Ariba Ariba Chondale.....

[James Thomas]

I have been beating my head against the wall for 4 weeks now trying to fix my Chonda to get out there and race with you guys.

Out of the blue my motor started dieing out as soon as I turned the choke off. It will run great if I hold the throttle wide open but it will not idle.
I have tried every adjustment 10 different ways on the carb and nothing works. When pulled the spark plug it is black and sutty so it is getting plenty of fuel...actually too much but that doesnt explain to me why it dies out when I add more air by opening the choke....unless I am missing something.

I checked the fuel pump, vaccum line from the valve cover and everything is in tact and not leaking.

Has anyone had this problem with thier Chonda? I just ordered a whole new carb today since they are only $18.00, but I would like to fix what I have and keep a spare.

Could it be bad valves? The motor has less than 3 hours on it.

Thanks all for any help you can prescribe.

-James

[Bill Choice]

Sounds like when I put Hewitt's restrictor on and didn't get the gasket aligned correctly. He had about 50% of the 50% restrictor. Made him really slow and he said I was just hazing the newest driver, maybe so... But I digress...

I would check the bowl, float, and jet and etube for gunk or some type of restriction. It definitely sounds like the carb if you have checked the fuel pump flow and can see it (clear tubing from pump to carb) is not getting air in the line. Slapping on a new carb will probably make it all good, but to get your old one working I would check those things. Could also be a bad spark plug and the valve lash might be off, but I would put money on the carb.

- Bill

[James Thomas]

Bill, thanks for your thoughts on this. I'm hoping your right and its just the carb, I should know soon once I get the new one in.

Side note as I am a new driver....do you guys keep the throttle on through the turns and just feather the brake....I seem to be stuck at the 54 53 lap times, and I feel I'm losing time accelerating out of the turns by dropping the throttle.

I dont know if that is a secret or not but I was trying to educate myself on driving techniques and read about this.

-James

[Scott Boone]

Be sure your timing is correct and that when you assembled the motor you aligned the cam and the crank by inserting the gears with the alignment marks. Check your valve lash to be sure you get a little slop in the valves at top dead center.

Be sure your valve cover gasket is good because a leak can prevent good vacuum for the fuel pump. Be sure your fuel tank is vented. Most fuel tanks come with the vent lines sealed shut and you have to drill them out to make them vent. Be sure you are not vapor locked. Be sure you use new fuel line so that you do not suck air when you are running. As you run see if you ever get more air in the fuel line. There should be very little air. If your tank is not breathing it will try to suck air from the fuel line connections and this is not good. Remove the suction line in the tank and be sure all connections are tight.

Second to that, I bought a gallon bucket of carburator cleaner at the auto parts store and frequently remove a carburator, remove the plastic parts and soak the metal parts in a gallon of carb cleaner overnight. I then rinse with water in the sink and use compressed air to blow dry the carb. I have never had a plugged up carb that couldnt be revived by doing this.

Also, did you remove all the oil level sensor stuff. Be sure you cut and remove that stuff and then be sure your kill switch is setup without any shorts etc that could arc etc.

Last......keep your foot into the throttle as much as you possibly can while driving your chonda. If everything was perfect you will not scrub speed anywhere on the track while turning in or exiting the corners with your foot planted. The reality is that 90 percent of the time your chassis is not perfect so you have to adjust when and where you apply power to free your kart through the corner. When you are starting out, drive your kart and use as much track as you can on entering the corners. As you enter the corner, identify a point on the corner you want your front tire to touch as you enter and be sure you touch that point. Then identify the point in the turn you think is the best apex for the corner and dont apply power till you get to that point. Practice lifting at the point of turn in and accelerating at the apex. Practice those two things for a while and get smooth and consistent then start trying to be more aggressive. You will find that you will begin to learn the boundaries of how your kart works through the corner and you will pick up time. I personally dont use all the track in some areas of the track because I believe the shorter line is faster than the wide line. You just have to see if you are free enough to go through the corner narrow. As you get more seat time you will see that you can keep you can apply more power more of the time. ie when my tires come in during the race, there is a time in the monza when I feel like my kart is on rails. I approach the turn, stay to the edge till the last second, turn in hard and hit the mark at the beginnning of the turn, cut around the monza and the inertia pushes me out till I am perfectly positioned for the chicane. When everything is perfect, i can do this without lifting. My 2 cents but get that dang carb thing figured out and have fun.

[James Thomas]

Awesome, thanks alot Scott, alot of good stuff there for me to work on. Looking forward to the 18th!

[Preston Smith]

What Jet are you using and have you tried changing to a different jet? This sounds like the time I ran my kart around for the first time with the stock jet. I think it is a 28. I could only keep the engine running by keeping the choke at half or more. Once I put in a larger jet, like a 37 or 38, it ran great. Now I have to start it with full choke, but must take the choke off asap or it will die. I hope this helps.

[James Thomas]

Got it fixed....

I wanted to post a follow up in case anyone else ever runs into this issue in the future...

I tried pretty much everything reccomended to get the original carb working, I completly tore it down, soaked it in cleaner and rebuilt it with no luck.

What did work was a brand new carb. I ordered one from ARC, it was only $18.00, I spent more than that in time and money trying to revive the old one.

Still not sure what happened to make it stop working but I would reccomend keeping a spare carb around as it seems it could happen at anytime out of the blue.

I'm racing FINALLY for the first time this Sunday, thanks again for everyones input trying to help me out.