cold start issues?

yesterday morning, my wr refused to start. thinking the battery might be a bit low i put it on the charger for an hour or so. when i tried to start it again, it cranked for a long time (about a minute of cranking) and finally fired. it was running quite rough until it warmed up a bit. now this morning, it again took a lot of cranking to start and then stumbled very badly until it warmed up. the only thing i can think of is that the cold-start map of my mostly stock bike isn't working well. i've removed the spark arrestor and deactivated the flapper in the airbox, nothing else.

i know there are quite a few members up in canada and the rockies, so i thought maybe some of you might have experienced this problem. it hasn't been all that cold here, the temperature in the morning is right around freezing. any thoughts or suggestions?

First, put the spark arrestor back in and see if that helps. Next, check the battery cables, they could be loose and therefore the battery is not charging. If they're tight, I'd guess the battery is probably dying, have it tested and go from there. Mine starts right up and its been around freezing in the morning the last couple days.

Sounds like a fuel issue to me. Your battery is fine if it can crank for a solid minute and not start. I'd be looking at the fuel system (ie. water, contamination, etc... ) maybe even a fuel pressure issue.

mwakey wrote:

Sounds like a fuel issue to me. Your battery is fine if it can crank for a solid minute and not start. I'd be looking at the fuel system (ie. water, contamination, etc... ) maybe even a fuel pressure issue.

+1 on that thought

another hard start causing part is a bad sparkplug....if you rule out a fuel related issue i would next replace the plug with a new one and make sure it's gapped correctly.

if everything looks/seems in good working order the next place to look would be a compression check.

The only time mine didn't start was when I fouled a plug. Fresh plug and she started right up.

well, the bike started fine yesterday evening when leaving work, and started fine again this morning. i can only theorize as to what may or may not have happened, and this is the best i can come up with:

the battery may have been a bit weak, as in too weak for the ignition to function properly. i had not ridden the bike for over a week and i had been draining the battery with some stuff before i put the bike in the garage. couple that with an almost empty tank and large temperature fluctuations in the past week of me not riding the bike, and the fuel might have gotten water in it. finally, all my cranking and no spark may have slightly fouled the plug.

after riding the bike very hard and filling the tank after it finally started, the problem seems to have gone away. the only other thing i can think of is that the ambient temperatures have again gone up, and i might see the problem again when the temperatures fall below freezing in the future.

so, i guess i'll just have to see if the problem is actually resolved over the next few days as the temperature starts to fall again.

I would have a look at the temperature sensor, rear side of cylinder head. These parts may fail slowly. Sometimes working, sometimes not. The colder it gets, the worse. I experienced such trouble with a very small EFI engine (not WRR, but Honda Zoomer). It became worse over 3/4 year until it refused to start completely. It took us quite some time to find out the temperature sensor was wrong, always indicating 90 degree Celsius, which will definitely make cold start fail. However, as soon as engine is hot, it seems like no trouble at all. And, as I mentioned, it did work flawlessly sometimes, to make diagnosis even more difficult.
So, to me it sounds very much like this kind of behaviour.

Temperature sensor should not be extremely expensive, but you may need to drain coolant to change it.
Engine diagnostic mode may help finding out about this issue, but it may not indicate any error code in display, since for instance 90 degree is a legal value for the temperature sensor, no matter how mistaken it seems when doing cold start. However, diagnostic mode may be used to display current temperature value as indicated by sensor, I guess.

Good luck with it!
Phil

well the bike started fine this morning, and it was colder today than it was on monday when the whole thing started. looks like it was probably my own damn fault to draining the battery down.

Thanks for posting back, glad it was nothing more complicated. We got one of these little outfits from Walmart a few years ago and it's been handy as can be:

http://store.schumachermart.com/sem-1562a.html

Sarah

I'm thinking * I know... Here we go again * if it were that cold (and I planned to ride the bike) I'd get one of these lil do-dads get some dual stick aluminum tape or conductive silicon, affix it to the engine case somewhere (preferably directly on the bottom protected by the skid plate) and hook it up to a battery tender.

http://www.watlow.com/literature/specsheets/files/heaters/colphm0407.pdf

2 watts per square inch would keep the engine nice and warm essentially eliminating warm-up time altogether (even the H2O would stay warm) and all you'd have to do is quik-disco in the batter tender and start the bike (and start looking for ice).

Did not do my google search effectively, and started a new topic on the same exact issue. Been having cold start problems in single digit and teen temps. Problem is I picked up the bike on the 29th of december, and have only ridden it 3 times. Yesterday was a good example. 9 degrees F, and a minute of crank catch die, then finally caught. Today, it started much quicker, but temps in 20s today. Trying out the snow riding in neighbors yard.

From Drop Box

Yehawwww... Bet the handguards and knobbies go on pretty quickly under those conditions !

Installed the cycra handguards tonight, and will put the zeta covers with lights tomorrow. Need a garage bad. Holding metal tools and bolts in 20 degree weather not so fun.

It might also be the fuel. Today's fuel goes sour pretty quickly. I had a problem with a bike once when I put Techron in it. Left it for a week. The Techron and fuel separated and the Techron settled to the bottom. Bike wouldn't start until I shook up the tank and flushed out the carb. These bikes are set up pretty lean from the factory as it is, even with fuel injection they're probably right on the cusp of non-start due to leanness anyway.

Mine started all winter at 17 deg. But last year i was not so lucky. Twice refused to start. And i know why,on a carb bike i stabill the gas AND drain the bowl. Over the years i have found out the shotglass of fuel will not make it 30 days. Well with fi i cannot drain the system so i just start it. As i ice ride all winter i works for me. Corn gas sucks !