l008com
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For about 4 years now, give or take, I've been posting threads about my kart. The engine, which has been rock solid reliable for the first 15 years I owned it, started to get unreliable. It dragged on for so long, I don't even remember everything that happened or everything I tried to do to fix it. But at one point it seemed like gas was leaking into the cylinder when it wasn't running so I had to pull the cord slowly to squeeze the fluid out. At one point I would start it up and it would run away. Runaway engine + centrifugal clutch = bad time. And more recently, it just wouldn't start. It would backfire like crazy when pulling the cord and it would almost run for a second or two then nada.
And I tried so many things to fix it, I can't even keep track. I know I replaced the carb at one point, changed the oil, and some other things too. It's all a blur, every few months I'd mess around with it and get nowhere. One of the last times I was working on it, I looked in the fuel tank with the filter removed and it was nothing but rust! The gas was orange and not transparent! It was crazy!
That brings us to today. I installed a new gas tank, filled it with brand new gas. I replaced the carb, again. I did my best to figure out the gasket order and orientation. I checked the oil and it was basically unused from a few years ago, but also it was way overfilled, probably from gas leaking in. So I changed the oil too.
I crossed my fingers and started pulling the cord. But it was doing the same thing, the engine turns no problem but it won't run. Lots of very loud backfiring. Sometimes it would fire a few times like it was going to run, then it would konk out. So in other words, it was running just as bad, and everything was new. Except the spark plug. But the plug doesn't have all that much use on it and it looks ok. But I'm out of ideas and I have to go out anyway so I stop at autozone and get a new one.
When I get home, I pop it in, pull the cord and SON OF A ***** it starts right up like old times! Not exactly like old times, it's not running as nice and smooth as it used to. But with fresh full synthetic oil and gas that has seafoam in it, hopefully it improves over time as I drive it. WHICH MEANS I actually have to drive it. My plan is to screw around the neighborhood on snow days when I'm done snow blowing. Hopefully that gives it enough use by spring, depending on how much snow we actually get. January 10th and essentially no snow in Boston yet.
Also I'm definitely going to "winterize" this thing in the spring from now on so its not sitting and rotting full of stale fuel. I'll fire it back up again in the fall and it will be my snow machine. Although I actually might put a lower gear ratio on it and use it as a tractor for some wall building projects I have coming up, we'll see.
And I tried so many things to fix it, I can't even keep track. I know I replaced the carb at one point, changed the oil, and some other things too. It's all a blur, every few months I'd mess around with it and get nowhere. One of the last times I was working on it, I looked in the fuel tank with the filter removed and it was nothing but rust! The gas was orange and not transparent! It was crazy!
That brings us to today. I installed a new gas tank, filled it with brand new gas. I replaced the carb, again. I did my best to figure out the gasket order and orientation. I checked the oil and it was basically unused from a few years ago, but also it was way overfilled, probably from gas leaking in. So I changed the oil too.
I crossed my fingers and started pulling the cord. But it was doing the same thing, the engine turns no problem but it won't run. Lots of very loud backfiring. Sometimes it would fire a few times like it was going to run, then it would konk out. So in other words, it was running just as bad, and everything was new. Except the spark plug. But the plug doesn't have all that much use on it and it looks ok. But I'm out of ideas and I have to go out anyway so I stop at autozone and get a new one.
When I get home, I pop it in, pull the cord and SON OF A ***** it starts right up like old times! Not exactly like old times, it's not running as nice and smooth as it used to. But with fresh full synthetic oil and gas that has seafoam in it, hopefully it improves over time as I drive it. WHICH MEANS I actually have to drive it. My plan is to screw around the neighborhood on snow days when I'm done snow blowing. Hopefully that gives it enough use by spring, depending on how much snow we actually get. January 10th and essentially no snow in Boston yet.
Also I'm definitely going to "winterize" this thing in the spring from now on so its not sitting and rotting full of stale fuel. I'll fire it back up again in the fall and it will be my snow machine. Although I actually might put a lower gear ratio on it and use it as a tractor for some wall building projects I have coming up, we'll see.
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Also if I run it out of gas before Iet it sit for 6+ months, that should also help. And I guess I should try not to fill it while it's raining or snowing, so that water doesn't slowly collect in the bottom of the tank. Although theres not much you can do about that.