Yes, be sure to hold the spark plug with insulated pliers and ground the threads or outer electrode to bare metal on the engine. If you have no sparks, start looking at the cut-off switch and low oil level wiring circuit.
Snowblower won't start. Out of ideas.
- Thread starter skaughtz
- Start date
I know it's been mentioned, but fuel quality can be a big problem.
I can think of several instances in the past few years where I repaired "customer's" OPE with new carbs, etc, only to have them re-fuel the unit with their ~3yr/old fuel from their own gas cans, even though I repeatedly warned them about this. "Hey my machine isn't working right again!" Ugh.
I can think of several instances in the past few years where I repaired "customer's" OPE with new carbs, etc, only to have them re-fuel the unit with their ~3yr/old fuel from their own gas cans, even though I repeatedly warned them about this. "Hey my machine isn't working right again!" Ugh.
In addition to what everyone else has said, when you check the spark pull the spark plug out that you're actually going to use. Have the threaded part touching the chassis somehow. You could hardwire that with a piece of solid copper housewarring. The reason I'm saying to use the actual spark plug is that although it is extremely rare, it is possible to have a bad spark plug that is shorting inside or allowing a spark to jump inside between the insulator and the body of the plug and not having the spark occur at the Gap. So check the actual spark plug that you're going to use also. There's a very small chance that you have a bad spark plug but if you do it's something you have to find.
For sure with a snowblower. Mine is seldom used most of the time and then you get a snowy winter and use it all the time. I go though a lot of gas though for just a yard. Get new about three times a year and use stabilizer in the last batch. And drain the carb.
I never drained the carb on my old John Deere in the 23 years I used it. I kept the tank full over winter and ran it near dry before filling. It has an open vented tank. The new John Deere has a 'sealed' tank with a vapor hose that goes to the carb. So eventually that works it's way out somehow when sitting, but should sure reduce any water uptake from humidity.
Okay. So I got a chance to pull the plug and give her a test and no spark. Seated fully in the ignition coil boot, grounded on multiple different metal portions of the blower itself, and used the electric starter. No spark.
Next I opened her back up and detached only the ground wire to the kill switch and finally spark.
However, once I put the plug back in, I still can't get her to fire. I am now wondering if I should take off the new carburetor I put on and put the old back in, or if the engine might be flooded from me messing with it yesterday, or if it is yet something else.
I really do appreciate the help from everyone thus far.
Crank some with the spark plug out and the choke off to clear excess gas. Then put the plug back in and try to start, without using the choke at first. Spraying a few hits of starting fluid into the intake is preferable to using the choke or pouring in raw gas if there is concern about flooding.
Yes starting fluid. Some people will say that carb cleaner, brake cleaner, etc is the same but it's not. They aren't intended to be fuel, and many of those cleaners are not very flammable at all. If you don't have starting fluid, buy some.
Yes starting fluid. Some people will say that carb cleaner, brake cleaner, etc is the same but it's not. They aren't intended to be fuel, and many of those cleaners are not very flammable at all. If you don't have starting fluid, buy some.
Starting fluid will ignite a lot easier than the other flammable solvents or gas due to the ether content. If you hear a "pop" or it runs for a few seconds, spark and compression are good so the issue is narrowed down to fuel delivery or fuel quality.
And we are back to no spark. She still wouldn't fire so I pulled the plug out just to check my sanity and now she isn't giving me anything.
And I've lost daylight, so I will have to get back after her tomorrow.
I have the 291cc version on a 2013 Poulan 30" blower. Its been a rock solid engine other than a couple things. Ensure the fuel line from the purge bulb to carb is intact. They are known to rot. Mine would not start worth anything if the purge wasnt pumping.
Ensure fresh fuel. Mine has a NGK plug and had treated fuel that was a year old. Would not fire at all. Same treated fuel would run my string trimmer or lawn mowers but not the LCT. She would puke fuel out all day trying to start it.
Ensure your kill switch and key are all hooked up as required.
You can call those LCT engines what you want but the coldest it would fire was about -35c. Slow pull over to ensure the piston is free, purge, choke and one pull. Thats it.
