Mech

I'd need to look in a manual to be sure, but it's likely that the stator has three wires coming out for the battery charging, and they do go through the regulator, and it also some other wires that go straight to the cdi unit. If it's as I say then two wires are for charging the capacitor in the cdi, and two that are to trigger the cdi to discharge the capacitor through the coil to produce the spark. The wire to the coil only has power in it for a millisecond as the capacitor discharges, and when it discharges it will be hundreds of volts and a huge current.. so be careful. I'd need to know the year to find the right manual though.

Oh ok. That is dinky. Yeah unless the activating lever is seized(you should be so lucky), the shoes have likely welded themselves to the drum, similar to a stuck clutch on a vehicle that hasn't been used for a long time, or been parked with wet shoes/clutch. I don't have any suggestions for getting that free. Tapping the drum might help, but I doubt it. Towing didn't free it.. Heat might help, but in my experience that doesn't really help with stuck brakes like that. If you drilled a small hole through the center of the backplate you could put a socket in and undo bolt #10 and pull the drum and all.. if it fits past the chassis ! Have fun.. haha. Perhaps you could make a tool (steel bar with two bolts through it) to rotate the backplate after the bolts are out ?

Onya Gw. I suspect that quad work is a seasonal thing. That brake looks like it will be a multi plate arrangement, and probably pulls out plate by plate once the cover comes off. Some tractors use the same system and it seems pretty good, works well and is sealed and simple to work on.. other than the restricted space to get your socket on in that mower. The hydraulic trans sounds like a potential hassle, but hopefully being honda it will be reliable.

Yeah I'd really want to know it wasn't going to happen again. I doubt the flywheel was loose because it would rub on a wide area. I reckon there's something in there that's big enough to fill the gap between flywheel and stator. I'd want to find that thing.

So what was the problem ?

Did you find what got between the flywheel and stator to cause that damage ? That's a magnet we are looking at right ? I think I'd use an engineers scraper and clean that up if I could. It might be too hard to scrape though. The important thing about those magnets is that there is/has to be an air gap between each magnet and the next, so no ferrous metal chips or dust, and the same between the magnets and windings. Since the resistance readings were right, I'm assuming that you found there was no output from the stator on one or more circuits ? Well if the resistance readings are right it's normally either a magnet or trigger tag dropped off or the magnetic field is being shorted out by ferrous metal dust or chips. That being the case I'd suspect that in this case it's likely that if you can clean everything up good, removing any metal that could short the magnetic field by bridging the air gap, then it might come right. I'd want to know what got in between the pole and the magnet though, and remove it. It must have been something quite big I think, and quite hard to munt the magnet. When you are cleaning the metal dust or flakes off everything, for which a wipe with a rag does as well as anything, it's important to make sure there are no small flakes, or build up of dust, that could get drawn up by the magnet as it goes past, so it shorts the air gap. Sometimes cleaning it, then assembling it temporarily and giving it a few yurns will reveal more dust/flakes. I'd try cleaning it before putting parts on.. All of course based on the assumption that you had found no output but good resistances. Would pay to check the crank for bearing play too..

Have you checked the wires ? Are you sure the power and the signal are both getting from the stator to the cdi unit ? Are you sure the kill switch isn't either shorted or open circuit because of a chafed or broken wire ? You should check the stator and trigger winding resistances right at the cdi, that checks the wires are all intact. Then you should use an analogue volt gauge at the cdi to check there is actually power coming out of the stator. The cdi charge should have an AC voltage and the trigger should put out one brief pulse/wave per rev. A digital gauge is quite likely to miss the trigger pulse.

Click on "recoil starter... https://www.babbittsonline.com/oemparts/l/kaw/500ae90af8700209983b7610/1999-lakota300-kef300-a5-parts

Well you need spark, so you'd better tell what spark tests you did. There must be one you missed. Did you follow what the service manual recommends ? The valve timing could and by the sound of it, is, out. but that won't stop the spark. You'd better explain about that too.. How far out ? Does it have compression ?

Good point Spock. Always good to confirm the simple things first. If you aren't sure if it's got compression Heath then a simple and rough check is to poke your finger in the plug hole and give the engine a crank. If it blows your finger out it probably has enough to at least fire, but if you can keep your finger in there sealing the compression, it's not enough.

I found a manual for a Taotao DBX1 two wheeler, but it's 125cc. Are you certain about the 140cc ?

