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

Sometime ago I contributed to a thread on the joys of starting a B44, and in particular the technique in clearing a flooded engine.
I commented that I turn the ign off, pull in the deco, wide open throttle, kick 6 times, then all good and the motor fires easily.

Somebody said to not switch off the ign as once the flood clears you get a satisfying bang.

Tried it tonight.

What they failed to mention was that said satisfying bang would cough back through the carb and set the bugger on fire. The resulting conflagration burnt a fair bit of the electrics and cables to a crisp, and it was only the prompt utilization of a fire extinguisher that prevented the whole fu**ing house joining in the fun.

Hey Ho.

I wanted to repaint the frame anyway.

I'm not the one who suggested to do that but still, it shouldn't set the carb on fire. The compression release only opens the exhaust valve, not the intake.

But, do you have a wasted spark electronic ignition? Could be your trouble because you get a second spark near TDC when both valves are open and if it happens to clear out enough to fire right then, you could get a bang out of both ends. Points systems don't usually spit back through the intake unless the intake valve is too tight, (or the timing is way off).

To be fair, I had been working on the carb so the petrol pissing out of it with gay abandon just may have been something to do with my ministrations, though I am not convinced. (The gasoline / water mixture that masquerades as fuel in this country necessitates frequent cleanouts)

I also did not have the air filter attached so any spark / cough back had nothing to stop it from igniting the afore mentioned copious amount of spilt fuel.

PLUS the damn petcock has not been shutting off properly for a while..........

All in all an interesting time!


and yes, I have Vape ignition ...................... just waiting for the "points are better" comments!!!!!!

Sorry you're having problems......glad it wasn't worst.

I had to go back and check to make sure it wasn't me that told you to leave the ignition on..........because that's the way I do it. BUT the pop I hear is very muffled (pun intended)

Wasn't me so I don't have to deal with that guilt tonight.

Sounds like it was at least a couple of other things going on........flooding isn't normal.

Sorry to hear of the misadventure
Just a little note.
I left foot start and one of the things I have noticed is that when I let foot the lever always goes all the way to the stop so the engine can not kick back.
Right foot starting makes obtaining a complete swing almost impossible and equally difficult of keeping the lever there till the engine either starts or stops completely .

Can you post a link to the old thread to tell me the title so I can search for it?

Thanks!

It was my suggestion, never said to try it with no air filter and a wet and leaking carb or indoors. When I do it the boom comes out the exhaust not the carb.

kommando…….it could just as easily been me who suggested it. I leave the ignition on ( been awhile since I’ve had a flooding carb problem) and the pop I hear isn’t loud at all….more of a cough and yes….it’s coming out the exhaust valve into the muffler. When/if I hear it ( it doesn’t happen every time) I know the cylinder has cleared out.

A leaking carb/fuel tank indoors ( even in a detached shed) is something you HAVE to sort. Solving those problems trumps getting it running IMO.

No, I'm Spartacus!

You ok there fella? Maybe sprinkle some alteplase on your morning gruel.

The kettle speaks!

I never said I was without fault (I was once before, I remember it well 23rd Jan 1974, 5pm as I recall).

My tale of woe was meant really as a cautionary tale of "don't so be bloody stupid"!

There is nothing wrong per se in leaving the ignition on (and it does make a satisfying pop, but doing it with a leaking carb, plus a leaking pet cock, plus without an air filter, is actually the very definition of dumb (I looked it up in Funk and Wagnels, pg 275).

Time and date duly noted, that makes twice.

Obviously a strip down is required, especially as the damn thing kicked back at me for the very first time EVER immediately prior to the onset of the afore mentioned conflagration.

PS I wasn't actually indoors (just upwind), when it happened, that truely would have been staggeringly stupid. No, wait, hang on, I usually start up in the garage (where I store the spare petrol) .................. hmmm, maybe I should modify my behavior!

Dave Martin……you are not alone. I’d venture to guess we’ve all had something similar go wrong…..maybe not with actual flames….but mistakes have been made.
I’ve got my hand up with plenty of tales.

You sir have the right attitude IMO.

Perfection is reserved for a few folks on this board……the rest of us are human.

