| Author | Message | ||
     Roblast |
I was just wondering if it's normal for the Blast to have a hard time starting in cold weather. Mine usually starts right up, but today it was between 25F & 30F outside & when I went to start it, I had to crank it several times & give some gas. Is this normal? I'm trying to ride until the snow/ice makes it unsafe. Also, after riding several miles today, when I pulled up at a light the idle seemed really high, like the auto-enricher kicked back on. Normal, since it's so cold? I'm good riding in cold weather (eventually my hands go number & I forget about them...). Trying hard not to have to drive the car, which is no dxmn fun Thanks for any input. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Normal (plausible). The colder it gets the harder it will start and if your battery is old (or going bad), thats the time you'll find out how bad it really is. The starter and headlight can drain the power away from the ignition. If its cold or hard starting, pull the plug on the headlight. It'll help save your battery from going dead and free up 'power' for the ignition. The headlight plug is about 6" away along the wiring from the headlight bucket and unplugs easily. Heavyweight oil also makes it hard to start. For continued cold weather riding consider going to a lighter weight oil or at least synthetic oil. The auto enrichener may just not be coming all the way off. As it heats up the idle will get faster, it just might be taking a long time for the enrichener to fully open (though I dont have any practical experience on the Blast with this. My bike is garage kept and I use a manual choke). In the past I've found that about 29 degrees sounds the death knoll for cold starts. You get one chance at a start, then your done. Wrap your baby up at night with a heavy blanket while its still warm and it will start easier the next day. You can also use a "block heater" to keep the engine and oil warm. If you still have the super lean factory jetting, it will make cold starting much harder and warm up longer. It is possible you do have a problem, but it could be just normal. | ||
| Swampy |
What viscosity oil are you running? Have you enrichend the primary and main jet? Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I owned a Volkswagon diesel Jetta, the only new car and probably the best car I have ever owned. Of course in this frigid part of Siberia that I live in, doing my part preventing the enevitable invasion of the blood thirsty Canadians, we have a few cold days that would prevent the Jetta from starting, especially if I drove it to work and there were no plug-in for it to plug into. I used to take a cooking pan with charcoal in it and some charcoal starter. I would light the pan and start warming the oil up until the engine would crank fast enough to start. Then I would just dump the charcoal and cool the pan and into the trunk it would go till next time. I rebuilt a Detroit Diesel out of a scrap yard crane when the oil soaked engine caught on fire, all the gaskets were burnt out of it and every bolt was finger tight! | ||
| Rainman |
I change oil for the winter to 10-40,synthetic and let the sucker warm up until the enrichener goes off. I also make sure the boot is good as cold weather makes it worse. The coldest I've ridden the Blast is 23-degrees and I don't think the enrichener ever actually went off. It was not happy at 60 mph in 23-degree weather. Neither, of course, was I. | ||
| Roblast |
The bike has 20W50 oil in it. I'm not sure if it's synthetic or not, since it was done at the stealership, but from the price I'm guessing it doesn't. I'm changing the oil myself from now on & it'll have synthetic (primary too) - either Mobil 1 V-Twin or Amsoil. From what I can tell, the Mobil-1 only comes in 20W50. Can I run 10W40 w/out issue when it's 90F in the summer or am I looking at swapping oil from Sept to May (no big deal)? I think the boot is good, but I'll verify. I've got a spare, so it'll be an easy fix if it's bad. My battery seems ok, it's 2 years old, but I know where the headlight plug is & that's a no-brainer to try. The jetting is a 45 pilot and a 170 main. It's still got stock exhaust so I only changed it out to get rid on the popping on deceleration. Swampy, I grew up in W. NY and I remember pulling up to my (now) wife's apt and seeing an extension cord running from her car (parked on the street), across the sidewalk, through the front porch & into the apt.. Yupper - it was a diesel Rabbit. Cracked me up. Now I'm glad she didn't try your charcoal trick... | ||
| Ezblast |
You sound right, loose boot? Mobil has a 50/15 synthetic that a lot of bikers use because it is close to the MC specific oil and more easily attainable, and at Wally world inexpensive as well. EZ | ||
| Swampy |
