I had a wonderful day yesterday.

[JPG]

The entire tailight assembly is $13 from Rock Auto and its usually a single bolt from towards the tail gate to remove. That's not enough time or money to risk the ticket or worse. That's a pet peeve of cops.

On a 4 pole starter solenoid:
1 is the hot wire from the battery
1 is the start from the ignition
1 is the hot wire to the starter motor
the 4th is ground.

As opposed to a 3 pole solenoid which is grounded through the housing.

As far as hard starting in summer, I would lean towards valves not completely seating or not enough spark to ignite summer blend gas with beau coup ethanol. Try and find ethanol free gas somewhere (we still have ethanol free premium in places near me) and use fresh plugs. If that doesn't work you may need to pull the head and have your valves lapped and seats ground.

YA! Ed needs his seat ground after that day!:D

[Gene Howe]

There is a small, General aviation airfield nearby and we buy AVGAS for our smaller engines. We started doing that after we bought a Stihl weed eater and that fuel was recommended. Our drag behind mower has a 16 HP Kohler engine and it seems to love that gas.
Haven't tried it in anything bigger, yet.

[Ed in Tampa]

Life is good found a wiring diagram for the mower. I was going to send it to the repair shop before I found the diagram.

Solenoid on the bottom of the carb is to shut off the main throttle valve to prevent muffler backfire on shutdown. B&S large OHV engines give off a shot sound on shut down. This supposedly stops it, if you shut down from normal run throttle. However if you have been idleing you will probably still get the backfire.

My flooded engine guess may be right. Seems a lot of guys report this. If after checking the float and making sure it is good and everything is clean and not sticking. Most guys just install a fuel shut off. Probably a good idea for any engine where the gas tank is higher than the carb.

One guy said his leaked about a half gallon into his oil sitting over winter.

Once I get this fixed I will change that oil cause I suspected there might be fuel in it.


I have new outlook on life since I found this wiring diagram. Seriously they have more wiring harnesses and wires in this thing. 3 fuses 3 safety switches and a "safety solenoid"

The one control wire to the starter soenoid is positive that must pass through the PTO safety, the neutral safety and the starter switch. The other wire is a ground which passes through the "safety solenoid".

The safety solenoid is only activated when the key is in start or run position and only if the positive is can flow through all the safety switches. If the solenoid isn't activated then it puts a dead short on the magneto and kills the engine.

Figure that out without a diagram. Oh yes and then you have the seat switch will drop the safety solenoid if you take pressure off the seat while the key is in run position.

You want to even guess how the lights work?

[frank81]

Life is good found a wiring diagram for the mower. I was going to send it to the repair shop before I found the diagram.

Solenoid on the bottom of the carb is to shut off the main throttle valve to prevent muffler backfire on shutdown. B&S large OHV engines give off a shot sound on shut down. This supposedly stops it, if you shut down from normal run throttle. However if you have been idleing you will probably still get the backfire.

My flooded engine guess may be right. Seems a lot of guys report this. If after checking the float and making sure it is good and everything is clean and not sticking. Most guys just install a fuel shut off. Probably a good idea for any engine where the gas tank is higher than the carb.

One guy said his leaked about a half gallon into his oil sitting over winter.

Once I get this fixed I will change that oil cause I suspected there might be fuel in it.


I have new outlook on life since I found this wiring diagram. Seriously they have more wiring harnesses and wires in this thing. 3 fuses 3 safety switches and a "safety solenoid"

The one control wire to the starter soenoid is positive that must pass through the PTO safety, the neutral safety and the starter switch. The other wire is a ground which passes through the "safety solenoid".

The safety solenoid is only activated when the key is in start or run position and only if the positive is can flow through all the safety switches. If the solenoid isn't activated then it puts a dead short on the magneto and kills the engine.

Figure that out without a diagram. Oh yes and then you have the seat switch will drop the safety solenoid if you take pressure off the seat while the key is in run position.

You want to even guess how the lights work?

There is one sure fire way to make your mower more reliable.....bridge those sensor wires and let Darwin run his course!

If you are still flooding after cleaning the carb, you either have a faulty needle jet (the usual culprit), broken float (not as common), or the float height is set wrong (common after a cleaning). The throttle is independent of that, all the throttle does is allow airflow in the venturi to draw gas up through the main jet. No airflow = no fuel moving, unless the bowl is overflowing from an open needle jet.

