[Shop-talk] It's A Simple Machine, Right?

[Doug Braun]

On a similar topic, look at this video of the insides of a cheap Chinese
replacement gas engine.  The camshaft lobes are PLASTIC!
They don't make 'em like they used to...

https://youtu.be/7IKNiQwTaoo?feature=shared&t=493

Doug

On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 9:02 PM Jeff Scarbrough <fishplate at gmail.com> wrote:

> Update to the update:
>
> New coil arrived yesterday.  Installed it today - no spark.  Reinstalled
> the old one - weak spark.  Discovered the old one was upside-down -
> inverted it and reinstalled it - no spark.  Disconnected the grounding wire
> - strong spark.  The old one worked with that wire connected, so there's
> another rabbit hole we need to go down for the future.
>
> Meanwhile, now that we had a good spark, we gave it a shot of ether and
> cranked.  It ran, but very low power.   So, not the spark.  Checked
> hte fuel flow at the carb, still adequate.  So my7 thoughts turned to the
> valve train...
>
> Went to take the valve cover off, but it was thoroughly glued on.  So I
> pulled the muffler so I could see the valve stem.  It was going up and
> down, so I pulled the intake and looked way down in the hole.   The valve
> was *not* moving!
>
> At that point, I was confident in prying the valve cover off being a good
> idea.  Turns out the top inch of the intake pushrod was lying in the oil
> drain back to the crankcase.  The pushrod looks like it was getting crimped
> and finally broke where it was getting necked down.  I've never seen
> anything quite like this.  I'm not sure now how it was running weakly on
> ether or gas if the intake valve didn't open to admit any air or fuel.
>
> More new parts on order.  At least I found something I could verify was
> broken.  I call that progress.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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