You mean 15W-50...LOL There is a chart in the owners manual for oil grades. What ever you do use a full synthetic, it is worth the extra money. | ||
| Roblast |
Swampy, I copied this from my 2008 owners manual: H-D TYPE VISCOSITY H-D / RATING LOWEST AMBIENT TEMPERATURE / COLD WEATHER STARTS BELOW 50° F (0° C) H-D Multi-grade SAE 10W40 HD 360 Below 40° F 4° C Excellent H-D Multi-grade SAE 20W50 HD 360 Above 40° F 4° C Good H-D Regular Heavy SAE 50 HD 360 Above 60° F 16° C Poor H-D Extra Heavy SAE 60 HD 360 Above 80° F 27° C Poor That's where I got the 20W50... Anyway, I woke up to snow on the ground & roads like a sheet of ice this morning. *sigh* might be time for winter storage...  | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Yup! 20w-50 is good for 40F and above. I dont know why HD still uses their grading system, except maybe to make things so confusing that you only buy Harley oil.  (Message edited by Gearheaderiko on December 01, 2010) | ||
| Swampy |
Notice the straight 50 and 60 weight oil recommended for the high temperatures. I am not sure the oil pump drive gear can handle that thick of oil....LOL Please, what ever oil you use in your bike, what ever you do, do not rev up a cold engine! It is just plain hard on everything. | ||
| Paulsc |
Hey guys, I'm having some starting issues which I think are boot related but I'm not 100%. What happened this morning and this is the second time I've had this behavior, is it will start right up, then run in high idle for a bit as it warms up, and after it goes back to lower rpm idle it will run a bit and then die. The problem is after that happens I won't be able to start it at all it will just keep on turning over. This is what confuses me as I would think that once it already ran for a bit it should be easier to start, but at this point it doesn't. Last time I gave up and the next day it started fine, this morning I waited a bit and then it started. Alright so basically I'm confused as the way I understand if the boot was cracked, it would mean that it creates a vacuum and the engine doesn't get enough fuel. In that case, it should be easier to start after it ran for a while but that doesn't seem to be the case. I hope some of this makes sense  Btw EZ I got the keys you recommended 2 for $10 online with shipping and it worked out great! cheers  | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Logic is good, but not accurate. If you let your engine idle until the "choke" comes off, all you really have is a cold engine with the choke off, especially in the cold winter weather. Idling isnt a proper warm up. (Thats actually done by riding) Thats one reason your bike wont start after you warm it up this way. Cold engine and no choke, which if you have a bad boot, is even worse. A little about the "choke": Its just an electric choke with an on/off switch. While warming up the engine will have some* effect on the choke coming off, it really only comes off after enough time has elapsed that voltage has heated the choke up enough to come off. Its completely unrelated to how hot the engine is (almost*). Blasts are also lean from the factory. Replacing the stock #42 slow jet with a #45 will improve things. *A hot engine will cause a disconnected choke to come off slightly, but without the choke hooked up it wont come off completely. It takes quite a while in the summer for a disconnected choke to open. In the winter a hot engine will have little effect on the operation of the choke. PS excessive idling is also very bad. Its one way to seize an engine (unless its designed to do so). | ||
| Paulsc |
Alright so If I get this right, the reason I couldn't get it to start the second time around is because the choke was hot enough and off, whereas if a waited a little the choke would cool off and the next attempt to start it would be with choke again. So the choke really doesn't have any reading of heat of the engine then? It's just a matter of how long voltage has been applied to it? Does that mean that if I plug in my keys and wait for a little while, then start the engine the choke might've already come off? (and also if I want to enable the choke again I need to turn the ignition off for a bit?) I'm not sure what a "disconnected" choke is. I think I'll replace the boot first and then look into that jetting thing. | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
That is correct. By "disconnected" I mean the wire going to it is unplugged. The only thing I dont know about your assumptions is if voltage goes to the choke even if the engine isnt started yet. It might not get any voltage until the engine has been cranked over (which would make sense and avoid the whole leaving the key on and having the choke come off). I've never tested the "choke" for when it gets voltage or for how long. | ||
| Paulsc |
sweet man that helps thanks |
