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95 ninja 250 not running

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10K views 18 replies 4 participants last post by  bowlby_1  
B
#1 ·
ok first a little background info, I am a 19 year old college student with quite a bit of mechanical experience although I am fairly new to motorcycles. I recently purchased a non running 1995 ninja 250 for cheep to see if I could get it running. it only has 10,xxx miles.
before buying I sprayed gas into the air intake and the bike did fire but died a few seconds later.

the first thing I did when i got it home was to take the carbs off and do a full cleaning and bench sync. after I was done they looked almost perfect.
I put the carbs back on hooked everything back up and tried to start it. eventually I got it to idle with full choke but the second i touched the throttle even a little the bike would instantly die. there was also quite a bit of oil seeping out from the valve cover gasket. i thought this was odd so I took it back into the garage and pulled the cover off.

now it gets interesting. what I found was 2 missing rocker arms (exhaust side). I found them, unbroken in a corner, what caused this is who ever was in the engine before me did not torque down the things that hold that cam shaft down giving the shaft just enough room to come up and let the rocker arms fall out.

I'm not even sure how the engine was running at all but i put the arms back in and checked the valve clearance. they were just a tiny bit loose but ide rather they be loose then tight, I also checked the timing the best I could and it looked fine.

I put everything back together and tried to start it and it again idled, it sounded a little better this time and for a little while it would take the throttle about 1/4 of the way before bogging down. soon after though it started to die again and never ran with the coke on anything but full.
the idle was also very inconsistent going from 2k all the way to 6k even after i backed the idle adjustment screw all the way out.
this sounded like it was very lean for some reason but when I pulled the spark plugs (new) they were fairly black and a little wet, and right before I left I had the plugs out and turned It over for no reason really, and gas shot out of the left spark plug hole.

this is where I am right now, I really have no clue where to go from here.

any help would be appreciated

Thanks,
Charles
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Ok to start it does have fresh gas and new plugs, the carbs are pretty much spotless , the valves are all just barely on the loose side.

I have also messed with the idle screw as well as the mixture screws. even with the idle screw all the way out so it is not affecting the butterfly valves the bike will still idle at around 4k to 6k. changing the mixture screws from 1.5-5 turns out also made no difference although when I adjust the idle screw to raise the idle it does raise ive had it as high as 8k on idle but the second I touch the throttle or take it off choke it dies.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
yes the carbs were taken down completely and cleaned very well at least 3 times, I have quite a bit of experience with carbs. everything is back where it should be based on the service manual. everything is completely stock and the carbs were hooked up to the air box when the problems were occurring
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
the gas shooting out of the spark plug hole leads me to believe that my floats are not adjusted right and its flooding the engine. but wouldn't this lead to lower rpm rather then higher.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
sadly it will be a week or 2 before i can work on it again so in the mean time we might as well brain storm so does anyone have another ideas of things to check or narrow down the problem, or more likely, problems.
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
yes that was all fine, but as i was messing with things and talking to a motorcycle mechanic in my family we decided to unplug the part that stops it from backfiring (on the right side that has 3 hoses going to it. after doing this is got somewhat better, it would at least respond to some throttle but it was still idling high and would die with out the choke on
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
all the jets and passages have been cleaned completely. last time in the presence on a motorcycle mechanic. unplugging the 3 lines is the only thing that has made a difference and we have also done vac leak checks though its not easy when the bike is not idling right. mixture screws are also 3 turns out and they have been moved around from 2 to 4 just to check.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
ok so a few updates. I boiled the carb in water and lemon juice. then in just water and it worked great. the carb is spotless. i also went through everything else again. in my brilliance i almost lost one of the needle jets but i somehow found the little thing in the grass. after i got everything back together i messed with it a little and didnt have luck, i came back a bit later and for what ever reason it started and ran good with no choke at all for the first time. it was running good it had good power and would rev all the way up to redline with out a problem.

the problems i still have are it still idles odd. i can get it down to normal idle but once i touch the throttle is takes it a while to go back down. sometimes over a minute. the other problem is the anti backfire circuit, or enrichment circuit. when i had it apart everything looked fine but when it is hooked up the bike will not really run at all. it only runs when the lines are pulled and covered with tape and when i do that it seems to run great besides the idle. ive read that some bikes dont even have this so i guess i dont "really" need it but i still dont understand why it doesn't run with it plugged in even though it looks fine.
 
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