Well… I think it’s good that you mentioned it. A reminder to all. I was recently using an oxy propane setup to bend some tubing and turned one of my storage cabinets into something that resembled a Salvador Dali clock.

Let he who hasn’t done something dumb cast the first stone.

Okay…..I promise…..just one but I have several.

Born and raised in Florida. We didn’t have a fire place or wood heater. Relocated to North Carolina 35 years ago. Tickled I now had a fireplace and wood heater ( neither came with instructions) since I had plenty of wood on the property.
First year things went along pretty well……even survived a long power outage during the winter on wood alone.

BUT…….I had to learn the hard way if your cleaning out the fireplace and there’s still hot coals in the mix…..DO NOT USE A PLASTIC BUCKET!!!! to carry the ash out. Imagine my surprise when I noticed the bucket slowly getting shorter…..and at that point you shouldn’t just pick it up and run. Yea, I did that.

I've had exactly the same experience with my B44, luckily for me, I was outdoors and managed to beat the flames out with my gloved hands.

In my case, there were probably a couple of contributory factors such as the timing being slightly too advanced and using a foam air filter.

Having the timing too advanced can result in kickback and spitting back through the carb, and foam air filters unless fireproof can easily catch alight leading to disaster.

I now use a K&N style filter with a cotton inner and steel gauze outer, this type of filter is meant to be resistant to flames, and I haven't had an issue since fitting one. If I do get any spit back I just see white smoke around the filter, and no flames so I recommend using one.

The other thing I plan on fitting is a longer trials type kick-start, which should ensure the engine spins over a bit faster, avoiding spit back.

This might help a future person, if the motor kicks back with a flame, keep kicking urgently, it will suck the flames in and save a conflagration, seen this work twice.

A faith based solution.

My nuts are worth more to me than a B44, or most motorcycles for that matter. I’d likely start shrieking like a little girl…. drop it and run.

I hear where you are coming from Gavin but the sheer size of the problem (largely due to the leaking carb and petcock) rather precluded that approach, and I am afraid my sympathies lied somewhat closer to Cyborg's sentiments! Particularly in the "shrieking like a like girl" field, honestly, I didn't think my voice went that high.

My 1961 distributor C15 caught fire one night outside a local auto parts store. I threw it on the ground and jumped off while someone from inside ran out with a fire extinguisher and put it out.

It was already running so it wasn't a starting related fire, but I was 18 at the time and my preventive maintenance was somewhat lacking. The distributor cap was missing, the petcock wouldn't turn off and the float needle wasn't working too well so the carb was dripping fuel right on the points. Can you spell d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r? And I was still trying to ride it, at night no less. Talk about dumb,

but then after it was extinguished and the damage surveyed and kinda re-rigged to sort of work again, I rode off on the thing. I still shake my head over it. It's a wonder I survived to get old.

I've done that myself. It does work.
Yep, just like sitting down in a chair.

I’ve never had a bike set itself alight, although a couple of them should have. If I’m starting something for the first time, I do keep a couple of large fire extinguishers handy along with a hose. Fortunately I don’t have any personal stories to share, but I do have favourite. A slightly rotund fellow I know through work showed up one day and his face was crimson red. His dryer had been making a squeaking noise and he decided to fix it with WD40. Ran the dryer until it started making the noise…opened the door and shimmied in there as best he could. Started spraying and it blew him right out of the dryer. Took a bit of time in the hospital to put him right.

I have an M1030M1 USMC surplus diesel motorcycle. Once while riding at about 60 MPH, one of the rubber fuel lines failed and completely soaked the engine and rear of the motorcycle, and me as well from the knees down, with diesel fuel. Obviously, there was no fire because it was diesel fuel and not gas. I was very happy that was a diesel engine and not gasoline. If it had been gasoline, I probably wouldn't have survived. On my gasoline fueled bikes I am very carefull about looking for leaks. Once, my 68 Bonneville had the petcock fail while it was parked inside the garage. The petcock was off and the engine was cold. I just happened to enter the garage and found a very large puddle of gasoline about 10 feet in diameter, surrounding the bike. If it had ignited, I would not only have lost the bike, but the garage and house as well. I was afraid to open the garage door with the electric opener due to the possibility of sparks. I opened the door manually. I always keep a 10-pound fire extinguisher nearby to my bikes.