hot Start Problem

[scott corsaro]

couldnt find any faq's related to this problem.  roommate has a 83 vision, the bike usaly fires right up when cold via the electric start, but when the bikes warm the electric start will turn over and over but the bike will never fire up, if you bump start the bike when warm it fires up right away.
any thoughts?
I wiah all bikes had kick starters.

scott

[Lucky]

There are several general possabilities, but we can narrow it down.
in no particular order:

1) the starter seal has begun to fail, allowing oil into the starter, fouling them, or there is excessive wear in the starter between the comutator/brushes.  either condition will reduce the ability to spin fast enough to fire the bike, and increase draw on the battery/charging system.
2)  Your battery/charging system has problems.  A battery that is low on water or past it's useful life may not produce enough voltage while cranking to fire the bike.  Also the TCI needs 9.5-10V to operate & fire the coils.  if your cranking voltage is below these numbers, you will have a hard time starting the bike.
3) charging system is weak.  Burned stator, burned Reg/rec will produce insufficent chargeing to properly turn the engine over.  Hard start hot is a typical symptom of this.  check for burned connectors on either pigtail on the Reg/Rec.
4)  Carbs with pilot air screws out of adjustment will make the bike hard to start hot. this is also a typical symptom, but since you can bump start it with no problem, I'd tend to lean away from this problem (pun intended)
5) large voltage drop accross the electrical system, pay particular attention the the coil connectors.

If I had to guess, i'd start with checking the charging system & starter.
--Lucky

[bikeseamus]

Scott   A few simple thing to check would be the air filter and the airbox flapper line. A dirty air filter would cause a rich mixture, and your symptoms point to that. A leak in the flapper line would also cause your symptoms, as would a bad flapper diaphragm. If your spark plugs look black, you're too rich. Make sure that your choke cable is allowing the choke to fully shut off while you're at it. Take your tank off, hook up a remote fuel feed (I use an old plastic lawnmower gas tank), and make sure your airbox flapper opens when you roll on the throttle. Also keep in mind that a few twists of the throttle on vision carbs will shoot gas into the intakes and make it too rich for a warm engine, but just fine for a cold one. A simple real world spark test is to leave the spark plugs in, but disconnect the leads and plug them into a couple clean plugs, PROPERLY grounded. Crank the engine, and watch for a good blue snapper. Low light is best for this. Both plugs should show you a good bright blueish colored spark. If so, it's probably carbs, so clean em up, paying attention to make sure your jets are completely clear. Yup

[Paul_Jungnitsch]

The only thing I can add to those fine answers is that my Vision (at least) seems very sensitive to flooding when hot. I automatically crank the throttle wide open and keep it there if it doesn't start right away, to clear the excess gas, and then usually it starts no problem.

I didn't realize even that I did this until a friend tried to start it hot and had no luck at all.

[scott corsaro]

Thanks guys, I'll check those things out (when i get my hands out of these casts!)

All I gotta say is the vision is a blast to ride and a great bike.  Loved the v-twin sound and feel so much I went searching for a honda hawk GT650 (my true love) after I took the vision out on a big ride.