Major props to you for posting that photo, exactly what I was referring to.
FYI...I've seen stock 72cc motors with slap-kick damage; the cases survive intact, but the pinion gear teeth don't.
Chinese engine mileage log
- Thread starter kenfyoozed
- Start date
Major props to you for posting that photo, exactly what I was referring to.
FYI...I've seen stock 72cc motors with slap-kick damage; the cases survive intact, but the pinion gear teeth don't.
aaron what bike is that from?
and what do you guys mean by "slap kick"?
---------- Post added at 04:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:07 AM ----------
GOT THE MUFFLER REPAIRED ON THIS PAST MONDAY:
- machinist did a really good job; even made a special mounting bracket
- two screws mount the muffler can into the exhaust pipe, so it is really stable,
- after riding it felt as if the bike was moving a bit faster..
2. lubed the speedo cable..needle doesnt flutter as much as before
3. driving home today, i saw the horn hanging loose on its wires, cant believe the stupid horn bracket broke...this better not cost me anymore money to make a bracket.
:31:
but hey my amateur ears and eyes dont really perceive anythign else "wrong" with the motor, except the really bad timing -LIFAN WHY DID YOU DESIGN AN ENGINE WHERE THE TIMING CANT BE ADJSUTED!!...this is the only gripe I have these lifans
---------- Post added at 04:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 AM ----------
LMAO is that form the lifan 150 that you raceraped? pretty explanatory....
fatcaaat
Well-Known Member
If you read through the threads here and at planet minis you'll see tons and tons of thread on slap kick...although it is never actually referred to it as that. THat term is a new one for me. Essentially, these lifan 120cc+ motors and chinese style versions of the venerable Nice all suffer from the same issue...if you don't take time to properly bring the piston up just past TDC before you kick it, you will soon tear your cases apart. There are literally 100's of documented cases and probably 100's more undocumented.
When these motors appeared on the scene, people were continually stripping out kicker gears and cracking cases. All caused by people just hopping on them and kicking the heck out of them. This is one of the reasons why the decompression devices have become so popular. The GPX160 was one of the worst instances...breakage after breakage. Eventually, this lead to redesigning the right hand case to be beefier and many of the problems went away.
I always contested that the reason the cases busted was because of improper kick starting method...and, in fact, I still believe this to be the case. I once sold a lifan 120 bored and stroked out to 157cc that I had run for over 1500 non-eventful miles. The motor was busted in 3 days after sale...with the right hand case busted apart. I even took it back since I was a nice guy. I fixed it and sold it to someone else who has been rocking it for 2000 trouble free miles. I know a guy that has 3 lifan 120 early versions, bored and stroked out to 150cc+ without any issues...and he knows how to kick them. I personally have one of the early troubled GPX160's that I converted to a 177v2 setup....no decompression device, and I have over 3500 trouble free miles on it. I have owned 3 chinese 120cc motors that I have converted over to 150cc+ motors and have never torn the cases or gears apart on them. I have logged at least 2k on each of the motors before selling them.
Point is...if you want to avoid this in the future...one of two things must occur. 1. You must learn the proper technique for kicking these over so they start right up without any kick-back or 2. you need to get a decompression device. The extra 10-15 seconds it takes you to start the bike doing it this way will reward you with not having to tear it down to repair it.
When these motors appeared on the scene, people were continually stripping out kicker gears and cracking cases. All caused by people just hopping on them and kicking the heck out of them. This is one of the reasons why the decompression devices have become so popular. The GPX160 was one of the worst instances...breakage after breakage. Eventually, this lead to redesigning the right hand case to be beefier and many of the problems went away.
I always contested that the reason the cases busted was because of improper kick starting method...and, in fact, I still believe this to be the case. I once sold a lifan 120 bored and stroked out to 157cc that I had run for over 1500 non-eventful miles. The motor was busted in 3 days after sale...with the right hand case busted apart. I even took it back since I was a nice guy. I fixed it and sold it to someone else who has been rocking it for 2000 trouble free miles. I know a guy that has 3 lifan 120 early versions, bored and stroked out to 150cc+ without any issues...and he knows how to kick them. I personally have one of the early troubled GPX160's that I converted to a 177v2 setup....no decompression device, and I have over 3500 trouble free miles on it. I have owned 3 chinese 120cc motors that I have converted over to 150cc+ motors and have never torn the cases or gears apart on them. I have logged at least 2k on each of the motors before selling them.
