[Fot] Most carburetor problems are electrical in nature (mostly off topic)

[Bob Bownes -Seiri]

Carburetor is French for "leave it alone"!



On Jul 7, 2012, at 20:56, Brad Kahler <bkahler1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> The old adage: "Most carburetor problems are electrical in nature"
>
> 1)   Zero turn mower stopped running because we thought it was out of gas
> 2)   Filled the tank and it wouldn't start
> 3)   Battery runs down from cranking without starting
> 4)   Used truck with jumper cables to try and start with no success
> 5)   Towed mower back to shop (ever try to tow a hydraulic powered
> zero turn mower when it isn't running?  Hint, it's not easy!)
> 6)   Pulled spark plug and verified there was spark, that means its fuel
related
> 7)   Pulled fuel line from carburetor and verified flow coming from
> fuel pump - there was
> 8)   As a test used different electric pump feeding from gas can and
> still no start
> 9)   Replaced fuel filter just for the heck of it.
> 10) Pulled radiator and fan assemblies to get access to carburetor for
> removal and rebuild
> 11) Rebuilt carburetor and also verified fuel shutoff solenoid was
> functional and re-installed
> 12) Replaced alternator coil under flywheel while radiator and fan
> were out of the way
> 13) Reassembled everything
> 14) Still doesn't want to start
> 15) Re-verified that electric fuel pump is pumping fuel - it was
> 16) As a test I again used a different electric pump feeding from gas
> can and still no start
> 17) Decided there must be something wrong with fuel shutoff solenoid
> 18) Pulled radiator and fan assemblies to get access to fuel shutoff
solenoid
> 19) Found only 1.4 vdc at solenoid - figured this was the problem
> 20) Tracing wire back and found that it comes out of the voltage regulator
> 21) Assumed voltage regulator was bad and prepared to order replacement
> 22) Before ordering I had a hunch.
>
> My hunch was to check out all of the wiring.  I found the connector
> between the motor and the mower harness was deteriorating and
> crumbling.  This allowed the wire going to the fuel shutoff solenoid
> to slip out of its socket and was only barely making contact which
> accounted for the 1.4 vdc.  The wire that fed the ignition coil in
> that same plastic connector was still making contact which is why the
> spark plugs had spark.  All of the symptoms pointed to a fuel flow
> problem and when you get down to the root cause there was no fuel
> flow, unfortunately it was because of an electrical problem.
>
> When it was all said and done, the mower had not run out of gas and
> the carburetor didn't need to be rebuilt.  I did need to replace the
> alternator coil under the flywheel so at some point I was going to
> have to pull the radiator and fan assemblies to do that so not all was
> lost.
>
> So getting back to the very first sentence.  The old adage "Most
> carburetor problems are electrical in nature" appears to have merit.
>
> I hope your Saturday went better than mind did :)
>
> Brad
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