Have you got compression ? Try poking your finger in the sparkplug hole and give it a kick. It should blow your finger out. If you can hold your finger in there then it's lacking compression. Has it got spark ? Even though it might have spark at the plug when you kick it outside the engine, it may not spark inside the engine under compression. You could try a new plug which is a simple and cheap check. When you try to start it, if you pull the plug out, is it wet with fuel ? If it's wet then it could be that the spark or compression is faulty, or the carb is flooding. If it's wet, turn the fuel off and keep trying for a while. If it's dry then check the fuel is getting right into the carb. Undo the drain screw on the bottom of the carb and watch as it runs out of fuel, then check the fuel keeps coming through fast enough to keep the engine running. Answer the questions(all of them) and I'll see what I can suggest next. And if you tell me what model it is I'll see if I can find a manual and have a read.. It may have an air valve on the carb or something I should know about.. haha.

Hi. Well the choke works by sucking extra fuel up out of the float bowl when you pull the choke plunger out, either with a cable or a knob. It draws fuel up and mixes it with air then discharges it through a drilling that comes out between the butterfly and the engine. The fuel will only be drawn up though if the butterfly is fairly well closed. If you open the throttle/butterfly while cranking the cold engine the vacuum decreases and the fuel doesn't get lifted enough to get discharged into the engine. So it's important to have the throttle adjusted well closed off as far as possible, and not to use it till the engine has had a chance to be richened up by a few cranks. That said.. Did the choke use to work before the engine work ? Are you sure the choke is the problem ? Could it have an air leak into the sump, either a seal or a gasket somewhere, or a leak at the manifold ? One indication of an air leak would be it not idling well, or not being able to adjust the idle mixture rich enough.

I'll butt out then. If you get stuck and want more advice mention my name and I'll be bound to see it.

I'm an old mechanic, and I agree. Now days we mostly just toss used plugs, but years ago we cleaned and tested them, and the test was to use a spark machine which let you adjust the air pressure the plug was under while it was sparking. Lots of plugs that started out sparking fine would stop sparking at around 80 Lb pressure.. which is way less than engine compression.

Nice.

Ha. All good. Keeps us both amused. Since disconnecting the seat switch did nothing, it's probably an open circuit to kill the engine, and closed contacts keeps it going.. all through that ECU of course..

Haha. Yeah good. I was wondering why you weren't having starting troubles at 90lbs. Hopefully it will come up a lot. If it doesn't, try as Gw says and put about a teaspoon of engine oil down the plug hole then do a compression test. The compression will come up by a lot if it's rings, and hardly change if it's valves. If you do a compression test without the oil, then watching the needle as you do the compression test is also a good idea. You should crank it over about six compressions and watch to see if it's at full/maximum compression on the second compression, or whether it gets a little higher each compression till it maxes out. That's a sign of bad rings.

You do have a bent valve.

Ok, you need to verify one thing at a time and be methodical figuring out where the problem is. It was all working, it should still work. So.. Is this bike 2wd or 4wd ? Are you trying to turn the wheels by hand, and with the wheels off the ground, or are you trying it by attempting to push the bike forwards? It's possible if it's 4wd and the new diff is the wrong ratio that the gears are binding up making it hard to shift gears, and it can also cause a lot of fighting between the front and read wheels making it hard to push/move. If it's jacked up so all the wheels are off the ground then there won't be any fighting and the individual wheels will turn. If you are trying it jacked up then I'd do more testing before I pulled the side cover off. It rolled into the workshop working ok, nothing inside the box should have got damaged. Since it was rolling in neutral when you moved it into the workshop.. I'd pull the back end again and turn the driveshaft to check whether it's something in the diff or something in the box first.

You've got a bent valve or two preventing the valve from closing right down onto it's seat, and that's why the valve clearances have opened up and why there's no compression. Head off again I'm afraid.

And yeah good test Wam, towing the trailer.. That's the way to figure it, be methodical, pay attention to what changes. Figure if it's load or bike's angle causing the problem, and/or adjust the slide needle, that will compensate some for a bad float height. You will likely still end up with a flat spot if the float's wrong, but as long as you roll the throttle on at a speed the engine can keep up with, it will test whether a mixture change is helping or not. If the needle adjustment does fix it, and you don't get a flat spot, then that might be all that's needed.. I'd try the needle.. it's so easy to do..

I was questioning whether the throttle attachment was the same on the one in the link and the original. I thought one had male threads and one had a hole for a cable to fit into. Might be bad eyes.. or brain.

The handbrake and stumbling sounds like another of those safety devices. Couldn't get the video to run, probably the wrong time of day, evening and everyone's using up my bandwidth..I'll try again in the morning. I did see it start.. nice aye.. If the trans has hydraulic valves in it I'd let it get totally warmed up, and perhaps leave it running in gear to see if the shuttle doesn't come free once the aluminium valve body has expanded. After a long sit the valves could be sticky. Going from forwards to reverse too might help.

Does that new carb in the link have the same throttle cable fitting ? And the electrical dodah.. a choke I presume ?