Working On the Dirt Bikes Start Problem and Tom Beats the Big Stump

Thursday February 23, 2023 Guerneville CA.

Rain later today

It showered before I got it going today but wasn’t supposed to rain anymore until about five.

The fuel guy was coming to deliver some diesel for my heating stove and for tractors and such so I had to hang in close for when he came.

Dirt bike starting problem

So that gave me a good chance to have a look at the starting problem on the dirt bike. I push the starting button and most of the time nothing happens, the starter doesn’t turn over but sometimes it does.

I pulled the bike under the car port so I could work on it without being concerned about a stray shower.

 

I pulled the seat off by removing a couple bolts as that’s where the starter solenoid was located that I needed to have a look at. The black metal box there. I checked it out and it all worked fine and the bike was starting all the time now and working well, for some reason, as I didn’t fix anything.

 

As long as it was starting each time, there wasn’t anything I could do to solve the problem, but I had an idea of what the problem was now.

Air filter

And as long as I had the seat off, I could get access to the air cleaner so I cleaned that up which it needed, and put it back together.

 

Fuel delivery

About that time the fuel guy showed up. He lives just down the road from me so it’s a good time to shoot the bull and get caught up on small town stuff.

 

Looking up at the sky, the clouds were still holding off.

 

Headed for the hills

I put on my rain jacket, just in case and put a small hammer in the bikes basket to  help determine the bikes starting problem and rode up into the hills to work on trails for a couple hours. I got a small short shower of hail while doing that where I had to get under a big tree.

When I was done working on trails, I walked back to the dirt bike as I was going for a ride.

Putting the hammer to good use

The start button didn’t work so I got the hammer out and hit the starter with said hammer while holding down the start button and it started right up.

The problem

This is a common problem with starters meaning the brushes are not making good contact as they may be worn out or the pressure spring may be weak or things might be corroded inside the starter, but it’s usually the brushes are worn out and not making good contact electrically.

Going for a ride

Once it was started I went for a ride around the property.

It seems more trees a have fallen down across the roads as this one stopped me and I had to turn around.

 

I rode to the top of the hill and turned the bike off for a bit and when I tried to start it again, I had to use the hammer again.  So now I know what the problem is and will need to take the starter off and take it apart to see what the cause is.

Felt like rain

I rode around some more thinking it’s going to rain soon as that’s what it felt like.

I ran into another downed tree and had to turn around again, this time heading for home as I could tell there was at least going to be a good shower real soon.

 

And the sky looked like it was going to turn loose with some water real soon.

 

Tom and the Stump

As I was almost home I saw Tom with his tractor coming my way with something in the bucket.

 

He’d persisted and finally got that big stump dig out and was hauling it off to dump it.

 

I made it home but not before a shower hit of rain and hail and maybe a little snow mixed in too. Hail and snow are rare around here.

Just after I got home, the sky let loose with a lot of heavy rain that would of really got me wet.

 

I put the chickens away for the night and that was my day.

Nice day.