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Tire warmer or small electric blanket for engine?

Carter Turk

Carter Turk

Forum Sage
Charter Member
Wondering if a tire warmer or old electric blanket wrapped around engine might help start up in the winter months?
Merely a random thought, though I used to borrow an old Datsun truck that had a oil warmer or some such device to plug into.
To keep the engine oil warmer for easier start up.

Seems like no harm would be done and might aid in cold start ups, aside from garage fires from fumes or spark.
Not all folks have heated garages.
Any thoughts?
 
I used to work for a small heating manufacturer who made in-hose and in-block water heaters for things like fire engines. I was surprised when I fitted one to my van that they didn't have an inbuilt thermal cutout. So I hoseclipped an 18deg C cutout to the top hose fitting which worked fine...
It would be possible to alter a sump to accept a heating element but again it would need a thermal cutout - and any cord would need to be well secured too....
 
I have a kerosene torpedo heater. I found that I can just point that at the front of the block from about 6ft away for 5 min. Works good, maybe I'll go riding today.
 
If your GS doesn't start almost instantly in any temperature, there's some other problem.

Make sure the battery is charged, petcock on Prime, wait about 30 seconds to let the float bowls fill, choke on, hit the button.
 
bwringer said:
If your GS doesn't start almost instantly in any temperature, there's some other problem.

Make sure the battery is charged, petcock on Prime, wait about 30 seconds to let the float bowls fill, choke on, hit the button.
Click to expand...

+1

Mine was hard to start a while back and I had to heat it for a bit like Bill said. Turns out the battery, while fully charged, was bad and needed replacing.
 
bwringer said:
If your GS doesn't start almost instantly in any temperature, there's some other problem.

Make sure the battery is charged, petcock on Prime, wait about 30 seconds to let the float bowls fill, choke on, hit the button.
Click to expand...

+1, a well maintained GS is a beautiful thing.
 
bwringer said:
If your GS doesn't start almost instantly in any temperature, there's some other problem.

Make sure the battery is charged, petcock on Prime, wait about 30 seconds to let the float bowls fill, choke on, hit the button.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my bike refuses to start in the mornings. Bored you all with starter clutch woes, but that is usually what keeps the bike from starting.
Once warm it usually starts fine, If the SC decides to engage. Bike has a Pingel petcock
 
Just one question here. :-k

When you start the bike, are you taking it out for a ride?

OK, the answer to that question will lead to a couple others. :oops:

If you are taking it out for a ride, why are you applying Band-Aids to a problem, rather than fixing it properly? As others have already mentioned, you should only have to ensure the float bowls are full and the battery charged, then apply a bit of "choke" and give the starter a stern look, the bike will jump to life.

If you are NOT taking it out for a ride, why are you starting the bike?

.
 
yeah, don't mean to pile on, but in bellingham you don't see any weather cold enough to cause a prob if things are properly sorted. you've been around here long enough to know that, heh....
 
Steve said:
Just one question here. :-k

When you start the bike, are you taking it out for a ride?


If you are NOT taking it out for a ride, why are you starting the bike?

.
Click to expand...

I never start it and not go for a ride.
Bike seems happy while riding, it's just that the rollers don't seem strong enough to turn the engine over.
My other 1150 starts fine.
 
Until you get it figured out maybe a halogen work lamp underneath the engine over night would provide just enough heat.

My garage isnt heated either btw. In fact, I havent been up on the roof to cover the turbine vents so its pretty close to outside temp in there maybe ten degrees warmer. My water bottle left on the work bench freezes.
 
My GS750 is extremely cold natured but starts on the 1st or 2nd kick, it just takes a long time for it to completely warm up and really let go when you twist the throttle. My 2002 Bandit 1200 was as well,I think it's a Suzuki thing.

I had my bike outside for awhile, fuel stabilizer in the gas tank, but didn't run it so it never got into the carbs. It's dropped below zero several times. Finally got the bike inside and the fuel wasn't frozen when I drained the float bowls.
 
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Everytime I decide go for a ride, I walk out to the garage wondering if it's gonna start. It usually doesn't, even in the summer.
Sometimes I get lucky when the SC doesn't snatch and I'm pleasantly surprised. Maybe if I went back to dino oil things would be better, who knows.
Not sure if full synthetic oil was available back in 83, maybe it's too slippery for the old school 3-roller set up.
 
Carter Turk said:
Not sure if full synthetic oil was available back in 83, maybe it's too slippery for the old school 3-roller set up.
Click to expand...

Synthetic oil is no more "slippery" than dino oil, and slipperiness of oil has no affect on whether the starter clutch works.

When you push the starter button, the three rollers wedge into place, which grabs the crank, I don't see how oil would prevent that.

Starter clutch problems seem to plague the larger bikes more than the smaller ones. My son's 1000 has no issues, my other son's 650 has no issues and my wife's and my 850s have no issues, so my experience working on starter clutches is limited to working on bikes for others, and there have been a few. In fact, I just finished up an 1100GL, but its problem was loose mounting screws, not issues with the rollers.

.
 
Carter Turk said:
Everytime I decide go for a ride, I walk out to the garage wondering if it's gonna start. It usually doesn't, even in the summer.
Sometimes I get lucky when the SC doesn't snatch and I'm pleasantly surprised. Maybe if I went back to dino oil things would be better, who knows.
Not sure if full synthetic oil was available back in 83, maybe it's too slippery for the old school 3-roller set up.
Click to expand...

I have never experienced a starter clutch issue on my 3 1100s. Do you have high compression pistons? Timing advancer? Small end crank with spinning stator maybe? I have a small end stator\clutch if you want to try it, and a flywheel puller you can borrow.....

Edit...just noticed you have a Kat. '83 is a one-off stator and clutch IIRC, I can't help you there. I can still offer my puller....
 
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I've had all manner of issues with SC's. Whenever I've inspected the SC, the rollers looked like someone scraped them with 36 grit sand paper, as well as the gear.
That's a bit of an exageration, but they're not smooth, round shiny. Broken bolts, shot pins, shattered gears, damaged magnets, internal engine damage have all happened because of the SC failing to turn the motor over.
This is a large taper left end 1150, with a tad more compression and bore. Not really trying to get into a debate about the SC, but was just bouncing the idea of warmer internals helping start up or not. It seems that it does help, as start up happens much easier when warm for me at least.

It's about 20 degrees here now, I would suspect if my garage or engine was heated, start up would be less laborious.
 
having said what I did, I have had good results using a heat lamp (the clamp on kind you put in a chicken coop or whatever) to warm things up a bit in the wintertime, might be better than an electric blanket
 
When I was a young lad, I started riding on BSA's and Triumphs. Those bloody things were hard to start on a summer day let alone the winter. So, I simply plugged in my trouble light and laid it on the cylinder block under the carbs. It kept the oil warm enough and the bike would usually start even on the coldest morning and winter gets very cold in Canada.

Paul Jones
www.gofastinnovations.com
 
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