2003 KTM 125 will not kick start but will push start it has no spark when kicking?

Answer 1

Kick-starting your KTM will give the piston a good 5 or 6 revolutions, while the electric starter will give it about 10 or 20 turns. This is why you FEEL there could be no spark when you kick start. But if the bike starts on the electric (push-button) starter, then there IS a spark when you kick, it's just that there are too few revolutions- thus LESS SPARKS to start the bike. Check to make sure that your carb has no dirt in it. You need to remove the carb, take the bottom off, disassemble and put the small parts on a nice clean sheet of white oslo paper on top of a folded newspaper. The oslo paper will indicate dirt, the newspaper will absorb excess cleaner. Spray all its metal parts (especially the brass jets) with CARBURETOR CLEANER (soaking it in gas for an hour works too but that takes too long and is wasteful of both time and money). You will see dirt on the white oslo paper. Move the small parts onto another clean part of the paper and spray again. Repeat until NO MORE DIRT is sprayed onto the oslo paper. You may then blow dry the carb (take heed to blow-dry in a direction AWAY from the small loose carb parts you have removed or you will have trouble looking for what blew away)with compressed air through all vents and small holes especially. Hold the brass jets firmly between your thumb and fore-finger and blow-dry THROUGH its central tube/hole. Re-assemble the carb, install it, and try kick-starting the bike with the choke on PARTIALLY ( the 2003 KTM usually needs JUST A LITTLE CHOKE).

If it is still hard to kick start, consider this: take a look under the gas tank and check the bolts that hold the ignition coil in place. It is possible that these are VERY LOOSE, and kicking the bike shakes the coil, providing less ground contact with the body of the bike- thus creating NO SPARK when you kick to start. Take a wrench and tighten these (you may have to remove the gas tank to reach these). You should have no further problems kick-starting your 2003 KTM after these maintenance procedures. If not- why bother with kick-starting? As long as you've got a good battery on your KTM, don't sweat kicking it to life: USE THE ELECTRIC PUSH-TO-START!