Semi-abandoned Hammerhead 250

KenMathisHD

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Stainless steel it is, I’ll check out Napa’s selection. I got lucky and found a good clutch on eBay for really cheap. It’s damaged, the plates that squeeze the belt are broken, but the bell and clutch assembly are undamaged. The plates for my clutch are still good and move freely, so all I’ll need to do are clean the old assembly off, grease it up so the plates don’t get hung up, and swap the new clutch, spring and bell onto the old shaft and tighten up the nut to hold everything together. $50 for a basically new clutch.
 

Denny

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I would not use grease. I would use a dry moly lube. It will not attract dust and dirt like grease will. See if you can find a manual on line for it to make sure. I have been wrong before. Once or twice. Thinking about it I am suspicious of the “sparkles” in the oil. Does that engine have an oil spinner like the Honda’s do? Might want to clean it if so. And you can most definitely have solids suspended in oil! That is one of oils many purposes in addition to lubricating and cooling the engine bearings. :thumbsup:
 

madprofessor

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Denny, what kind of solids would be in suspension in the oil? Pretty sure all metals sink, so are you talking about trash in suspension?
Got me very curious now.
 

KenMathisHD

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Denny, what kind of solids would be in suspension in the oil? Pretty sure all metals sink, so are you talking about trash in suspension?
Got me very curious now.
I second this. What’s an oil spinner? As far as I know it’s a Honda clone CF250
 

Denny

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Steel, copper, aluminum, brass, lead, carbon, zink and water are just a few I could think of right now. If an engine is made from it, it can be in the oil. They are only microns in size but they are there. Have your oil analyzed some time.
Honda on some of their smaller engines used what is known as an oil spinner to filter the engine oil. To access the spinner you removed the rh clutch cover and there would be a plate with 3 or4 screws holding it on you removed the plate and cleaned out all the crud. Then put it all back together.
there now you guys are almost as smart as me. 🤣
 

madprofessor

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Got it, microns size won't overcome surface tension to sink by gravity. "Sparkles" in the oil, that can be microns size? Sounds like a whole buncha lotta of it to become visible. That oil spinner must not be doing its job very well, assuming the filtering is rated for microns. Going to guess the owner manual would describe how to take care of the spinner under the maintenance heading. A quick download of the manual is called for, and always a good idea anyway.
 

Denny

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Oil spinners are the ultimate way to filter oil as long as they are maintained. Big diesels been using them for years. That’s why 500,000 miles between overhauls. If it is equipped?
 

KenMathisHD

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Oil spinners are the ultimate way to filter oil as long as they are maintained. Big diesels been using them for years. That’s why 500,000 miles between overhauls. If it is equipped?
It does not appear to be equipped with an oil spinner, no mention of one in the manual from what I can see.

My idea of using two parts clutches to make one good one did not pan out. The clutch I bought was for a 250cc with H/L/N/R, but it looks like even for that there’s 2 designs that are typically used, and the one I ordered cheap is not of the same design as the one I took off. So looking for a clutch again. I found some ones of the same design as mine online for about $100 though so not too bad. Would’ve liked not to spend so much but you win some you lose some.
 

madprofessor

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Watched a video on servicing an oil spinner, clutch, and oil pump on a Honda Grom 125. That filter screen is definitely not micron size, more like hundredths of an inch.
So my guess is that the centrifugal spin manages to force all particles to the cavity below filter screen, where they wait to be wiped clean next servicing, and the force of that scroll type oil pump keeps it there.
Really interesting setup to old school race guys like me. Our pipey 2-stroke bikes and my 4-stroke thumpers never had any kind of filtering, just frequent messy oil changes.
 

KenMathisHD

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Some progress today, I got the news clutch installed, and got some wheels and tires on it. It moves! It runs like crap under load, bogged down and stalled out several times, but I got it to move. It does better in low than it does in high.

I tried using a new plug to see if that improved things but no dice, the spark on the new one is actually worse if you can believe that. I tried adjusting the plug gap to see if that made a difference, and couldn’t find much of a difference between adjusting it to 0.035 or to 0.065. The manual states plug gap is supposed to be 0.6-0.7, which I take to be a typo because they call it a spark plug glug. I’ve seen some other people say that their Cf250 had a recommended plug gap of 0.025-0.035. It ran like crap on the 0.025, and ran better but still meh on the 0.03 and 0.035. The spark seems a little weak so I ordered a hi-performance coil and wire for it. Is there a way to adjust timing on this, or maybe to tune the carb? I know I can adjust idle speed which I ended up having to do, but are there other adjustments that need to be made?
 

KenMathisHD

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Having an issue with it now where I’m not getting any spark, not sure if it’s a DC or AC CDI or how to troubleshoot it as I’m not familiar with buggy ignition systems. Would any of y’all have any insight on how to diagnose the issue?
 

Karttekk

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One way to tell if your CDI is AC or DC is to see if the headlights come on without the engine running. If the headlights come on with the switch it's a DC CDI, if the engine has to be running for the headlights to work it's an AC CDI. Since there doesn't appear to be any headlights the DC CDI is smaller than the AC CDI. Do you have any 12 volt lights to test this out? Spark is generated from the magneto. Try poking a 12 volt test light into the hot wire in the magneto plug & crank the engine. See if the light illuminates. If so, do the same thing with the CDI plug. Check all of your grounds, this is a typical issue with these buggy type karts. There could be a bad kill switch or a kill switch is turned off. Check those too if equipped.
 

KenMathisHD

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One way to tell if your CDI is AC or DC is to see if the headlights come on without the engine running. If the headlights come on with the switch it's a DC CDI, if the engine has to be running for the headlights to work it's an AC CDI. Since there doesn't appear to be any headlights the DC CDI is smaller than the AC CDI. Do you have any 12 volt lights to test this out? Spark is generated from the magneto. Try poking a 12 volt test light into the hot wire in the magneto plug & crank the engine. See if the light illuminates. If so, do the same thing with the CDI plug. Check all of your grounds, this is a typical issue with these buggy type karts. There could be a bad kill switch or a kill switch is turned off. Check those too if equipped.
It’s a DC CDI then, I’m getting power to it with key on, but both the magneto in and coil out wires only show 0.2V when cranking and jump to 1-4V when I stop cranking. Test light doesn’t flash on either when cranking. Should I be seeing 12v on those?
 

KenMathisHD

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I believe the GY6 is AC, would the measurements for the pickup/exciter and coil voltage for an AC CDI be the same as for a DC CDI?

Also, the pickup/exciter is just the coil that senses when the magnet passes and sends a signal to the CDI, yea?
 
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