Please Help, Slipping Clutch

[joben144]

Hello everyone,
My motorized bike (Walmart HBC Cruiser + Zeda 2 stroke) has been giving me issues. I was riding along at full throttle, when all of a sudden, my rpms decrease to a stop and I thought I heard some rattling. I came to a complete stop. Left me stranded about a mile from my house, as I could not get it to start again. The next day when trying to find out what the problem was, I found that I could roll the bike (with resistance albeit, see video) with the clutch lever OUT. I then followed this video: to readjust my clutch, however this did not fix the problem. I noticed some black residue on the clutch cover-case. I also noticed a substantial amount of play in the gear. I have been riding this bike for about a year and have dealt with any problem that has come up. I worked my way through all the other troubleshooting steps. My wiring is all soldered, heat shrunk, and protected with black corrugated tubing. I tested for spark, had that, even swapped in a new spark plug too just to be sure. I am a senior mechanical engineer student and use this bike to get to class everyday. I only say this because I want to communicate that I am not stupid and can handle whatever job I need to do on this little motor, and that it frustrates me that I cannot figure out my problem to a point where I need to post on here. I figure it has to do with the clutch plate not biting upon dumping the clutch lever when starting, as the bike doesn't start. I can take a video of my issues if needed. Please help me out, I have already sunken $ into this bike in new wheels, carb, etc so I just want it to work again. Thank you for reading.

 

[Chainlube]

Did you look at the pads while you had the cover off?

 

[joben144]

Just popped the cover off, here is what the pads look like

 

[Frogslayer]

Well from your story, your clutch maybe symptomatic of what actually happened. I'm guessing she leaned out and wrecked your piston, cylinder, and rings, possibly taking out the seal behind the little gear and now letting your clutch slip cause it has 2 stroke oil residue on it. If your clutch went first your engine would have kept running but your clutch would have been slipping. Time to take the head off and take a look or use a bore scope down the plug hole. Good thing parts are cheap!

 

[joben144]

Well from your story, your clutch maybe symptomatic of what actually happened. I'm guessing she leaned out and wrecked your piston, cylinder, and rings, possibly taking out the seal behind the little gear and now letting your clutch slip cause it has 2 stroke oil residue on it. If your clutch went first your engine would have kept running but your clutch would have been slipping. Time to take the head off and take a look or use a bore scope down the plug hole. Good thing parts are cheap!

I will do all of this if necessary, but if I'm at the point of needing a new piston and cylinder then isn't my engine toast anyway? Also, I was reading some other posts and apparently there are Woodruff keys that sometimes shear and cause similar issues. I just want to know what the correct course of action is here.

 

[Deleted member 27811]

You could get a spare engine and rob Peter to pay Paul. It's MHO to always have a back up.

 

[Frogslayer]

The woodruff keys behind the gear, clutch and sprocket are fairly easy to inspect

 

[joben144]

You could get a spare engine and rob Peter to pay Paul. It's MHO to always have a back up.

lol I can just buy another but that is on par with accepting defeat. I purposely bought a zeda 2 stroker to avoid chinese QA bs issues

 

[joben144]

Well from your story, your clutch maybe symptomatic of what actually happened. I'm guessing she leaned out and wrecked your piston, cylinder, and rings, possibly taking out the seal behind the little gear and now letting your clutch slip cause it has 2 stroke oil residue on it. If your clutch went first your engine would have kept running but your clutch would have been slipping. Time to take the head off and take a look or use a bore scope down the plug hole. Good thing parts are cheap!

Also I forgot to mention, I ran her fat and happy w a rich ratio i forget maybe like 20:1 and 91 oct rating. Thats why I am skeptical of leaning out I also cleaned my carb not too long ago.

 

[wan37]

Look at it this way most likely that upper end is the problem. Study up on porting, port matching cleaning casting on new cylinder. Which only helps your performance and longevity of engine. Search on here and use YouTube video . Which you can ask us on here too. It’s really a win win situation.Theres really not much to these engine but all of us have problems too. Good luck, be safe. Ask us if needed.