Hello everyone. I'm hoping someone out there is able to help me out on this. I bought a carter gtr 250 not running but told it just needed carb cleaned. After cleaning carb and putting it back together it started with a little help from carb cleaner sprayed into carb. Idle needed adjustment but then buggy idled great and I let it run for a while to make sure fan kicked on and everything. Everything seemed ok. Turned it off and tried again. It stated and ran good a few times. I even took it out for a ride and it drove great. I was excited. But I also noticed a clunk/knock/ locking sound when I tried starting it sometimes. It's as though if it starts right away everything's great. But if it takes a couple of turns from the key the starter jams up or engine locks up. To the point that when I kept trying it it literally locked up. Loosened he starter and then tried again. Started up ran good. Turned it off and again it didn't start first turn of the key so it locked up. When I took off starter I noticed the teeth on gear inside engine were broken off. I freaked out. Pulled side engine cover off and was able to remove the gear that the starter turns without issue. It free turns one way and engages the other. From reading around it seems that's how it works. But the teeth were broken. Cleaned everything up found all the broken pieces. Put an extra gear I had from another carter engine. And put it all back together. I spun the starter and it felt like it was catching and not turning smooth so I replaced it with one from spare engine hoping the starter was the culprit. No luck. Tried it again and if it doesn't start up right away it knocks. It hasn't started again since. I'm too afraid to keep cranking because I don't want to break this gear. If I take the plug wire off the plug it'll crank over and over without locking up. But as soon as I put wire on it locks up. It has spark. Please let me know if anyone has any idea as to what could cause this. It drove great when I got it going the first time. But hen it broke and I'm afraid to keep cranking it. I can't find the gear anywhere online and I don't have any more. Thank you.

Have u tried a different battery? Compression test,

Compression good. Battery good. Has spark. Carb getting gas. It'll rank all day long without plug wore hooked up. As soon as I put plug wore on it clanks/locks up. I want to remove flywheel to check starter clutch but don't know the size of flywheel puller. Online there's sizes ranging from low 20mms to high 30mms. If someone knows the correct size I would greatly appreciate it. Or if there's an alternative way to pull the flywheel. I see three Allen head bolts that I assume hold the starter gear sprocket on other side of flywheel. Wondering if I take one bolt out at a time and use longer bolts with a steering wheel/ harmonic balancer type puller. Or maybe a three jaw puller. Thanks.

Sound like u might have a bad starter,free to spin but under pressure it binds up .

Just wanted to post an update on this in case someone out there experiences the same issue. Sometimes it starts. But if it doesn't start on first bump of the key it will clank/ lock up and potentially break starter teeth or flywheel teeth. I wasn't able to find out the correct size for the flywheel puller. So before attempting to pull it with a harmonic balancer/ steering wheel puller I kept researching and came across a post about someone with the same description. It turned out to be their cdi. I have a project carter 250 buggy that I bought last year and have had no luck getting it going so I pulled the Cdi from it. Comparing the two the one on this newer buggy with the starting issues has a Cdi much smaller in size and glossy black like its brand new. The one from the project buggy is matte black and larger in size. Swapped them out and it turns on first bump of the key every time. I couldn't believe it. I guess what threw me off was the fact that it did run and once it started up it ran great. But apparently the other cdi must've been making it fire too soon or too late or something but it is now running great. I am however now in need of a cdi for my other carter 250 buggy. If anyone out there has a spare stock one please let me know so that I can start working on the other buggy. Thanks.

Thanks for the update

That was my post i believe cause i had the same issue and search carter 250 on ebay and they have the cdis for 38 bucks free shipping. Ive ordered a couple and so far have had no issues.

I have 2 different CDI's that I bought off eBay. The one I've been running was around $7-8. I've haven't had any issues thus far. The other one starts and idles, but haven't tried to drive it yet. But it says it was for a SYM 150-250cc. It was like I think $13-15.
I've also got the yellow CDI that Sockman sent me that I haven't tried out.

Can you put a link to those?