc..?

Thanks for info guys.

I will have a look at the neutral switch this weekend.

Tony, after pushing it in gear for a few meters then kicking back into neutral the bike starts straight away so I would assume the starter motor dose turn the engine fast enough. Any idea how one could check? And once running the bike dose not cut out when put into neutral.

I was wondering if I had a similar problem with mine.
In SA it was starting straight off, but as soon as I got it off the ship here she was just cranking over. Pushstarted fine though.
I thought it was a knackered spark, so had that changed when the bike was MOT'd.
At the same time the mechanic trickled charged my battery to full.
Now, she starts straight away, regardless of temp.

1) I can't see how it can be the neutral switch, it sounds too predictable for an on/off fault...

2) only way to check the bushes is to dismantle the starter and have a look... compare them to a new set or measure them and compare to the recommened figures...

3) My 660 is a sod to start at the moment, I have got new starter bushes just in case, but then found an SZR660 (?)(same engine on a road bike) and listened to it starting up to see what it sounded like (no other 660's around me - suprise)... and I have to say the starter motor didn't sound too different in speed etc...

So this leaves me thinking carb/choke settings..... probably choke....

I did the drain the float bowl thing for 6 months every day to get by and in the end it was still being a pain on fresh fuel....

So when I can find the space in my garage I will have the choke out (again) and have a dealer check the choke/carb for me....

Hope you have more joy getting to the bottom of it and keep us informed of the outcomes... Might try pushing it in 3rd and then turning it over and see what happens..

Do you push it with the ignition on?

Seems to me like the idle mixture screw needs adjusting some turns out.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

The problem may be that your inlet rubbers (carb-to-engine) are buggered. The engine would run OK once it was going as the vacuum pressure would suck the carbs firmly to the rubbers, but on starting it would run lean therefore very hard to get going. Also check the vacuum line running from the LHS inlet rubber to the fuel pump (if you've a Tenere).

Failed inlet rubbers seem to be a common problem with XTs. When I removed my carbs the rubbers just fell off the engine side. I also had starting problems which were cured once I'd fixed the leaky inlet rubbers.

If you are tight like me, you could just seal them up with gasket goo instead of forking out £25 each for new rubbers. David Lambeth mentioned that he had uprated versions if you're interested.



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Barry
3AJ Tenere