The majority of carbed vehicles still out there are gravity fed (motorcycles, dirtbikes, ATV's, etc.) and when everything is in working order there is no need to turn the petcock to off.

Also to add - you should never have to worry about fuel leaking over the winter because you should always drain your tank (and carb bowls if you're being thourough) before storing it.

[skou]

Frank, even a good needle and seat will leak over time. Period.

Every motorcycle I ever had, had a fuel shutoff valve on the gas tank. Leave that open, even for a couple hours, you have a flooded engine. Even on new or recently rebuilt carbs, with the viton tipped needle.

Oh, most of the new bikes have a vacuum actuated petcock. Once the engine cranks over, vacuum will open the fuel valve.

A drip every 30 seconds, will not mess with a running engine, but will wreak havoc on a stopped engine. (My bikes were all 2 cycles, so pulling the plugs and kicking it over a few times, worked as a fix.) Now, for you 4 stroke guys, if that gas will leak past the needle and seat, it'll also leak past a valve and a piston ring.

steve

[frank81]

Frank, even a good needle and seat will leak over time. Period.

Every motorcycle I ever had, had a fuel shutoff valve on the gas tank. Leave that open, even for a couple hours, you have a flooded engine. Even on new or recently rebuilt carbs, with the viton tipped needle.

Oh, most of the new bikes have a vacuum actuated petcock. Once the engine cranks over, vacuum will open the fuel valve.

A drip every 30 seconds, will not mess with a running engine, but will wreak havoc on a stopped engine. (My bikes were all 2 cycles, so pulling the plugs and kicking it over a few times, worked as a fix.) Now, for you 4 stroke guys, if that gas will leak past the needle and seat, it'll also leak past a valve and a piston ring.

steve

Agree to disagree. I've owned about a dozen bikes, mostly 1970's inline 4's with mechanical carbs but a few post-1979 vac carbs. Never had a problem leaving the petcock open after rebuilding. Keihin and Mikuni.

[Ed in Tampa]

Here is the deal. I metered it out and the solenoid was bad. I pulled it out and put in on the bench and after checking it the solenoid would not kick in. I smacked it a few times and it started working. The parts dealer is less than 2 miles so I checked the price of new solenoid $15. Bought a new solenoid and along with fuel peacock. Installed both and mower is good to go! I now have the old solenoid should I ever need it.

Easy as pie to fix with electrical diagram almost impossible without. Also found if a remove one screw I can remove the gas tank which allows me full access to back of instrument panel.

Talked to the dealer and he agreed the fuel shutoff was the way to go. He said I could pull the carb apart and rebuild it and I would have to buy a float plunger and seat and would probably mess up the adjustment so I would probably need two gasket/seal kits. Fuel shutoff peacock $5 and a lot cheaper.

Cut the fuel line installed peacock works like a champ. Turn it on crank for less than a couple seconds and the machine is running.

Life is good and the birds are chirping.

[JPG]

Here is the deal. I metered it out and the solenoid was bad. I pulled it out and put in on the bench and after checking it the solenoid would not kick in. I smacked it a few times and it started working. The parts dealer is less than 2 miles so I checked the price of new solenoid $15. Bought a new solenoid and along with fuel peacock. Installed both and mower is good to go! I now have the old solenoid should I ever need it.

Easy as pie to fix with electrical diagram almost impossible without. Also found if a remove one screw I can remove the gas tank which allows me full access to back of instrument panel.

Talked to the dealer and he agreed the fuel shutoff was the way to go. He said I could pull the carb apart and rebuild it and I would have to buy a float plunger and seat and would probably mess up the adjustment so I would probably need two gasket/seal kits. Fuel shutoff peacock $5 and a lot cheaper.

Cut the fuel line installed peacock works like a champ. Turn it on crank for less than a couple seconds and the machine is running.

Life is good and the birds are chirping.

That chirping you hear must be that 'pea'cock.
















I always thought they were petcocks.







The valves, not the birds.



Anyway all great news!!!!

[Ed in Tampa]

[quote="JPG40504"]That chirping you hear must be that 'pea'cock.
















I always thought they were petcocks.]


That wil teach me for trying to use big words.

I should have said the gas shut off thingy.

[frank81]

That wil teach me for trying to use big words.

I should have said the gas shut off thingy.

On most internet message boards its just called the pet****. Glad to see SS trusts us to censor ourselves.