I have a couple of full crank motors that are giving me starting problems in that they can take several pulls to get them started. Once they fire up they are fine and run well but it is this inconsistent starting problem that is bugging me. One of them I have honed and fitted new rings so it is not a compression issue. My thoughts are that it might be crank seals not being 100%. I am now starting to dig deep into my F/C stockpile so I can keep building slashers/sidethrows. I am now going to start having to throw out perfectly good F/C pressed metal catcher type bases because I need the motors for my 24 inch slasher projects. Any thoughts on the starting issues?
Honda on a slasher is not my ideal cup of tea in particular when you can stand these slashers up on the rear wheels and keep pushing and Hondas are harder to come across than full cranks.
Norm, The easiest way to find out if is the crankshaft seals is the old pressure/vacuum test of the crankcase on 2 cycles though it may be a gasket problem. Here I use a MityVac 8500 tester for this but I got admit I use it more often to test carburetor needle valves sealing. There also the old soapy water trick but it won't find seals that leak on vacuum pulls.
As for honing cylinders are you using a flex or a rigid hone? A rigid hone tends to true up a cylinder where a flex just breaks the glazing but don't do any truing. Now of course I haven't seen one of the 2 cycle cylinders that you work on so there may ports to hang on.
Hi speedy, One I am having problems with at the moment seems like it is too far advanced, when drill starting it it kicks back quite a bit but then it will fire up and run smooth as can be.I have tried altering the coil gap, changed modules set up another carb, nothing seems to make much difference to it.. I will pull a few more out of the shed and test them because I am going to scrap all those F/C bases I have here because I need the motors for slashers not bothering with F/C catcher mowers anymore
Not knowing the engine you are working on, I say you might have ACR on the camshaft that has failed. I have worked many Honda and Briggs engines where they kickback when these fail. Nearly broken my wrist on a Honda GX390 that kicked back while using the recoil starter. I did dislocate a couple fingers. I have since learn to go slow when first trying to start a non starter.
I think we need to pitch in and ship over a good Victa Full Crank two stroke mower and a Victa Half Crank Powertorque two stroke mower to AVB so he can familiarise himself with them first hand. He would then probably have the only ones in the U.S. Then he can help with problems from across the pond.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Ahhh I see. I keep forgetting that 2 cycles are the primary engine design over there. It would kinda weird to find a camshaft in one of them. <LOL>
As ignition timing is about the only way to get a kickback on a 2 cycle. I have ran into a couple chainsaws with electronic coils that gave problem with timing where timing advance wasn't being delayed at start-up due to internal failure. One of them intermittently set the air on fire.
Thanks AVB, 2 strokes are not the primary engine here, we just talk about them a lot so it gives a lop sided impression. Still lots of 2 strokes here though. I changed the module thinking this may be giving me a timing issue but I will change the coil later today and see what reaction that does to it. These 2 strokes we are talking about at the moment were discontinued in the mid eighties and there is still plenty still in use today.
So far I have had 3 of the motors start fairly easily after sitting for many years and they seem to run fine and I switch them off but I can't get them restarted for some reason, even with a puff of starter fluid in the plug hole they won't give the slightest hint of a bang or flutter. I have had a couple of PT do this as well recently, no idea what is going on with them when they react in this manner. The one I had that was kicking back, I tightened the belt a bit more and that seemed to help. Still not starting as easily as it should, takes at least 3 pulls.
And I just moved on to the last one I have. It has been sitting here for years as it came,must be 3/4 years, no decomp valve, no carby, no module, no pull start and covered in dust. I clipped a module to it, put my test carby on it, put in a decomp valve, twisted the plug wire around the plug and it fired up instantly and I had given it zero hope of ever starting, you just never can tell with them. Tyler, around here the fuel doesn't last long enough to degrade Speedy, I'm swapping coils around so leads should not be a problem although I do know if the leads get wet the will short through the insulation. Anyway a good day, at least I can tag all the motors and dump all the bodies, being the early bodies they haven't rusted like the later ones. I wonder if I should look at seeing what is involved in drilling them to suit the PT/s or is that just another one of my dumb ideas?
Well that wasn't too painful, probably 10 mins. Now I have a use for the old F/C bases which were much better quality than the PT ones, maybe the early PT bases were ok with the 3 ribs but the later ones were not too flash as we know.