Ensure fresh fuel. Mine has a NGK plug and had treated fuel that was a year old. Would not fire at all. Same treated fuel would run my string trimmer or lawn mowers but not the LCT. She would puke fuel out all day trying to start it.
Ensure your kill switch and key are all hooked up as required.
You can call those LCT engines what you want but the coldest it would fire was about -35c. Slow pull over to ensure the piston is free, purge, choke and one pull. Thats it.
Well unless anyone has any other suggestions, I have a replacement kill switch on the way. If that doesn't do it I will try a replacement coil after that. The fact that it sparked and then didn't after messing with those wires leads me to believe it is one of those two things. Tomorrow I will test the existing switch with a multimeter when I get a chance.
I did a carb clean for a good friend on his ExMark walk behind mower with a V-Twin Kawasaki. I put new fuel in it, mowed my lawn with it, worked excellent. Gave it back and a week later he says it's acting up again. I stop by his house, drain the fuel, and the fuel tank (which he just filled) was 1/2 full of water.
If you use E10 gas, the best way to avoid this is to buy fuel in smaller amounts and use Marine fuel stabilizer (Stabil Marine is good). I buy my fuel 2.5 gallons at a time, and mark the date on a piece of tape on the can. If it is older than a few weeks I dump it in the car.
My grandfather is constantly having issues with his fuel, but since it is hard for him to get out, when he does he fills all his gas cans at once, and they sit for a while before he uses them.
Intermittent spark would also have me trying the kill switch/wiring and next the coil. A way you can test it is unhook the ground wire from the coil which would eliminate any kill switches and see if you still have spark, which would tell you whether the coil is good or not.
Take the flywheel cover off so you can see the coil and all of the wiring. Mice love to move into there. And in before someone says "soy based insulation" which is certainly not true of a Chinese product. Mice will chew on anything that is softer than their teeth, whether it is edible or not.
So true. I'll find their rickety old fuel cans sitting wide open to the atmosphere (vent and/or spout caps totally missing) and all you can do is explain that gasoline storage containers need to be kept sealed and the fuel needs to be fresh. This does not compute at all with much of general population.
These are the cans I use, the "No-Spill" gas cans. They seal really well and are the easiest to use and most spill free of all the EPA cans.
Spill-free gas can
Can you try to reset the gap between the coil and the magnets on the flywheel. The closer for the coil is to the magnets the better, as long as the quail doesn't rub the flywheel sometime during the revolution. There's a couple other possibilities going on here with the spark, you could have a bad coil, the flywheel sometimes shears the key and then the five will get out of time and therefore the Sparks out of time, and it's not impossible for the magnet in the flywheel to lose some of its magnetic strength and become weak and therefore not excite the coil well, though I've never actually heard of this happening. The spark system is pretty simple, sometimes there's additional Electronics added to the circuit such as a capacitor or even something more complicated than that but that's not common as far as I know but I haven't worked on a whole lot of these.
I hooked up the new kill switch and still no spark. The new coil should be here tomorrow but we are expecting rain for a few days so that might have to wait a bit. It looks like to replace the coil I have to disassemble it down to the flywheel anyway, so I am going to check the flywheel key while I am in there just in case.
I appreciate the help, all.
To check the flywheel key, remove the spark plug and use some sort of wire or rod to probe in the cylinder to reach the top of the piston so you can feel when the piston is reaching top center. Rotate the flywheel by hand (clockwise, the way it normally turns) slowly to bring the piston up. The magnets in the flywheel should pass under the coil a few degrees before the piston is all the way up.
If you're not getting spark at all though, it's not a timing issue.
If you're not getting spark at all though, it's not a timing issue.
Consolidating all of the excellent ideas above - for the novice diagnostician (me, still, at age 67, lol), what I was taught in small engine class 50 years ago was to troubleshoot these "systems":
spark
air/fuel
timing
compression
Yea, I know................... Captain Obvious. Let us know the outcome skaughtz
spark
air/fuel
timing
compression
Yea, I know................... Captain Obvious. Let us know the outcome skaughtz
Pull the plug wire off and hold the terminal close to a good ground while pulling the engine over. Should see a big fat blue spark. Then attach wire to plug and pull engine ever. Should see same results. You might try cleaning up the plug with a small file. I have an ignition file I have had over sixty years. Haven't used it in decades.
