Snowblower fix. OMG

[ML-TOYS]

So i am friends with a couple of females around the corner from me who always stop by to check out what i am building.

They asked if i could look at their machine because they had it serviced last season and the guy only gave it a quick start for them. Carb cleaned, new fuel lines, new plug, oil change.
When they needed to use it they pulled and it would give one cough trying to start then nothing just pull pull pull.
Sure bring it over.

She goes thru her startup procedure for me..prime it, choke, key on, throttle up a bit and yep one cough outa the motor then no go.

Woo my turn. Spark good, compression good, pull carb off tip it and gas pours out so IT is getting gas. Unbolt the bowl, nice float movement, clean as new.
Scratch my head, think think, then look down at bolt for bowl and see the needle valve screw and the spring is fully compressed.

Put it back together, loosen needle valve and guess what
vroom vroom on the second pull. Next check why electric start dont work.....bad switch, butcher service place didnt fix that either.
I had one here and now that works too.

I fire it up over and over, hot, cooled down, cold start, all good
I did a test drive to their house to make sure all 3 gears worked (self propelled) all good.

Never seen someone so happy and excited that the thing was working. They were gonna trash it and spend like 500 for a new one. They then said it was because this was the third shop that worked on it.

Now they are going to refer me to all their friends for small engine repair. Best part was making them happy.

Sorry for the long story but it had to be.

 

[OzFab]

Were you expecting a busy winter?

 

[Poboy kartman]

Well. ....on a different forum. ...there was a guy with a 6 cylinder Ford pick-up.....

Diagnosing over the web....I told him it was a timing issue.....he was close....but closer to my brother. .....

Anyway.....he had given this truck to a guy who had it for 2 months...went off on all kinds of different tangents. .....I told him get his truck back by any means necessary ASAP.....

Well.....I didn't get to fix it. ...but the problem was a loose distributor bolt.....

I told him that I knew it was timing and that would be the first place I would have looked......and his truck would have been running in less than 10 minutes. ......

 

[itsid]

Nice story Mike

things like that happen all the time around the globe..
here's mine:

it was somewhere around 1996 or something when I was at my friend's house for his mom's birthday...
A friend of her's was complaining about his new 7 series BMW,
it shuts off the engine every now and then and he's been to three different authorized workshops with the car spending a couple of hundred bucks and he still has the same issues with his car..

I only asked two questions: "Do you have a mobile phone in your car" and "was it BMW or some third party mounting it" to find the problem.

(that series 7 was a sissy on third party electronics, any additional powercable or antenna MUST be routed as far away as possible from the original harness, otherwise the computer will act up on you)

So I told him to go to his workshop and let them remove the phone or at least reroute it's wiring to the opposite side of the car away from the original harness.

Three days later I got a call from my friend, that I should come over asap.
So I hopped into my car and when I got there, his mother's friend was there and he handed me an envelope (with some 'thank you' inside )
He told me it was exactly as I said;
his phone was messing with the cars injection system, and the motor mechanic was baffled as he realized, the phone was indeed not routed as the BMW phones were, he didn't even know that could cause a problem...
and since car workshops must turn off any phone in the car during repairs (to not unintentionally cause costs) the problem wasn't traceable during that time,

Lucky me read about that problem a few days earlier in a car magazine, that earned me some money that day

Anyways.. sometimes as a mechanic you're too close to see the actual problem,
so you only cure the symptom, not the disease...
All you need as a customer is the person that by chance has the right idea, no matter if he's a football mom, a mechanic or an astronomy student

If it's a phone that was added, a loose distributor bolt or a tightened down needle valve;
we all know a story just like that I believe...

But it's still priceless to see someone else is happy because of your help.
Which brings us back to this forum somehow

'sid

 

[ML-TOYS]

Wow Sid amazing how a phone would mess with a car

 

[KartFab]

Story time! My brother in laws car wouldn't start. Battery was just fine and car would just keep cranking. Oil ok. Drives it every day. No check engine light. I just popped the air cleaner out and sprayed starter fluid in it as he kept turning the engine over. A big poof of smoke shot out the tailpipe and it ran like a top. To this day I have no idea what the problem was. My guess is that that the lack of fuel may have been a clogged fuel injector? Having the engine run may have created lower pressure outside of the injector(s) to dislodge whatever it was. I told him to run a bottle of injector cleaner in it next time he gasses up, and to use premium fuel just that one time, also get the fuel filter replaced.

He was like how did you do that? I was like.. Do what? I still don't know what happened?


Story 2:

My cars check engine light came on. Impossible! It's a honda with only 225k miles, what could possibly be wrong? I took it to auto-zone for a free diagnostic check. Engine was misfiring on cylinder 2 and 4. I bought some spark plugs, they wanted to sell me wires and a new distributer cap. Nope... I had let the car go 60k without changing plugs (yeah I know bad bad). Changed plugs and realized that I had degreased the engine 2 days before, and washed it. I felt the spark plug wires and they were kind of loose at the distributer. I cleaned out the white stuff that accumulates on the distributer after 225k miles, and just pushed the wires back in. Ran just fine after that.
Yes I am kind of a moron sometimes.... Reminds me of the time I degreased the engine a few years ago. Was in the middle of winter and I had been driving enough to keep the manifold hot. I sprayed behind the heat shield and crack, there went my exhaust manifold.

 

[itsid]

Wow Sid amazing how a phone would mess with a car

Scary isn't it?
I think that is one reason you're asked to turn your phones off in an airplane
it's basically the homing (what you hear when you lay your phone on a speaker for a while) that caused that.

BMW knew that and any BMW workshop wired phones on the other side of the car,
but they still fixed that issue a year later IIRC, because of said article and numerous complaints...

