Archive through May 21, 2011

[dsterley]

Wayne, just a thought, i just fixed a guys 125 that would spin over untill it fired then it would stop spinning, and not start, the fly wheel was off the pin and wasnt spinning with the motor. tighten it up and wala it started right up. just my 2 cents

 

[wshytle]

I just finished pulling the engine to really check this out. I am pretty sure the ACR isn't doing it's thing. I have the manual and the engine is the older by serial number which means I can bend the tab without it braking. I did notice that once the cam cover was off I reached in with a finger and one of the arms moved in. The spring seems to be intact but I'm not sure the arms are moving like they should. They seem a little tight on their posts. I don't have the proper dial gauge to check the valve height so I need some back yard advice as to what to check next plus what to use to bend that tab if necessary. I plan to double check the valve clearances again too.

 

[wshytle]

BTW...I got a second battery and the engine started and ran fine. It does have a slight knock but I let it run for about 10 minutes to get oil everywhere it should be and to warm the head bolts for retorqueing. I checked the timing once again and it was right on at a tight .019.

This just about has to be ACR issues.

 

[aschumacher]

Wayne, do you suspect possible gum or varnish deposits inside the engine? You mentioned ACR arms seemed to be sluggish. Maybe try some MMO or other 'cleaner' in the oil to clean things out. <font size="-2">Its an easy (possible) fix.</font>

 

[sbauer]

I think the fuel pump finally went on my 782. When i mowed last week while mowing for about an hour in the heat the machince died. I let it cool for about thirty minutes and it ran fine. Yesterday i went to start it and it just cranked. I did not smell any gas.

 

[sbauer]

Has anyone ever ran a little "Sea Foam" in the oil for a few minutes to clean out engine debri before changing oil?

 

[memorgan]

Jesse Jones, you say you rebuilt your motor, Did you install new front and rear bearings? I had a 12hp I rebuilt and ran it a summer and it developed a knock , turned out to be a front bearing,I had used the old bearings. my 2 cents!

 

[rklein]

Steve, I'm old school. I use a half cup of automatic Transmission Fluid right before changing the oil in any/all of my engines. The ATF I use is a high detergent oil and makes the insides spotless.

Whenever I would get a junkyard engine to install in one of my vehicles I would do this a couple of times to remove all the sludge. Never had any problems but I also never put heavy loads or trips on the engine. Just get them up to temp w/o loads and then drain. I drain mine through an old sock with a piece of magnet in the sox. That way I can seel any contaminate or metal bits.

 

[wshytle]

Allen-

I'll try some MMO in with the oil. It can't hurt. I tore into it and can't see anything out of the ordinary. I could wiggle the arms on the ACR and the spring is there so I'm going to try it again. I did check the valve clearance and it is fine. I could also see the exhaust valve working from the ACR so again...I'm just puzzled. If it is fixed I don't know what I did other than a little Kroil on the arm pivots. Is there any way for the arms to get stuck? I'm assuming the springs are what gets the arms back into position when the engine shuts down. There isn't much to the little spring either so it shouldn't take much.

 

[jljones]

hello Mick, thanks for the response. No i reused the old bearings. both bearings felt really good and smoothe and the pto side was just a thousand'th off so while building on a budget i did not replace the crankshaft bearings. maybe that slight amount of clearence is enough to make the gears not mesh right. i'm going to tear down the rest of the engine tonight and maybe try switching out the camshaft and or the pto bearing. thanks again for any ideas or suggestions.
jesse