Hitchcocks Forum

Afternoon all, my iron barrel 500 has become really hard to start from warm. Starts first or second kick from cold, following the text book ritual of decompressor, prayer,total commitment of body and mind,good swing on starter. But with a warm motor it takes maybe five to ten attempts. The bike runs as sweet as a nut once on the move but is reluctant to tick over nice and slowly, though by no means racing. Could that be a clue to the difficulty in starting from warm? All comments appreciated. P.S. fitted a new plug today which made no difference.

Try a touch more throttle while kicking; works well for mine when warm. (Just keep it steady, not rolling throttle on dramatically or aything like that.)
-C

Perhaps I should mention, the bike is fitted with Eureka electronic ignition.Also original plug electrode was sooty black/grey when changed.

Thanks Chris, that's worth a try.

I was going to point the finger at the capacitor but I don't think the electronic systems use one?
It sounds like it's running a bit rich, a general tune up of the carb might help (tech notes here of the procedure)

Tried opening the throttle a tad, and made no difference. Could it be running a bit rich on the pilot air screw?

Seems to be sorted now. I adjusted the pilot air screw a tad, about a quarter turn out, and lowered the tick-over speed. Bike now starts a lot easier from warm. Coincidence? Oddly, moving the pilot air screw didn't make any discernible difference to engine speed, but did allow me to wind the throttle stop screw out a little to get a slower tick-over.

Hi Reg, You were simply running too rich. When cold starting the rich mixture acts like a choke so easy starting, when warm its like leaving the choke on so over rich mixture. Your'll probably find your fuel economy will improve as well. Vince

I had a similar problem attributed to rich running. I managed to stall it once in the middle of the hanger lane gyratory on the north circular in London and could I get it started again..... Plenty of useful advice from white van drivers! A bit of fiddling with the Amal concentric did the trick.

Reg, you could do worse than read the tech notes on the appropriate carb in the tech notes section, gives the correct procedure for setting up the air screw / throttle stop.