Anyway.. sometimes something small (valve needle, 3/8" bolt..) can cause major malfunction;
and it's good to have so many of you around capable of spotting exactly the part that needs to be taken care of.

or short: I'm glad to be here!

'sid

 

[BirdFanatic]

Lol sounds like a lady I did a job for when she called me over to fix her mower because it was not starting she said it would put put put then die out .I came over opened up the air filter cover pulled the bolt off the carb no gas i scratched my head.Then Pulled the fuel hose off a little gas came out but not much.I wondered how a new mower with fuel line that looked good was not getting fuel. Little did I know after spending 45 min looking at it that the lady was from India they had just moved and that there was no gas in the tank.I asked them if they had gas they had no idea what i was talking about so i went home brought some back poured it in pulled the cord Vroom Vroom started up lol.

 

[landuse]

Lol sounds like a lady I did a job for when she called me over to fix her mower because it was not starting she said it would put put put then die out .I came over opened up the air filter cover pulled the bolt off the carb no gas i scratched my head.Then Pulled the fuel hose off a little gas came out but not much.I wondered how a new mower with fuel line that looked good was not getting fuel. Little did I know after spending 45 min looking at it that the lady was from India they had just moved and that there was no gas in the tank.I asked them if they had gas they had no idea what i was talking about so i went home brought some back poured it in pulled the cord Vroom Vroom started up lol.

It should have taken you a lot less than 45min to figure out there was no gas in the tank. Don't feel too bad though, cos I have done the same type of thing. You just don't think of the most basic reasons for failure.

 

[Young One With A Manco]

You know how many times I've pulled the starter cord and was scratching my head trying to figure out why it wouldnt start and the kill switch was on???
One time i was at my neighbors house and the motor wouldn't start. Must be out of gas, i said. Now at this point i felt stupid because this was the best running motor ive ever had and i had just explained to my neighbor how it starts in a 1/4 of a pull. So anyway, run home, grab gas, fill 'er up. Nothing. 10 pulls later... "Is the kill switch on?"-neighbor. "Click, oops i think it was..."-me. 1/4 of a pull later it started. Boy did i feel dumb. I had this habit of turning my motor off then turning the kill switch to the on position so it always sat with the kill switch in the on position. I was used to not checking the kill switch for this reason, and not ever worrying about the kill switch when starting. Well, my brother or neighbor or someone realized i was working under it a bit before and moved the kill switch back to the off position....Or maybe i did it.
Whatever, i is dumb.
This was 2 months ago by the way... I'm finally breaking that kill switch habit!
No, i'm not extremely stupid, and i understand how engines work, very well in fact. I've grown up in what is probably the biggest car family in town, so i know one heck of a lot for a 14 year old on how an engine works. So Don't run along thinking boy that young one kid is stupid... He trys to start the engine with the kill switch on...

 

[BirdFanatic]

i hate thoughs mowers though she had a troy built With a Plastic carb

It should have taken you a lot less than 45min to figure out there was no gas in the tank. Don't feel too bad though, cos I have done the same type of thing. You just don't think of the most basic reasons for failure.

 

[landuse]

No, i'm not extremely stupid, and i understand how engines work, very well in fact. I've grown up in what is probably the biggest car family in town, so i know one heck of a lot for a 14 year old on how an engine works. So Don't run along thinking boy that young one kid is stupid... He trys to start the engine with the kill switch on...

I think we have all done stupid stuff like this at one time, so don't worry about it

 

[RobertD]

I think we have all done stupid stuff like this at one time

 

[ML-TOYS]

I think one of my stupidest moment was car related. I was doing alternator, starter, and new belts along with other things.
I finally get everything done and put together after a few hours. Go to start the car and nothing dash lights come on, everything else goes on! No cranking. Oh man bad part somewhere. Start going thru everything, fuses, relays, bad solenoid ?
Nope stupid me never put the cable on the starter. Duhhhhhhhh

 

[Young One With A Manco]

Lol theres definitely those moments when I'm like "REALLY???"!
But on the other hand when i have a whole summer off my brain isn't in as good shape.

 

[RobertD]

I did that with the battery cable a few days ago (see other thread about battery issues on truck). I disconnected the starter solenoid so I could add a new relay for a switched 12V source under the hood. I wanted to pull the power from the incoming side of the solenoid so as not to pull off the battery direct and look junky.

Put it all back together and nothing! Yup, left the battery cable off the incoming solenoid post. It'll happen every time.

 

[OzFab]

I think one of my stupidest moment was car related. I was doing alternator, starter, and new belts along with other things.
I finally get everything done and put together after a few hours. Go to start the car and nothing dash lights come on, everything else goes on! No cranking. Oh man bad part somewhere. Start going thru everything, fuses, relays, bad solenoid ?
Nope stupid me never put the cable on the starter. Duhhhhhhhh

I did that with the battery cable a few days ago (see other thread about battery issues on truck). I disconnected the starter solenoid so I could add a new relay for a switched 12V source under the hood. I wanted to pull the power from the incoming side of the solenoid so as not to pull off the battery direct and look junky.

Put it all back together and nothing! Yup, left the battery cable off the incoming solenoid post. It'll happen every time.

I have a better one than that: A few years ago, my sister calls me in a panic, she can't get her car started. I was in the middle of something miles away so I couldn't get to her. I rattled off the obvious things (well, in hindsight, most of them) but, nothing helped so I suggested she call NRMA (our version of your AAA). While we were talking, her then 13yo son was trying to interrupt & was told to "shut up" (again, in hindsight, someone should have listened to him)...

About an hour later, she called me back. NRMA had just left & she felt like a complete moron. The mechanic did all the usual checks under the bonnet (hood) but could find nothing wrong, then he looked inside the car & asked "how long has it been in drive?" What my nephew had tried to say was just that...