Hi all,
So my daughter bought a '08 150RB that the seller could not start upon pickup. Her boyfriend was able to kick the heck out of it and get it to start so she bought it. So she bought this thing a month ago and has not been able to ride it since as she cannot get it to kick over. She had another one previously that she said kicked easy. She said a 300lb farmer she has been working with can start this one no problem, but she only weighs 105!
Anyway, she brought it to Dad, the race car hotrod guy for work and I am being baptized as a motorcycle mechanic. Been searching the web for ideas and help and settled on this group. So I hope you can help me.
She said when they try to start the bike they have to pump forever, it floods and if lucky can get it to fire up.
She brought it to me with an allballs carb kit and that's where I started. Went through the carb that had a clogged pilot jet (replaced the 38 with a 42), goop in the hot start and generally looked like it has been sitting in the rain for a while or got water in it. I Installed the rest of parts in the carb kit and found said kit missing the mixture screw oring washer setup. Rounded up those, put it back together pumped the daylights out of it and only got a slight backfire pop. Spark is there with new plug and we have plenty of gas. I even tried starting fluid. So, now I am thinking valve train issue of some sort making it so hard to kickover.
I checked valves and got the following readings. LH EXH .008 (.2032mm) INT .006 RH EXH .010 INT .004 (.1016mm). Current shims are LH EXH 2.18 RH EX 2.14 Both LH & RH Intake shimmed at 1.95.
Being more familiar with old school v-8's than small engines how critical is that valve clearance on these? If my calculations are correct I need a 2.12 shim on the left exhaust and 1.90 shim on the RH intake to bring things to spec. Bought a hotcams shim kit I think has what I need. Anyway, before I go hunting shims I thought I would ask the experts here for some assistance.
Oh, before I forget, when I wen to pull the cam I found the compression release stuck. Ho does one set that?
I have service manuals ordered, but a lot times I have found those who do the work know ways to make thing work no in the books.
Anyway, thanks in advance for the help and I look forward to your assistance.
Bill
Edited after I realized my calculations were wrong due tp forgetting to convert inches to mm.