2009 gas gas EC jetting

[cofl1001]

Hello all
My first post here, I am struggling to dial in my 2009 ec200. When I bought it it, it had the stock NOZE needle and some funny jets like 152 main and 52 pilot...
I switched to the suzy needle (NECJ) with an 178 main+38 pilot since it smoked quite badly...After some woods testing I increased the pilot to 40 since 38 sometimes bogged when opening the throttle quickly, with 40 on uphills also seems it lacks the punch and changed to 42...Yes, many jets bought time lost and no nice ride unfortunately...Last week after changing to 42 the damn thing will not start anymore ! it starts for a few secs and then boughhhh and it dies...new plug, same...opened up the carb, reduced a bit the float level from stock 16mm to 17.2 and still could not start it...Gas is flowing, no blocks found in the carb(PWK38) spark is working....
Help !

[farmerj]

I wish you were able to talk to someone smarter than me, but I don't think you're having a jetting issue.

That jetting was off - but now that you have the jetting set in the normal range, the "lack of punch" and hard starting sound like something else.

I had an experience once where my bike would only start one attempt out of nine, and wouldn't run right when it did - the problem ended up being the reeds. They were worn/cracked.

I wish you had a CDI to swap in and make sure that wasn't going bad (although I might be fishing for answers there).

Thirdly - I don't think this is the problem, but given the weird jetting and not knowing the bike's past - it's probably time to repack the silencer. I was loosing power and didn't know why...thought it might be an air leak or some other odd problem...somewhat embarrassingly, my spark arrestor screen was clogged and when I cleaned it I got my old bike back!

I suggest checking the reeds and going from there.

Jeff

[webmaster]

Where is your idle screw set? Where is your air mixture screw set? (how many turns out for each...)

jeff

[cofl1001]

Hello

trying to find some defaults, I have seen in an youtube video that someone put the screw to a really small opening (when illuminated the light bearly passed)... I counted the idle screw from fully closed (max opening) to 4.5 turns open to the above described condition. Funny thing was on friday, I got two new sparks an br8eg and an br8es, that I put in...Also not willing to open for the 10-th time the carb this week, I just blew with compressed air in the petrol inlet and to my surprise it started...and after warming it up it also idled quite ok...like said the pilot is 42 now, 40 seemed a bit leaned and when uphill i had to clutch it a lot seeming low on power... main is 178 (afaik it worked well open throttle) but now it seemed to bog when fully opened on the stand...guess will have to go down to maybe 172. Now the air screw is right on 1.5 turns out but will have to test ride not only based on how it accelerates...
If you have any ideas on the jetting...appreciate it
Tx

[webmaster]

Jet the bike so that the air screw is about 2.5 turns out... Don't go with old standard of 1.5 turns... In my experience the carb works better this way - unless you have an RB-Designs modified carb...

jeff

[cofl1001]

hello
nope, running the standard PWK38 carb... funny thing is that after blowing again the carb with compressed air, I installed back the 42 PJ and a new NGK BR8EG it started on the second kick...was finally releaved no more hours to be spent opening and ajusting the float level, even tough I did this last time and could have helped a bit (I adjusted it to 17-17.2 mm instead of 16) as someone here suggested.
The bike now starts nice, will have to see regarding the AS when I can ride it...
Tx for the tips