painful draining cold starts

hi
I have a kz650 78 that runs great when it is warmed up but it takes almost a full battery to get it to start.

the carbs are clean, the air filters are clean, new spark plugs and battery, dyna ignition ... the kick start does not do anything when cold so I use the electric starter for some 30 times and then it comes up alive with a drained battery

if the day is sunny and I leave the bike in the sun or if I put a heater in the garage pointing at the engine I may need 10 or 15 pushes of the electric start

I am in cold weather land, it's getting colder and I do not know what to do... hints anybody?
thank you

Post edited by: pato, at: 2006/11/19 19:52

Choke circuit?
:huh:
timing?
Did You have any problems putting the carbs back together when You cleaned them,or did You clean them?

I've had a couple painful cold starts lately too..but I think I've just come to understand its the way it goes in cold weather

You could try synthetic oil to keep things a little looser (sp?) maybe? Do you keep your bike on a trickle charger overnight? That would keep it maxed out for a good jolt when you're ready to go..

Or get a heated blanket - make a shroud for your engine, and get an electronic timer so that it turns on an hour before you leave and warms the engine from the outside.

Before I even read what kind of KZ you have, I thought KZ650. Every KZ650 I've ever owned is a bear to start cold. Thank goodness for kick starter on these.

pato never says anything about the choke. Are you using the choke, and is it pulling all the plungers up fully?

By cold do you mean 50F or 30F? I know the combination my KZ1000 sitting for a week and a 30F morning make for a hard cold start. I usually kick it, until I get some indication it's ready to start with 3/4 choke and no additional throttle. And then wonder why the hell I'm trying to ride on a 30F day.

I agree with the other posts, check choke, timing as a basic start. If by chance the timing is advanced the engine will be hard to start when cold, I run mine dead up, no advance.

That's why we own these bikes, if it was easy, everybody would do it! :lol:

I get the same probs with my bike but I only have my kickstarter working so I am always out there kicking away. My bike had a horibble starting prob when it would only start in temps above 40 and anything below that it would flood the plugs. But then a friend of mine turned out my air mix screws and put my sparkplug caps on the wires properly for me and now I have more faith in my bike to go anywhere

WG would jump in about now and ask, "Do you have 12 volts at the coils?"