tough starting RH50 after rattling around on trailer

[boyjeenyus]

Hey there. First off, I LOVE my Roughhouse! I happily use it almost every day on paved and dirt roads. One issue is that I regularly have it on a trailer, in the back of my RV, or on a motorcycle carrier on dirt roads. It doesn't fall over, but it definitely gets shaken around a lot. Then when I go to start it, it often takes AWHILE with lots of cranking to get it going. New battery spins the starter just fine, it just doesn't want to fire. Opening up the throttle doesn't seem to help much, neither does covering the air filter intake. Once I actually had to remove the air filter, and squirt some gasoline into it to get to going, which eventually worked.

Any ideas on what might be going on and if there could be an easier way to deal with it?

Thanks!
Stephen

[agrogod]

Try using the kick start when the electric start is being troublesome. I have the same problem when it sits for awhile. The kick start will produce more torque to start the engine.

[RiderK]

I agree with Agrogod on this one. I've had this problem many times. It seems to me that the shaking around may somehow empty the bowl of the carb. So any time it's been towed or hauled I don't even attempt to use the starter. I just kick it until it fires. The little scooters get a lot more starting RPM's out of a kick anyway so it will start much faster and not drain your battery. These are my experiences at least.

[boyjeenyus]

Would there be a way to prevent the bowl from emptying, or get fuel into it quicker without having to pump away on the kick starter for minutes at a time? Maybe drill a pluggable easy-access hole to squirt fuel into?
Stephen

[RiderK]

Would there be a way to prevent the bowl from emptying, or get fuel into it quicker without having to pump away on the kick starter for minutes at a time? Maybe drill a pluggable easy-access hole to squirt fuel into?
Stephen

I'm not sure that it would be something you could stop from happening. The fuel is vacuum operated and the bowl won't fill from the float dropping unless the motor is running. So if it is emptying the bowl while hauling then I can't see how you'd stop that. Also, I wouldn't go drilling holes in the carb either. That could end up really bad in a few ways. I don't really know any really easy or quick ways to prime the carb other then kicking it over. When I do any jet changing or cleaning I usually kick it 6-8 times before I even turn the ignition on and it'll usually start within the first or second kick, but not always that fast.

Someone else here may have come up with an actual solution though.