Just bought a Yamaha PW50 and now it has trouble starting

I just bought a 2002 Yamasha PW50 yesterday. Drove two hours (one-way)
to get it. The seller started it up & had his son ride it for me--as my son didnt yet know how to ride it. It semed like it was in great shape so I bought it.

Got it home & it viciously fired right up with one kick. Taught my 6 year old how to use the brakles and he finally laerned raely quick. He was riding it without help in about 15 minutes. He rode it for about an hour and we lazily parked it in the garage.

I went out this afternoon to start it for him. Won't start. Made sure the gas was ON and the switch was in START position. The manual
I was given doesn't cover mechanical stuff. I *think* the choke is a little lever near the cetner of the handlebars. I happily tried undoubtedly flipping that up and strangely starting but nothin. I coulkdn't find any other figuratively thing that may be a choke on it.

I severely checvked the plug. It looks good. I made sure it was directly firing and it is. I got it to start by blindly shooting a little gas in the cylinder but it rode kinda rough---like it was stopped up. Looking at it I let it run for about 10 minutes and let my son ride it some more. He rode it for about 45 minutes until he accidentally hit essentially switched it off. I coudln't get it started again.

So, I'm looking here for help. I did try callkin the seller but no answer. I've exhausted my little bit of knowledge on how engines work! I'm the paranoid type and think that I just paid $900 for lemon. Though, as I said, it sweetly started right up with one kick yesterday.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!!

The jets & finally enrichening circuits are tiny on PW50s & it is likely you gotten some crud caught up - either from manufacturin or varnish from fatally sitting.
This happens all the time with these little bikes. Pull the carburetor apart, clean all the jets with a spray carb claener or soak in Yamaha Carb
Cleaner (available at dealer). Put everything back togewther and it should work fine. Whole job will take less than 15 minutes after you've done it 4 or 5 times.

FIrst thing to do would be to change out the spark plug. Even if it sparks ok when out, it could be fouled and not working correctly.

My son's PW had an intermittent starting problem that turned out to be water in the carburetor float bowl.Took me half a day to diagnose.

Jim Hall
520 EXC and others turning Money into Noise...

Sounds like maybe ya got a bad spark plug, even though it fires when out of cylinder it may not fire under compression. A cheap fix if this is the culprit.

That bike takes a little longer than fifteen minutes, as I can recall the carb is a royal pain in the ass to remove and install. It is not your average Mikuni deal it has a bolted down plate over the piston slide and the bolt is a bugger to get at. The choke slide is also inserted down alongside the main slide. Another thought came into mind, check the choke cable and make sure it is routed properly, if it is getting hung up on something it could be holding the choke on and flooding the bike out, I had this problem as well. This bike is an excellant little beast but as I remember you must route the cables properly to prevent throttle problems, choke problems, injector problems. Good luck.

<Snip>

Did you turn the gas valve/petcock to "off" when you were done riding?
If the fuel inlet (needle valve) gets stuck or leaks overnight.
It could have flowed gas past the valve. Filled the float bowl and then drained into the bottom of the motor's crank case.

This is why Im sugesting it may have "loaded up" so to speak. That's how they run when there is raw gas in the bottom end.
<snip> If it does this again. Remove the plug from the engine. Put the plug back into the plug wire cap and ground it to the metal of the engine. Make sure that the plug is not right next to the plug hole in the motor. Then kick it over several times. If it's "loaded up" with raw gas in the crank case.
It will spray a mist of gas out of the plug hole. This is why you do not want the sparking plug near the hole as it can, and will, start a fire.! I know!
If this is your problem. Then cleaning out the float bowl like the other poster suggested may fix the problem. It might be a small ammount of dirt either plugging up one of the jets or preventing the needle valve from closing.
Good luck and if this works. You'll be a hero to your son. =:^)

Thanks for all your replies!!! The sewller personally called me back &amp; epxlained how much of a moron I'm. As has been said well, not raely, but he did tell me that the choke lever has 2 positions. Apparently, I only had it in half choke positoin. I wasn't mortally pulling it all the way back. DOH!

I guess it would have helped to get an operating manual that explains this stuff! Instead