cold starting

Hi Loz,

Lovely job you`ve done there, well done.

I have had issues with suspected porousity on my Mk3 head. I am swapping it out at the moment. I`ve taken the precaution of painting the replacement head inside and out (inside the rocker box) with high temperature paint and baking it in an oven. You can buy special paint for sealing porous castings called Glyptal which you brush on inside the rocker box after degreasing. After the bikes first run out all the engine bolts were loose and the barrel nuts were at the top of the studs, just the fastners settling into the paint, it`s been ok since. 

Do your carbs tickle up quite quickly? and have you checked if your spark plugs are wet after a few unsuccessful kicks? (while your leg recovers) It may be getting too much or too little fuel initially. Hopefully no kick backs!

Regards, Al.

The drive chain has more tension than the primary. So the manual instructions say to always finish the adjustment by pulling (pushing?) the box into place in the right direction away from the rear chain. Then it will not move. Check the manual and follow it religiously and you should have no problem. The twin adjusters won't solve the issue.  Their main advantage allegedly is to keep belt drive pulleys dead in line.

Electronic Ignition usually helps with starting. You mention easier starting once the engine is warm. This suggests to me that the problem is one of having sufficient fuel in the carbs. 

On my old Commando, for a cold start-up,  I used to switch on the fuel tap, then tickle the carb(s) until the petrol started to flow out the tickler. I then set the choke lever to full-on and kicked the motor over twice to help prime the cylinders. It was then engine ignition switched-on followed by a good kick with no throttle. The engine generally fired and ran. As it did this I then gradually backed off the choke lever by around a third.

As David Cooper says, for the chain follow the manual sequence exactly or the main chain will pull the gearbox backwards regardless of how tight the adjusters are, if you follow the sequence correctly there is no slack to allow the gearbox to move backwards. The twin adjuster will make no difference, its only advantage is better alignment.

For cold starting the fuel needs to be gushing out of the ticklers for my bike, then its a 2 kick start.

I use exactly the same procedure as Phillip and the bike usually starts on first kick when cold. When I bought the bike the previous owner said that if it didn't the problem  was probably not enough fuel and that has been proven out by my experience. On a side note, by bike is also electronic ignition thats never been an issue when it comes to starting. Good luck and keep us posted as we all learn from peoples issues.