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tecumseh engine help please!


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Sorry to post this here but I didnt know who else to ask and I am out of ideas :( I am hoping some of you engine guru's can help me out! I got a small tiller for $20 off craigs list. The guy said it ran last year but this year he couldnt get it started so he wanted to get rid of it as he had a bigger one and didnt need the little one. It has a small 1.5 HP Tecumseh 2 stroke engine. I can NOT get this thing to start :( Here is where I am at: 1) It has compression and spark 2) If I pull the plug and put my hand in front of the spark plug hole and pull the rip cord I get gas/oil/air on my hand. 3) Air filter is clean 4) Gas/oil is clean good and right mixture 5)Plug was tested in my weed whacker it works. I put the known good plug from the weed whacker in the tiller still wont start 6)The flywheel magneto and the coil had surface rust. I cleaned every thing off with a wire brush I adjusted the coil so the gap between the arm and the flywheel was only the thickness of one business card. 7) I pulled the flywheel bolt and checked the key, it not sheered or tweaked. 8) I removed the screen behind the muffler and cleaned it out and put it back together I am at a loss. The only thing I can think of is I did not adjust the magneto gap correctly or the coil isnt strong enough to produce spark under compression. It doesnt even sound like it is trying to fire yet everything I need for ignition is there :( I even tried a little squirt of starter fluid in the cylinder with no change :( Sorry again to post this here and I really hope some can help me out. I need to get this garden tilled :( Thanks all!
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If you have compression and there is no effort to start with starting fluid, I would think the coil must be weak and won't fire under compression. I don't know of a way to test the coil short of putting on a new one tho. Maybe it can be tested if brought into a repair shop? It would be a shame to buy a new coil and find that it still won't start. You are sure the muffler isn't plugged? I had that with a weed wacker once and just about tossed it before i found the muffler plugged. Steve
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How about the intake port at the bottem of the cyl.? Is it open? With a 2 stroke, the air/gas mixture needs to flow from the crankcase to the cylinder when the piston is at the bottom of it's stroke. I'm not familiar with the Tecumseh. Does it have a reed valve in the intake? If it does, is it working correctly? 2 strokes can be fussy about compression, also. A scratch in the cylinder wall may cause it to not have enough compression. It is strange that it would not fire with starter fluid, though. Good luck, Jim
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quote:
Originally posted by steve-wis
If you have compression and there is no effort to start with starting fluid, I would think the coil must be weak and won't fire under compression. I don't know of a way to test the coil short of putting on a new one tho. Maybe it can be tested if brought into a repair shop? It would be a shame to buy a new coil and find that it still won't start. You are sure the muffler isn't plugged? I had that with a weed wacker once and just about tossed it before i found the muffler plugged. Steve
Im thinking its a bad coil too :( I pulled the whole muffler out and cleaned the whole thing and the screen was not blocked at all when I put it back in.
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quote:
Originally posted by JimDk
How about the intake port at the bottem of the cyl.? Is it open? With a 2 stroke, the air/gas mixture needs to flow from the crankcase to the cylinder when the piston is at the bottom of it's stroke. I'm not familiar with the Tecumseh. Does it have a reed valve in the intake? If it does, is it working correctly? 2 strokes can be fussy about compression, also. A scratch in the cylinder wall may cause it to not have enough compression. It is strange that it would not fire with starter fluid, though. Good luck, Jim
When I pull the rip cord out gas/oil/air do get into the cylinder no problems. I thought it was funny it didnt kick off with starter fluid too. Thats why I am thinking weak/bad coil. I will call the shop in Monday morning and see if they can test the coil.
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Is it a points coil or solid state? IF it is solid state then yes it will need to be replaced most likely. Otherwise, try to find the points. Sometimes they hide them under the rewind or flywheel. I couldn't tell you exacly where it would be on that model, but it sounds like a resistive points set. Generally a solid state coil will fail completely without being weak.
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I'm curious to find out what the problem is. I have a similar situation here with a small rotohoe with a 2 cycle Tecumseh engine on it doing pretty much the same thing. Although mine trys to start on every 20th pull. Tom
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quote:
Originally posted by SimpleTom
I'm curious to find out what the problem is. I have a similar situation here with a small rotohoe with a 2 cycle Tecumseh engine on it doing pretty much the same thing. Although mine trys to start on every 20th pull. Tom
20th in a row??? I don't think I have ever given mine that many continues pulls lol. I am going to hit up my neighbor who used to own a small engine repair shop. I have never met him so nows as good a time as any :)
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Have you checked the grounding out switch/ wire?? Disconnect it and see if you are still not getting spark at the plug....
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quote:
Originally posted by LesH
Have you checked the grounding out switch/ wire?? Disconnect it and see if you are still not getting spark at the plug....
I did that yea, I cleaned it all out and it works correctly now. Before there was to much rust on the switch so it never grounded.
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Bad plug wire? Connected and twisted to fit when the plug is in the cylinder maybe it has a bad spot in the wire? Cheap thing to check and fix.
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A tool that would be helpful to everyone here is an inline spark tester, like the one found here- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002STSC6 This tests both the plug and the coil. If the plug is unable to fire, the tester will not light up. When you say it "has compresssion" how much compression do you mean? That engine needs no less than 100psi to run well. It will start and run at 90, but any less than that, and it will not want to start, and it will have no power. My suggestion is to pull the muffler and look at the piston and cylinder. Look for any scoring on the piston, cylinder walls, etc. Also, regarding number 6 of your first post, it might be good to mention that surface rust on either a flywheel magnet or the magneto is nothing to worry about. There is no need for a "clean contact" as rust does not affect magnetism, which is the driving force behind how a magneto works. Regards, Andrew
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As Steve-Wis said, check the muffler (just remove it to be sure) and try to start it again. I have won a few bets over the years on this frequently overlooked issue with 2-cycles. Tom (PK)
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points if you have them is under the flywheel. I use brake clean to start things "it dry, no lube, use sparingly" a little spray down the plug hole replace the plug and give a couple of pulls sounds like it is wet. "plug" should pop. do your checks first open the throttle fully, no choke, key on, ect. a side note did you clean the carb? it could be dumping fuel right in and flooding it. run some heat in the fuel to help out.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Andre, I just got my tiller running today. I was so close to throwing it out but my wife told me to try again. I knew I had spark and I thought I had fuel. I even tried starter fluid down the cylinder with no luck. So, I pulled the carb off and took it completely apart and sprayed every orfice with carb cleaner. I re-assembled it and it fired right up. A little adjustment to the carb and I was able to till my small framed out sections of my garden. This is my tiller and what I tilled today. It worked like a champ!






Tom
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