slowindown

No. I measured in inches, not mm. They were .014-.016 inches. Huge gaps, relatively speaking. They were .356 to .406 mm. just did the other side. They were off about the same putting it back together now

Well I won’t know if this is the issue for a bit yet but I just took off the rear valve cover (right if you’re looking so one cyl in on your left and one is on your right). At tdc on the comp stroke the intake valve is .014 and the exhaust is .015-.016. Book says .004-.006 for each. The front one is going to be harder to get to. It’s a tighter working space.

LedFTed I cleaned all the rust off the magnets. Wilson, I’ll give your running it dry scenario a try. My valve cover gaskets should be in tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to check the valves this weekend. BTW, since new this machine has never had one drop of ethanol gas in it - always ethanol free in my outdoor stuff. The ethanol free gas available around here is 87 octane.

I still remember (barely) the old aluminum deck mowers. When I was a kid one of the mowers that my grandparents had had the a cast aluminum deck. I’m not sure of the brand but it was similar to this Firestone: http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2012/06/firestone-lawnmower.html?m=1

I cleaned the fins really good yesterday when the shroud was off and they weren’t very dirty at all. I can wrap the lines. I wonder why is it doing it and why it has gotten worse.

No. I do not.

About that. . . So yesterday when I got off work, I cleaned the flywheel magnet and put the shroud back on. I left the plastic guard off above the flywheel screen so I would be able to spin it backwards by hand. I started mowing and mowed a good two hours. It was much cooler than the day before and the grass wasn't nearly as thick as this was an area I regularly mow. At dark I let it idle at least five minutes and shut it down. It would not restart with or without choke. Turning the flywheel backwards by hand seemed to have a good deal of compression. I could turn it past the compression stroke but it took most of my strength and a good leveraged position. I then pulled the air filter off and shot a very very long blast of ether into the carb - it almost seemed to boil and I think it did boil but I kept spraying. I put the filter back on and much to my surprise, it started. I idled it a few seconds, revved it idled it and turned it off. Then I cranked it again and it started. Go figure. Thanks for all of the help. Eventually, we'll get this figured out. Just a thought: Is it possible that the epa has these things so jacked up that they tend to run a little lean to begin with for emissions reasons and over time the main jet may become ever so slightly clogged so that it runs even leaner making it run hotter so that the fuel is boiling off before it can get ignited?

The dealer (local co-op) didn't have the gaskets (surprise). So I ordered some and an oem fuel pump, just in case from amazon. Should be in by the end of next week - apparently 2-day prime shipping is a thing of the past for where I live...

I mowed the shooting range and rc runway for 2 hours after work. I gave it an extended idle cool down period. I waited about a minute. It would not restart. I got one poof with a hint of black smoke. Other than that it just spun. I drove it into the garage this morning. It started normally. I pulled the shroud the fins were clean as in the pic, just a little dirt near the valve covers. I’m going to see if they have valve cover gaskets in town and if so adjust the valves after work. If not I’ll order some and do it when they arrive. The flywheel magnets are fairly rusty. The coil arms seem to be too. I guess I’ll use some emery cloth on the magnets - don’t know if that can cause a problem. I’ll do that back spin compression test you mention @Misterclean next time. I didn’t read your post until after the fact.

As I recall, Used to I could let it idle a bit and it would restart. I don’t think it will now. But I’m not 100% sure. I don’t usually turn it off unless I’m taking a break for awhile. I’ll test that this weekend. And Wilson yes, it seems to be a bit worse this year.

Nope

I won't have much time for serious diagnostics until after summer but before I mow this weekend I'm going to take the shouds off and make sure the cooling fins are not overly clogged up with grass and such.

This is a pic of the fuel pump on mine:

I didn't change anything other than switch out the filter. Nothing was rerouted. It was doing it before I changed the filter. It has been doing it for at least several years, maybe longer, maybe since new. Over 1000 hours. It won't hit on starting fluid shot or gas poured in the intake boot when it's hot. Dump a 5 gallon bucket of water on it though and it will crank back up. I had also originally thought coils since it's not hitting when hot - but if it's coils, why's it not shutting down when hot? I can mow sunrise to sunset with never cutting it off... I've never done anything to the engine other than fairly regularly oil/filter and air filter changes. I changed plugs and the fuel filter for the first time last summer or the summer before.

I’m not 100% sure. Amongst my first thoughts was vapor lock.

Yes. Old solenoid came on it when I bought it new. It acted exactly the same with the oem solenoid and the new aftermarket one. And yes, the fuel pump is on my list to change as a possibility. Any serious work on it will have to wait until after grass season.

Well unfortunately that didn't fix it. It did the same thing as with the old one. With either of them, I can hold the carb solenoid and feel the electo-magnet engage and presumably pull down the plunger when I turn the key to the on position, whether the engine is hot or cold.

If wheeler doesn't get back to you, they're made by https://www.torqmasters.com/ They're pretty popular amongst can-am folks, but power steering is recommended... I started to buy one for my commander a few years ago but I've slowed down even further and mostly use it as a utility machine now. Still, there has been a time or two I'm pretty sure I would not have gotten stuck had I installed it (and a couple of times not amount of locked would have changed the outcome lol). On can ams the front tire has to spin before the other tire locks in which can stick you (some of the newer models have an optional locker finally).

welcome

I hope you get to feeling better fish. I've enjoyed your posts here. I hate to see you retire from the board.

Looks good. How much you selling it for?

Will do. I ordered one of the cheap ones.

Yikes! That little doodad is over $100. I may try a cheap $10 one and if it don't work cut the plunger off of the cheap one to bypass it to make 100% sure that's the problem before dropping $100 on that little thing.

I have a similar harbor freight electric splitter. I put it on a stand and control it with a foot switch instead of the finger switch (the finger switch was momentary and I replaced it with an on/off switch). This is the foot switch I use: https://www.harborfreight.com/momentary-power-foot-switch-96619.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiMjE0ODk4OTQiLCJza3UiOiI5NjYxOSIsImlzIjoiMTIuNTkxMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAxIn0%3D&cid=paid_google|||96619&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&gclid=CjwKCAjwuIWHBhBDEiwACXQYsUDn4Eg1L8wrW_musC4bF_E7lEEzqx92iJ9k8vnNE_spudzOSvtwjhoC4_MQAvD_BwE

I unplugged it. It started and immediately died. It would not start back unplugged. I plugged it back in and it started. I unplugged it while it was running and it died. I plugged it back in and it started back up.