Point is...if you want to avoid this in the future...one of two things must occur. 1. You must learn the proper technique for kicking these over so they start right up without any kick-back or 2. you need to get a decompression device. The extra 10-15 seconds it takes you to start the bike doing it this way will reward you with not having to tear it down to repair it.
7700
Yeah rolled over to 7700 today....
put the new bracket on for the horn; didnt tighten the screws
Will shutting my bike off with the choke have any adverse affects on the engine? (the ground points are bad so with the ignition off it wont shut off)
I need to learn how to kick my bike right: I just just pedal it until the kickstart is hard (lots of resistance) then kick.
oh well this engine better last to 10,000 miles
Yeah rolled over to 7700 today....
put the new bracket on for the horn; didnt tighten the screws
Will shutting my bike off with the choke have any adverse affects on the engine? (the ground points are bad so with the ignition off it wont shut off)
I need to learn how to kick my bike right: I just just pedal it until the kickstart is hard (lots of resistance) then kick.
oh well this engine better last to 10,000 miles
a_smerek
Member
The photo was taken after about 1 mile of riding, it was a lifan 150 that was always PROPERLY kicked over. I have never improperly kicked over a bike, not even when I fall in a corner during a race and need to get going again. I take the extra time to do it right even during races. I had a YX160 lower end case fail, the lifan 150 pictured and also had gears strip from the back end of the clutch basket on the replacement lifan 150. What is interesting is my neighbor had a 140 and I kicked it over many times myself, as did he, and it never had an issue. We recently saw the same bike (he sold it) and it runs fine to this day - many years later. I can tell you first hand I've kicked over CR500's, left hand kick can-am's and other big bore bikes all my life and never had an issue. Either I had really bad luck with those clones, or perhaps a batch of engines were built where some manufacturing process went wrong and all three of mine fit in that category. I can't say for sure. Some people have good luck but I'm not the only one who had issues. I disclosed everything to the buyer of the CT I sold with the 3rd lifan 150 and the clutch side case failed while he was riding it. He gave me back the engine I should post some photos of it when I get a chance. It will still kick over and run but has a large crack in the side case that leaks oil. This case failure is unrelated to the kick starter system entirely.
Ontario - start with your carb, you can probably tune out any issues there and wont need to play with ignition timing. Also, rather than choke your bike to kill it, just fix the kill switch. It is likely a bad connection and those are easy to fix. Using the choke wont damage anything as long as it doesn't heavily flood out before it will stall. Even then it wont damage anything it just might be hard to restart. You could also just pull the plug wire off to kill it. Best to fix the switch though
Ontario - start with your carb, you can probably tune out any issues there and wont need to play with ignition timing. Also, rather than choke your bike to kill it, just fix the kill switch. It is likely a bad connection and those are easy to fix. Using the choke wont damage anything as long as it doesn't heavily flood out before it will stall. Even then it wont damage anything it just might be hard to restart. You could also just pull the plug wire off to kill it. Best to fix the switch though
OLD CT
Well-Known Member
By using the choke to shut the bike off and also if you leave it on too long when you start the bike,loads the top of the piston with un wanted carbon.as soon as my bike starts,i shut my choke off and keep the bike just above idle for abut 5 to 10 minutes before hitting the street.
7800
Rolled over to 7800 today
NEED TO DO:
Also how do I adjust the timing? (lifan says its auto adjust and doesnt recommend it to be changed)
Rolled over to 7800 today
NEED TO DO:
- fix bad ground wires
- get dashlight to work again
- change oil
- lube chain
- somehow find a way to do the timing
Also how do I adjust the timing? (lifan says its auto adjust and doesnt recommend it to be changed)
a_smerek
Member
Why are you interested in adjusting timing?
- Did you clean the carb recently? How is your jetting? Did you adjust air idle screw or needle clip position to tune out any possible issues?
- What is your valve lash set to?
