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2003 fe400e starting problems

Joined Sep 2016
6 Posts | 0+
Canada
Hi all, i just recently got myself a 2002 husaberg fe400e and it seems to have troubles starting. when i bought it the guy said that it needed a valve adjustment so i went ahead and did that. after that was done it started on about the 15th kick or so and ran great, lots of power and a very fun bike to ride but i put it away for the night and tried starting it again this morning and i must have tried kicking it over about 50 times with out any luck. at this point the only thing that comes to my mind was my clearances were wrong so im gonna go back in and re-check all the clearances. just for confirmation they are supposed to be .10mm? other than that i would just like to know what you guys think the problem could be. my spark plug is gapped to .60 as per the manual. air filter is clean, fresh coolant in it, oil is a little brown so i will change that soon. any ideas as to what it could be? and if anyone could give me a rundown or like a list of all the problems these bikes seem to have with starting that would be very helpful. my friend has one exact same and i love riding it which is why i went ahead and bought myself one but im starting to regret the decision because i get so frustrated when i kick it over 50+ times and it doesnt start. i dont want to ride a bike that i have to kick over 10+ times every time i want to ride it! :mad:

Edit: just looked closer at the bike and it turns out it's an 02. my bad.
 
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Allot of things can be wrong, hard to guess. Weak spark, spark boot, lack of fuel, valves to tight/loose, compression, kill switch sticky, wiring intermittent faults and on and on. Start with basics and work your way through.

A piece of advise. I have a Honda(the wifes) it is a crf250x and if you do not know how to start it you can kick it 100 times or kill the battery with the starter and this bike is mint and as new with everything in perfect working order. So sometimes it is technique the Honda likes to revolutions with kill switch pushed and then choke and tiny tough of throttle. Start is a second and always but do anything different and you will be screwing for hours.

Try having your friend try and start it and see what happens, just a thought. Then if no go its time to start at square one and work through :)

Everyone here will be more than happy to do that :)
 
Thanks FE350, that startup procedure helped me a little to get the bike started a little easier but its still kinda hard no matter what you do. The facebook link really helped me with knowing everything these bikes need to start on the button.(the facebook link does indeed work) as i get more riding time on the bike im noticing some things that are a little concerning to me as im not used to these husabergs. The bike has about 111 hours on it and it has the ytz7s battery. other than that i dont know much about what the previous owner did to the bike. being at 111 hours, should i take the bike apart over the winter months and check all the valvetrain components and stuff? make sure everything is still good and in proper working order? i also have a question about the manual decomp system, i noticed sometimes at higher revs i hear a sort of rattling/tick noise but its not thoughout the whole rev range. being such a high compression bike could this be cause by the rocker arm hitting the maual decomp assembly? if it helps i may be able to strap my helmet cam on and try to catch the noise but i doubt the mic will pick it up over the sound of this beast at higher rpms. also what oil should i be running in this bike? thanks for all the help so far.

cheers
 
up to you on the strip down, you do it early and you save worn bits from getting worse or from the blow up that you now will never have so you don'y know that you did it right....

the oil would be a 10/40 in the winter and a 15/50 in the summer. Motul 300 is good. I like Motorex. I prefer Semi because the starter clutch and clutch cope better. it is cheaper so you do more changes.

the secret is to get it running first time because the petrol washes the bores and wrecks the oil. the carb is the guilty party.

no idea about the noise but it won't be the rocker arm decomp, that's cobblers! if it was, you'd see the L-bar rattling as it ran.

just keep spending as you can afford it till it is what you wanted all along!

regards

Taffy
 
Hi. Tried several procedures described here in the forum on my 501 and only this works: 1 kick with choke on, then another with choke off (cold start). I have no idea what is happening internally but it just starts. If more than a few days without riding then first empty the carb or lay the bike on its side until fuel comes out. Try it.
 
they won't start with the choke on FULLY. what you can do is file a step for the pull knob. make it about 2-3mm. then I'm afraid perfection will be + or - anything up to a millimetre. they start on about 1-3mm of choke. easy to get it sweet with our manual choke mouned on the left bar and leccy start but very difficult with kick only.

regards

Taffy
 
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i currently only run my bike on one fuel petcock even though the bike has two, when both are on it floods the engine so quickly and youll be kicking for an hour and it wont start. seems to start ok with a few kicks with ignition off, then a couple kicks with choke then turn the choke off and bam it starts right up with e-start or kick start. should i switch to a Keihin carb instead of the stock dellorto? will that fix the problem or is there a fix to the dellorto carb? just curious cause i want to get this bike running reliably as i plan on using it for enduro. thanks for all the help so far i really appreciate it. as for the noise ill make sure all my rad guards and speedometer brackets are all securely mounted, other than that i cant figure out what it would be. ill have to look over the whole bike and slowly eliminate things.

cheers
 
the carb needs a rebuild OK. we do a kit to refurb the carb called the 'spruce up' kit. that is probably best for kickstart.

for leccy boot you need our easy start kit which is the spruce up kit plus a slide swop.

I have several videos of the work that needs to be done to make them start. be prepared though, it will make you sick how easy they start! go to the facebook link in this message and videos and then the one about how to make them start.

you're a long, long way off being ready to race them but at least you're keen. you race it as it is and it'll stall on a hill on you and you'll hate the sight of it.

my bike ended up like 'Paddy's Shovel' but I loved every single minute of the journey as I got a job a business and a viable future out of it!

regards

Taffy
 
i wanna be able to start the bike in max 5 kicks in most cases, i plan on eventually stripping the bike down to the essentials so that there is as little electronics as possible. i prefer kick start over electric start as long as it doesnt take 10+ kicks to get the bike started. where do you sell the carb spruce up kit, i couldnt seem to find it on your ebay store, only saw ones for the keihin carbs. what does the spruce up kit come with jet wise?
also do you ship to canada?

cheers
 
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i got in contact with the previous owner and he said he bought a spruce up kit for the carb and as it turns out he bought it from your ebay store. this means the carb just need to be checked and tuned correct? float height im guessing is way to high. the fe400e is supposed to run of both petcocks right?
 
he will have bought the spruce up kit yep! the easy start kit came along just a year ago and is a different slide and PJ.

often people fit stuff and measure nothing so check the float height for yourself OK?

regards

Taffy
 
Thanks for all the help, this forum has really helped me get the bike running good for the most part!
 
Thanks for all the help, this forum has really helped me get the bike running good for the most part!

Before you start spending money you tube starting technique of Husabergs.
I'm new to them and so is my son, his 400 was impossible to start until we found out 'how to'.
It now starts within 3 kicks inc sitting down.
No cost just simply understanding the procedure .
 

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