bigtime_mcalpine
Regular Contributor
Oh boy, all I can say is that it's a good thing there was beer in the house last night. Fishing trip happening this weekend. Motor has been sitting in the drive since last fall. I had all the time in the world to make sure it ran fine. With a week to go I finally decide to take it for a test run. It fails my tests.
1) won't go fast
2) occasional backfires
3) regular hard starts
4) shuts off if throttle is turned all the way to idle
All good. Still haven't quite recovered from all that frustration but boy that beer tasted fine.
1) won't go fast
2) occasional backfires
3) regular hard starts
4) shuts off if throttle is turned all the way to idle
- Finally figure out that one coil is defective so I replace both of those (that explains the inability to maintain low idle AND lack of speed)
- Figure out that the idle needle is worn so replaced that (figured that might explain backfires but wasn't convinced)
- No amount of carb cleaning or needle adjustments were helping me fix my backfires so I caved and got a carb kit thinking I'm in the home stretch.
- Side-note: I'm really not a fan of the configuration where one needs to remove the e-starter EVERYTIME the carb needs to be removed
- Get 'er going after putting it all together and she purrs for about 20s. I didn't see any water coming out yet so I chickened out and turned it off.
- Then she just won't start, I mean, AT ALL. The occasional backfire but that's it.
- I took a few deep breaths and though, well, f it. I'm pulling the intake off to look at the reeds. Of course I tear the gasket a bit while doing that (nice). Reeds looked fine - two fins seemed to let in a hair of sunlight so I just flipped the reed over and used the other side. Perfect.
- Put it all back together and it still won't start, nothing. Again just minor backfires but no ignition
- Stepped back, cursed, decided it's time to start all the troubleshooting over.
- Spark, check. Compression, check. Fuel - pump is plugging away. Timing....
- So I pop off the flywheel to make sure nothing has been ripped off and go figure, flywheel shear pin is obliterated. That's when the beer was opened.
- Pulled one from another motor and the thing FINALLY came to life. Oh, but then I see this little Phillips machine screw. Guess where this goes: on the reed assembly. Awesome.
All good. Still haven't quite recovered from all that frustration but boy that beer tasted fine.
You are not the first nor the last to think b*****s to it, I’m wrapping and having a cold one, this POS can wait until tomorrow