Hi there!Im a newbie here so bear with me, Me and my best mate chuk are building and off road buggy, ive attached a photo below so you can have a gander, when it came to the engine selection we decided on the yam xt600 as whe heard that they are tough and reliable, we brought a 1983 tenere engine which worked fine but it had been abused by previous owned and needed new piston, then we came across a 1988 model with electric start from a breakers yard. Now to cut a long story short we are having a few problems that we need some help with from you guys as were kinda scratching our heads abit, Sorry if i sound not very technical but im not really mechanically minded so bear with me..

Problems:-
*Our electric start does not work, when we start it it just slowly turns the cogs, when you go to kick it it is very hard and the electric motor turns and makes a whirring sound, but if you take the starter motor out it kicks over fine and starts up (eventually). Isnt the started motor meant to engage/disengage when you are starting it or does it continue to spin with the engine?

*When we do get it started, when she fires up the kick start kicks back violently and nearly takes your foot off is this something to do with the decompression?

*We are using the carbs off our 1983 tenere engine on our 1988 model engine, will they work ok or will it not run right? we have only had her ticking over a few times.

Any help on these problems will be a life saver to us. Thank you Kitch and chuk.

If you remove the cover that holds the generator in place (left side of engine if you look at it from behind) you will find that there is a serie of cogh wheels conecting the electrical starter to the crank case behind the fly wheel there is a "one way" bearing.That bearing locks on to the crank when the electrical starter is running,and will "slip" once the engine is running.Some times when that bearing gets worn(like on my old 86´Tenere) it might lock it self completely and the por starter will be forced to spinn after the engine has started up.

As for starter turning slowly: Have you had jumper cables connected too it when trying to start? in that case what kind of battery did you hook up too it? I have seen starters that have been "fryed" when a big car battery or similar have been used to force them in to action.
OR: Remove the smal cover on the end of the starter (where it connects to the engine,left side) There shuld be a gasket between that cover and the generator cover, if not buy one or make one out of gasket material( 1mm thick) If this gasket is missing the cogh wheels inside it will be pressed too tight and it will be like running the starter with brakes on.

Carbs shuld work just fine,chek the color of the plug when you get it running,shuld be light brown. If it´s black the engine is running fat, and if its white/grey it´s running lean.

good luck hope you will get it running!

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Places to be and things to do, see you all out there!!

Cheers.

Tom.