Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Bsa bulletin board B44 hot starting issues

“Easing”….never heard that term but it describes perfectly what I feel.

Thank you k

Gordon

Dido that for the 850 Commando! I don't weigh enough to kick it any other way. I have to stand on it for a moment before it will move past TDC and then quickly stop the kick arm and allow it to return to the top of its stroke. Make sure the carbs are tickled and choke is on. Then it's one of those bucking bronco kicks to get it to make it past TDC on the other piston. Luckily, it starts after a couple of attempts.

FWIW, I have two B44s, two B50s, and a B25/TR25 and they all start easily cold with the above mentioned methods. But always need to turn the throttle stop screw in one full turn before kicking. Back it out as the revs climb.

Tom

Here's a bit of commentary on this starting business to ensure we are all on the same page.

TDC is top dead center. ON a 4-stroke engine there is TDC on compression and then again at the beginning of the intake stroke. The compression stroke which is just before TDC is when the engine is very hard to turn over. That's when you use the decompression lever too release the compressed mixture so you can ease the motor over TDC. I do all this with the ignition OFF because sometimes it will fire (or backfire) as you ease up to TDC. Remember the engine fires a few degrees before TDC and it can go backwards.
Once you ease over TDC on compression it is important to continue pushing the kick starter about 70 more degrees till you feel the springiness of the exhaust valve opening. Then reset the kicker. The reason this is important is because this gets you closer to the next compression stroke for firing and the engine will be turning faster and have more momentum. BSA says to get just past TDC which I did for years until I experimented with going well past TDC and finding that this little step makes starting easier and eliminates kickback if the engine does not start. I learned this when I was at wits end trying to consistently start my B50 which is more difficult than the B44. Don't forget tickling and priming (when cold) and all your other drill stuff.

When I started my B50 this spring after sitting all winter, it popped on the first kick and started on the second with year old gas. When I came home from a ride, I started it five times in a row on a single kick. This brings be to a point that Lannis made earlier in this thread. If you let the bike sit about 10-20 minutes (like at a gas stop) it can sometimes be problematic starting. I find what works best is a very light tickle because the gas in the throat of the carb and manifold evaporates because of the heat. I will admit that I have had most trouble with this. Cold starts and hot starts are no problem ever, but some times these intermediates between hot and cold are troublesome. The light tickle gets just enough gas in there that you don't flood it and drown the spark plug.

I almost sold my B50 when I found it to be such a cantankerous starter. I spent a winter perfecting starts and the result (for B50's) is posted on the B50 site and it really works well. Motorcycles are like outboard motors...I won't own one that doesn't start reliably.

On chokes, I found they do work but you have to pull them off IMMEDIATLY to prevent stalling. Flooding the carb with a tickler like they do on small Briggs motors with a little bulb seems to work just fine without additional complexity of a choke mechanism.

Hope this is helpful.

Mr Mike