- Changing oil and lubing the chain is a half hour job. I lube my chain frequently and dont even record the intervals, I do it more often then required
The bubls are changed by removing the headlight bucket, they should be self explanitory once you get the bucket off and see how they are mounted
- Did you clean the carb recently? How is your jetting? Did you adjust air idle screw or needle clip position to tune out any possible issues?
- What is your valve lash set to?
- Changing oil and lubing the chain is a half hour job. I lube my chain frequently and dont even record the intervals, I do it more often then required
The bubls are changed by removing the headlight bucket, they should be self explanitory once you get the bucket off and see how they are mounted
Changed the oil at 8020 (LAST oil change was at 6969). Used 10W40 Valvoline. There were little specks of clutch material and some small metallic specs also (Where could they be from?) . Put plumbers thread seal tape around drain plug.
1. What can I do to ensure there are no clutch pieces coming into the oil?
Engine seemed to idle faster.
NEXT OIL CHANGE = 8820!
1. What can I do to ensure there are no clutch pieces coming into the oil?
Engine seemed to idle faster.
NEXT OIL CHANGE = 8820!
a_smerek
Member
The clutch will wear and some debris will always be found in the oil. This is why changing oil is important and having a filter would be nice. Metallic specs are also very normal when changing the oil in any engine, don't worry about it. Keep the spinner clean and the screen and you should be fine
In colder temps, it will be necessary to hold the throttle open a little further (via the idle speed screw) and to richen the idle mixture (via the pilot air bleed screw). A fraction of a turn, clockwise, on both should do the trick. On cold startup, you might try kicking the motor over 2-3 times with the choke closed before switching the ignition on.
The hard starting you're experiencing is caused by less of the fuel atomizing, then and subsequently vaporizing & burning inside the combustion chamber. Liquid fuel doesn't burn, vapor does. With a smaller fraction of the gas being usable, until the engine warms-up, the engine is functionally lean. That's why richer mixtures are needed to compensate.
The hard starting you're experiencing is caused by less of the fuel atomizing, then and subsequently vaporizing & burning inside the combustion chamber. Liquid fuel doesn't burn, vapor does. With a smaller fraction of the gas being usable, until the engine warms-up, the engine is functionally lean. That's why richer mixtures are needed to compensate.
OLD CT
Well-Known Member
Lifans are 12 volt.
8300
Rolled Over to 8300 miles
Hey this bike keeps going and going
1. Still need to adjust the valves
2. The needle clip on the needle on the carb was at three notches fromt eh bottom
a. I lowered it a notch so now I can ride better in 0 degree weather!! Oh yeah!!
3. Still need a horn (wondering if there is enough amps for a car horn)
4. Need a rubber for the seat
5. Paint over scratches etc
Thanks, and I’m going to enjoy the last three weeks of my riding season!
Rolled Over to 8300 miles
Hey this bike keeps going and going
1. Still need to adjust the valves
2. The needle clip on the needle on the carb was at three notches fromt eh bottom
a. I lowered it a notch so now I can ride better in 0 degree weather!! Oh yeah!!
3. Still need a horn (wondering if there is enough amps for a car horn)
4. Need a rubber for the seat
5. Paint over scratches etc
Thanks, and I’m going to enjoy the last three weeks of my riding season!
thefox
Member
I passed the 1,000 mile mark on my Lifan last night. Seeing that it was 36 degrees when I was riding home and there is more snow in the short term forecast I don't think many more miles will be accumulated for a few months. But it has been a blast, I have had the bike 3 months and 550+ miles now. I think my full size motorcycle is a bit jealous :13:
Rolled over to 8400 miles right now
Still have to do everything in list I mentioned at 8300.
I only get 90miles a tank now with the needle raised a notch.
the extreme cold requires use of the choke and riding up and down the driveway in 1st to get the bike to stay idling (i like to let the bike idle and warm up while I prep my jacket and gloves and shoes etc)
probably ride another 100 miles this season, may help santa deliver gifts on my ct70 in a few days
Still have to do everything in list I mentioned at 8300.
I only get 90miles a tank now with the needle raised a notch.
the extreme cold requires use of the choke and riding up and down the driveway in 1st to get the bike to stay idling (i like to let the bike idle and warm up while I prep my jacket and gloves and shoes etc)
probably ride another 100 miles this season, may help santa deliver gifts on my ct70 in a few days