"Won't Start"

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

To get rid of this faulty fuel, first drain the tank. You can easily disconnect the gas tank on a Tecumseh engine and dump the gas out. Then take off the bottom of the carburetor float bowl (Fig. 10), which is just in from the air filter, and wipe up the gas that (surprise!) spills out. (Try to keep the doughnut-shaped float valve from opening all the way down as you do this or its float needle may fall out.) Put the bowl back together and the tank back on. With a Briggs, use a cheap turkey baster or a siphon hose to suck the liquid out of the gas tank.

To clear the fuel lines on both engines, you'll want to flood and unflood the engine a few times to work the old fuel through. Put new fuel in the tank, set the engine at full choke (the starting position), and crank it several times to draw a lot of fuel into the ignition chamber. Then let it sit for 10 minutes or so, till that batch vaporizes, and repeat the procedure. Once you've done that a bit, you should have good petrol at the piston.

That may well solve all your problems. But maybe you've got good spark and good gas, but still not good going. The engine doesn't catch, or maybe it fires and put-puts a bit but then always dies out. Dennis says you've probably got a fuel supply problem-either you're getting too much or too little.

Unscrew the spark plug and see if it's dry (you're getting no fuel) or dripping with gas (you're getting too much). You might even try squirting a few-only a few-drops of gas into the spark plug hole with a window-cleaning bottle or other sprayer, reinserting the plug and cranking. If it starts right up, then promptly dies out, you're definitely not getting fuel.

Dry Plug = No Fuel

Let's see if we can help that dry plug. Screw it back in and attach it. Try cranking the engine several times with the throttle switch set on "off." That way the machine won't get any spark but should still be drawing fuel. Now, set 'er on "start" and see if she will.

No luck? Then, engine still set at "start," take off the air cleaner, and smother the choke tube (right there in the center) with your hand and give one or two (but no more) pulls. That way you'll be trying to give the engine a rich mixture, one that has more gasoline than air.

It may start up and run. It may start up and then die. Or it may not start at all. If one of the last two happens, your engine is definitely not sucking fuel into the ignition chamber (where the spark plug and piston meet). You got no gas. Why? The trouble is probably in the carburetor. (Say, you didn't cover the little pinholes in your gas cap or let them get clogged, did you? If they're covered, the engine can't draw fuel at all.)

Here our paths diverge, depending on your engine type. Briggs & Stratton engines have different carburetors than Tecumsehs do. Let's start with the Briggs. The two most likely clog spots in it are the fuel pipe and the fuel needle.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print