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Dies when choke engaged

3K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  DNMenzies1 
#1 ·
Hi, I’m new to the forum and riding. I bought a 2009 Honda Rebel 250 with 4900 miles. The choke was working fine but now the choke is acting up. When I START the bike half choked, it’ll start strong. I’ll take the choke off and it idles okay, but if I increase the choke from that point, it dies. If I START the bike with the CHOKE OFF, it runs okay. But if I increase the choke, it dies. Any advice on what’s happening?
 
#4 ·
Welcome. Please don't create or post in two threads on one subject. It just creates confusion and frustration when a respondent sees someone else just answered your question in another thread.
 
#9 ·
It's actually an enricher (adds extra fuel) not a choke (restricts air intake).
Use it to start the bike, if needed.

turn it off after 60-ish seconds and don't turn it back on.
turning up an enricher after the bike is running adds too much fuel too fast and it will stall.

your friends have chokes, not enrichers, which is why theirs can be turned up while running.
hope this helps.
 
#11 ·
I just picked up a 2006 Rebel 250 that had been sitting for a few years, and it's doing the exact same thing. At first, it wouldn't start with ANY choke, and it would take a long time for it to finally "catch" and run while starting it with the choke completely off. After it finally warmed up, it ran pretty good and I was able to ride it around a bit. I finally took the carbs off, completely disassembled everything, made sure all the passages and jets were unclogged, buttoned it back up and it's STILL hard to start! It just doesn't like ANY choke given to it AT ALL! Not sure what I'm missing here, I have rebuilt tons and tons of UJM carbs over the years, even watched a couple videos on YouTube specific to rebuilding Rebel carbs and I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything. What could I have "missed" that would make the choke basically ineffective??? I ended up with a tiny float bowl gasket leak after tearing them apart a second time and basically gave up, found a brand new set of 2014 carbs and paid out the wazoo for them, but this is my wife's first bike and she's already ragging on me for "messing it up." After all, it was still ride-able warm, but she didn't have to fight to get it started every morning either. LOL!!!!
 
#12 · (Edited)
I find the choke very dependent on weather conditions. In the winter, always need full choke. In the hottest part of the summer, bike often just fires right up with no or just a little choke, and will flood with full choke. What are your weather conditions?

First step to any carburetor problems is to first adjust the valves, particularly the intake. This is particularly pronounced on some bikes versus others, for example the GS500 is ridiculously sensitive to this. Also check the plugs, and make sure the fuel feed is good, i.e. lines are clear. Check the air filter, air box, make sure there are no restrictions here. Basically I suggest checking everything else before mucking with the dark art of the carburetor, which is a much more complex beast and once 'adjusted' will never be back at the settings it was before. I've found modern carburetors (unless damaged of course) are rarely wrong 'stock', messing with them is usually covering up another problem.

Try to patch another problem by mucking with the carburetor, and now one has two problems.
 
#13 ·
As far as terminology is concerned the manual refers to the valve as an SE start enrich valve, and it is connected to the choke cable and choke lever. Confirm the SE start enrich valve is operating properly. When I purchased my 1996 Rebel 250 it would start and run flawlessly and I never had to use the SE (choke), it ran that way for 10 years. I had the bike in a shop for some unrelated mechanical work and the tech notified me that the (choke) was nearly half on all the time, I hadn't noticed any issues except that I never had to apply the choke when starting. The tech readjusted/ reset the SE and thereafter I had to use the choke to start. After the adjustment my fuel consumption was greater than half prior to the adjustment I was getting about 60 miles reserve to reserve after that increased to greater than 120 miles. There was no noticeable difference in performance. The bottom line here is make sure your SE valve is operating properly: quote from the manual "move the lever up and down to make sure that the SE valve is working properly". My bike was new off the show room floor and the (choke) was messed up. I returned it to the dealer for a token adjustment that didn't fix the problem and I drove it that way for
10 years.
 
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