What should decent compression be on a 83 YTM200EK ? (still having starting problems)

[eBoyDog]

Im still having a fit with getting my ytm200 to start, warm weather its fine, once it gets running it runns great with no smoking and awesome throttle response. I have taken the carb apart and cleaned it and even replaced the carb with a used one with no better resulrs.

I checked the compression today and I have almost 150, is this good, bad or average? Once I can get it running it doesnt smoke and it runs great, one thing I found too it doesnt like to restart if I shut it off after riding it and the engine is hot. Weird... won't start cold (50-60 degree garage and wont restart after its warmed up to normal opertioning temps.

I have checked spark with a spark tester and I seem to be getting good spark.

I still think i may have carb problems but cant rule out ignition coil or the cdi module. Fortunately I have eXta ones of those so i'm going to try swapping that out next I guess since it will only cost me time.

Only way I can get it started in my 50 degree garage is placing a small,what I call a "milk house" heater which blows moderatly warm air around the engine and I get everything warm (about 80-90 degress, nothing really hot.

Thoughts? my son is driving me nuts as he wants me to take him as his friend sledding!

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE !

[Chopsaw]

Clymer manual says 128 average , 114 min. 145 max .
You crankin it or pullin the rope . I know they can have a weak spark issue if using the electric start . I had a 200e and it would get to the point that I'd have to crack the throttle while pullin the rope . Just watch for kick back .

[muthey]

ok so you have good compression. Now it's time to look over your spark plug you should be running a ngk d7ea. when you have it running spray starting fluid around the intake boot to check for air leaks. If all that checks out fine, it's time to go back into the carb. In the carb bowl is a jet called the starter jet. It is directly under the choke tube leading down clean that out and then go back through everything else. Also check your airfilter box for fuel if you find fuel in there you have a flooding issue which is usually caused by a bad float needle seat o-ring. I would also check your valve gaping as an improperly adjusted valve can cause issues as well.

[eBoyDog]

Clymer states 128 average , 114 min. 145 max .
You crankin it or pullin the rope . I know they can have a weak spark issue if using the electric start . I had a 200e and it would get to the point that I'd have to crack the throttle while pullin the rope . Just watch for kick back .

I'm cranking it with the electric start with the trottle wide open while I checked the compression. After looking at the compression dial, I have more like just a hair under 140. I have a clymer manual, I should have checked it before I asked...

Next I'm going to check the coil resistant and see if that's within spec. If the cdi is bad, do those generally work or not work when they go bad or do they act flaky? This is driving me nuts!

I have been moving my little heater around to different areas on it to see if any particular area makes a difference with little rhyme or reason. If anything the only big difference seems to be when I put the heater directly under the center of the engine. Letting the carb, coil/CDI or even warming up the gas tank for an hour doesn't seem to effect anything. Warming up the underneath on the engine is the only thing that really works.

On a good note I did finally get it started this afternoon and pulled my boys around on their sleds, they and dad had a blast and we got cold and worn out before the Yamaha did! I found my trike can get though almost all snow with the exceptions of the bigger 2 foot drifts.

[eBoyDog]

ok so you have good compression. Now it's time to look over your spark plug you should be running a ngk d7ea. when you have it running spray starting fluid around the intake boot to check for air leaks. If all that checks out fine, it's time to go back into the carb. In the carb bowl is a jet called the starter jet. It is directly under the choke tube leading down clean that out and then go back through everything else. Also check your airfilter box for fuel if you find fuel in there you have a flooding issue which is usually caused by a bad float needle seat o-ring. I would also check your valve gaping as an improperly adjusted valve can cause issues as well.

I have the correct plug and it's new, I check once for air leaks but I will check that again. I did have a problem with the o rings on the intak rubber tube but I replaced them so they are new. One thing, how air tight should the throttle and choke cable mounts be were they enter the carb? Mine are rather loose esp the choke as the original rubber shrouds have long since been gone, I was considering dabbing some rtv sealant around the cable tubes were they enter the carb but I think im overthinking that aspect.

I replaced the needle seat and needle as it leaked gas when I got it, I didnt check or change the float tab as I have generally found I do more harm messing with the float than doing good.

Valve gap was on my list todo as I doubt the prev owner ever worried about such. One thing too im going to change the lighting and charging coils as I get flacky results when I have checked them, some times the ohm out correctly and other times not. I have two extra part trikes so that I know are good so I do plan to change them.

[Chopsaw]

Have you tried to start it with the rope ? What does it do ,,, same ?
Remember plugs foul easy . It was only new before you put it in the engine .

[muthey]

make sure you check the starter jet in the float bowl it can make for a really hard start. Also what type of oil are you running in it, I change over to a full synthetic in the winter as it doesn't solidify up near as much, which will help with the colder weather starting. also check on the vent hose from the carb up to under the tank. It can cause a vapor lock or lack of fuel issue if it is plugged.

[eBoyDog]

Have you tried to start it with the rope ? What does it do ,,, same ?
Remember plugs foul easy . It was only new before you put it in the engine .

I have tried the rope start with no better luck however im limited to how much i can pull start it due to a physical disability. I do have a spare used plug, I can try that one.

