Suddenly engine is hard to start on cold starts???

[1stR]

My back always started very well on a cold start, and would idle high immediately then idel down as I shut off the choke. Suddenly since the day I washed my bike, the engine is hard to start cold and seems to get floaded. Warm starts haven't changed, only cold starting? Any ideas? Aside from this, the engine runs like it always has.

[Eddiesanders250]

how does it idle? You could just do a matinence check (oil change, coolant change, new spark plug)

[1stR]

It idles fine, I am running a new BR8ES plug@.029. Is the plug and gap off? Also the cooling can actually affect starting?

[beerock]

how long have you had the plug and whens the last time you checked the plug?

[1stR]

The plug is brand new, this happens even with different new plugs. ??

[papatrx]

When you washed your bike if your seal around the stator side let water in this could have affected your sator. Hard starting when hot is a classic symptom of a stator going bad, exact same thing happend to me. Does it push start ok? Normally mine starts first or second kick, suddenly it tood 12 to 13 kicks or would push start ok. The stator checked a little low on the ohm meter but still barely within specs, I replaced after talking to ricky stator and cured the problem. If you have another 250 or a friend thats willing to loan you his stator, switch and see if that cures the problem.

[1stR]

I was informed my a mechanic who deals mainly with 250R's and he said that it is most likely a broken/worn reed, or atleast that would be the best place to start.

It only does this when the motor is dead cold, for the rest of the day the bike starts first kick??

[papatrx]

Then it's not your stator, it would do it all the time. Since it only does it when it's cold you might want to look for an air leak that seals it self up once the engine warms and all the metals expand. Do a leak down test on your engine when cold as a starting point.

[1stR]

I took my reed cage off, and their was a little bit of space between the petal and the cage. I assume this could be the cause since the reed cage is stock, and the petals are very old. Maybe the worn reed is screwing up the low end carburetion causing flooding on a cold start??

[beerock]

replace the reeds