Senior Member

Just to add info for anyone in the future who might do a search on 'hot start':
What the hot start does is open a passage in the carb to add air to the mixture which, under the conditions of a stall during a race, has probably gone very rich causing the engine to be difficult to restart. Well, on the old engines (pre 2000 depending on model - let's call them Gen 1), there is a vacuum port machined into the area of the cylinder head where the carb boot bolts on. This port provides a vacuum signal to the fuel pump that pumps fuel from the low side of the fuel tank up to the area where the petcock is. This pump works whenever the engine is running (and maybe even a little bit when the engine is being started) and any excess fuel getting to that area of the tank just spills back over to the low side (right side) of the tank. Now, when the pumper carbs first started coming out, it was quickly determined that a way of activating the hot start from the handlebars was needed and one of the early designs involved a tube running from the carb hot start circuit to a valve on the handlebars. I found one of these hot start relocator kits on ebay and mounted it up because I'm running a Keihin pumper carb from a Honda TRX 450 that didn't have a hot start circuit. Thusly I have the tube leading from the handlebar valve to the vacuum port on the intake. It works great. Mind you, my Gen 1 engine (with the vacuum port) is mounted in a 2003 frame which doesn't have part of the fuel tank located below the carb and doesn't need the fuel pump. I suppose the same setup could be used on the Gen 1 bikes that need a hot start and you would just 'T' into the hose going from the vacuum port to the fuel pump and hope that the extra air volume won't affect the operation of the fuel pump.
It sounds like Bergini has his issues figured out but, in case someone needs to reference this thread and actually needs a hot start...here ya go.

Senior Member

hhhhm, i actauly still have my issue to some extent, seems the longer the drive the more likely it is to not start on the button and needs a kick start......to some extent opening the throttle slightly before i hit the button does help.......i switched my fe tank to the fc tank and no longer have the fuel pump either.....i am going to try putting the intake pulse tube hole to use....thanks for the advice thorgan, i forgot i plugged that hole off when i convertered to the different tank.......up till today opening the throttle had seemed to be helping and it only didnt e-start once and i used it three times or so....

Senior Member

...and here's an auction for one just like what I used:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/hot-start-2001- ... 39&vxp=mtr