[czac]

when I bought my 225 dxn, it would start in 1 or 2 pulls (electric start wasn't working) and run good until you shut it down or stalled it then, it wouldn't start back up for the rest of the day. I tried every possible electrical part I could then I thought, Hmmm what about the carb?
the carb was brand new, the previous owner put it on and supposedly it was a direct replacement Mikuni to the stock carb although it is a bit smaller where you bolt it to the flange on the motor.. Anyhow, I cleaned it... nothing, then I took it off again but this time I took all the jets from the original carb and put them into the new one and she fired right up and ran great! no more problems. now I have the Electric start working and it works great! So I guess im saying, don't rule out the carb... they seem to be pretty finicky.

[czac]

I found my trike can get though almost all snow with the exceptions of the bigger 2 foot drifts.

lol.. you just weren't going fast enough! lol...

[eBoyDog]

lol.. you just weren't going fast enough! lol...

Had to take it easy, mom get's disturbed when she looks out the window and sees her son flying by on a plastic sled at 50 mph....

[czac]

I know, I keep asking my Wife if she wants me to pull her around on a sled and shes like, "On that...that... Death Machine? no thanks!" lol...

[eBoyDog]

In working on a wiring light problem I drained, cleaned and removed the tank. After trying to get it to start I remembered I had a spare sparkplug so I changed it and it fired right up. I was going to swap the ignition coil but found my used ones had too short of a plug wires on them, the coil primary ohms out correctly but not the secondary so I dont know what that means but changing the plug had a positive effect. I'm going to shut off the heat to the garage over night and see how well it starts tomorrow.

If someone could offer me advice on testing the ignition coil, I may go ahead and order a new one. Clymer manual say primary should be .85 ohms and secondary 5.9, my primary is .8 and I get nothing on (no continuity) on the secondary but out of 3 used ones I have,neither did none of them have anything on secondary???

[czac]

sounds Chinese to me... secondary, primary... lol I just hook up a new one and if it works, fine, if not, try another one. Hard to imagine three coils going bad...

on another note, cant you cut the short wires and make them longer? I had to do that on my key switch, the one I bought was obviously not from a YTM 225 like the Ebay ad said it was because it was about 4 inches shorter than the one I had... so I cut the wires and added the longer wires from my old key switch and attached them with bullet connectors... problem solved. How cold does it get where you are? is it like below 0 for days at a time? because we went through a little cold snap where we had a couple below 0 days in a row with wind chills of about -10 or so and my 225 fired right up without a hitch. it took a couple minutes longer for it to idol with the choke off but it didn't make it any harder to start. And my garage is totally unheated and isn't attached to the house so it gets as cold in there as it does outside... lol

[eBoyDog]

sounds Chinese to me... secondary, primary... lol I just hook up a new one and if it works, fine, if not, try another one. Hard to imagine three coils going bad...

on another note, cant you cut the short wires and make them longer? I had to do that on my key switch, the one I bought was obviously not from a YTM 225 like the Ebay ad said it was because it was about 4 inches shorter than the one I had... so I cut the wires and added the longer wires from my old key switch and attached them with bullet connectors... problem solved. How cold does it get where you are? is it like below 0 for days at a time? because we went through a little cold snap where we had a couple below 0 days in a row with wind chills of about -10 or so and my 225 fired right up without a hitch. it took a couple minutes longer for it to idol with the choke off but it didn't make it any harder to start. And my garage is totally unheated and isn't attached to the house so it gets as cold in there as it does outside... lol

Per the Clymer service book, to check the spark you pull the sparkplug and with it connected you look for a "fat blue spark", then with a ohm meter you check the primary terminal by connecting the meter to the thin orange wire and ground then measure the resistance. To check the secondary resistance, connect the ohm meter to the orange wire and the other to the spark plug end. I might be calling it wrong.... primary terminal of the coil is the thin wire going to the CDI module and the secondary is the line going to the sparkplug.

It was the big wire on the coils that were too short, the big thick black spark plug wire not the normal orange wire that connects to the CDI. I figured out the sparkplug end can come off but not the end that goes into the coil. For some reason the newer part trikes I have the sparkplug line on them is at least 3 inches too short to reach the sparkplug on my 83 YTM even though one I tried came off a '84 YTM and another came off a '85 225DR??

Can someone correct me if im wrong but you can't replace the sparkplug wire on these coils can you? I'm fed up with trying to use used electrical parts, every time I try the used part they seem to be as bad or worse than what I'm replacing.

I have another msg thread here about my cold starting problem, my YTM200 will not start when its cold, cold as being 50 degrees or colder. It might be the carb, and I have a rebuild kit coming despite taking the thing apart and cleaning it several times and even replacing it with a used one that the seller provided a video of it on his 225dx showing it starting after a couple turns of the electric starter so im checking everything from valves adjustment, CDI, igntion coil. I bought this trike to get me into the wild for hunting fishing and such since I have bad legs and can't walk far so I need a dependable starting engine as the last thing I need is to get half a mile from the truck and be stuck somewere with a three wheel that wont start. As cold goes, it was just last week it was minus 15 but that was the "artic vortex", normally this time of year the lows average around 20 or so, this silly thing is driving crazy, once it gets started it runs great.

After putting a new sparkplug in it, it started right off so I suspect the coil could very well be the problem so I'm going to order a new one today and go from there.