5 hp Gamefisher 217586611 wonbt run

"Good compression, flywheel ke

"Good compression, flywheel key looks like new, good blue spark, getting gas. At first it would hit a few licks but would not stay running unless I put it in gear to open the throttle. Now it won't run or even hit at all. Any suggestions? It's doing everything I would expect a good running motor to do but won't hit a lick now. I've check plug several times and pulled starter rope several times with plug out to blow out the cylinder."

"Oh yeah, this is a 1984 motor

"Oh yeah, this is a 1984 motor made by eska..."

"Good spark and good compressi

"Good spark and good compression leaves fuel as a likely issue.
Be careful pulling the motor over without the plug in it, make sure that you leave the plug in the boot and ground it to the block. As an added safety measure, I use an old piece of steel trolling line wrapped around the threads of the plug and tie it off to a metal piece on the engine. You can damage the ignition otherwise.
Having to put it in gear to open the throttle (to bypass the throttle lock) likely tells you that it wasn't getting a proper idle fuel/air mixture (again, I'm assuming compression and spark are good).
What are you using for fuel? Believe it or not, the service manual states to use 50:1 TCW-3 oil (probably due to the water cooled exhaust).
If it hasn't had a carb rebuild for a while, it is a relatively inexpensive thing to do. Sears still has some of the parts at www3.sears.com (you can type in the model number there for a parts list). They don't have a flap valve, which has been a problem for me in the past. There are parts kits available on ebay etc, and if you look through some recent posts on Eska's/Gamefisher's, someone on this forum is selling complete carb kits.
Good luck."

"For a while I could get this

"For a while I could get this thing to hit a lick every once in a while. I tinkered with the points, set at .020, still not getting it to run at all. I swapped condenser with one that runs fine... the other one runs fine with the condenser out of this motor. The sparkplug wire is in good shape. The other motor gets fire readily every time I turn the flywheel pretty fast by hand... this one sometimes does and sometimes doesn't but when it does fire it is a strong blue arc. My best guess is possibly the coil is malfunctioning... I simply don't have a clue... I've already rebuilt the carb thinking it was flooding out...but it simply acts like it is not getting fire at all now and will not even hit when I pull the rope. Any suggestions?"

"If the coil looks good, make

"If the coil looks good, make sure to check for a poor connection anywhere else. Even something like contact between spark plug and connector inside the boot. Otherwise, if the points are good and set properly, and the condenser is good, it is likely a poor connection, or the coil."