Small engine trouble

[dstig1]

I've got a Robin/Subaru engine on my splitter (Super Splitter) and it is now giving me trouble. I started it up a couple months back as it had sat a while and I wanted to make sure it was working. Started and ran great for 5 or 10 min. Flash forward a few weeks and I had a friend come over to help me split some wood. Now it wouldn't start. We were able to get it running with some carb cleaner shot in the intake, so it was clearly a fuel delivery problem. Finally decided the carb must be a bit plugged up, so i soak it in Seafoam for a week or two put it back together and it starts right up. But then the RPMs started to take off. I thought maybe I damaged the gaskets on the carb by taking it apart a billion times while messing with it, so I got new gaskets and put them in today (assuming an air leak after the carb, for example). Same problem - RPMs shoot way up and the governor does not seem to be doing anything. The throttle does almost nothing - it won't idle down at all. The governor linkage is moving perfectly easy and is connected correctly, but the linkage never moves on it's own now when the engine is running. I can move it by hand and it does what it is supposed to while running.

I'm at a loss. I have no idea how it could work perfectly and now come down with all these problems so soon after that. And I have no clue what might be wrong with it now. I haven't done much with small engines other than cleaning out a carb on occasion, so I am in the dark here. Anyone have any clues?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[teejk]

Sounds like you tried everything I can think of. I'm not familiar with that engine but I'm guessing it has a spring on the governor. Did you get that back into the same hole on the carb? Hard to believe that a few mm's on that arm can make a difference. The only other thing I can think of is whether you had previously adjusted the carb to keep it going. Now that you are starting clean, might have to go back and "undo" that.

 

[RobertBrown]

Price a new carburetor. You my find that it's less hassle to replace than to fix.
Hard to say what may help with no pictures of your engine.
You can probably get one from amazon delivered in a week or so.
get the serial and model numbers from the engine, search for part numbers the prices.

You may want to make sure run all the gas out of the tank after every use, and consider using a fuel additive/stabilizer.

 

[dstig1]

Thanks guys. I never did any carb adjustments (and I don't think there is much of anything I can adjust on it - they lock them down so much these days due to EPA). I could replace the carb, but that doesn't make sens to me at this point. Why would the governor not doing it's job depend on the carb? Now obviously this all started with the carb, but that one puzzles me. Carb is $115 from eReplacements.

Yes, I will be more diligent about draining gas. It was parked at a friends house for a few years as he was using it for the both of us (wood from my land, I block and haul to his place, he splits, we share wood) and he is not super careful about doing stuff like draining gas at the end of the season. As my house project gets more under control I have time to pay attention to this stuff...

Thanks,
Dave

 

[CCWKen]

A new carb won't fix an incorrectly assembled governor linkage. :confused3:

 

[teejk]

Thanks guys. I never did any carb adjustments (and I don't think there is much of anything I can adjust on it - they lock them down so much these days due to EPA). I could replace the carb, but that doesn't make sens to me at this point. Why would the governor not doing it's job depend on the carb? Now obviously this all started with the carb, but that one puzzles me. Carb is $115 from eReplacements.

Yes, I will be more diligent about draining gas. It was parked at a friends house for a few years as he was using it for the both of us (wood from my land, I block and haul to his place, he splits, we share wood) and he is not super careful about doing stuff like draining gas at the end of the season. As my house project gets more under control I have time to pay attention to this stuff...

Thanks,
Dave

Again I'm not familiar with that engine but know a bit about the Honda. On that one there are 4 holes on the carb arm to attach the governor spring to and it does make a difference (hard to believe...they are so close). Governors are usually either internal (weights) or external (fan). Try to find the service manual and see what it says about governor settings ("racing" etc.). It is possible that if it has been sitting idle for that long stuff just needs to operate for a while to get the cob-webs out.

 

[RobertBrown]

A new carb won't fix an incorrectly assembled governor linkage. :confused3:

A new carb will not fix incorrectly assembled anything. The carburetor provides the correct fuel/air mixture for proper combustion.

 

[3930dave]

Again I'm not familiar with that engine but know a bit about the Honda. On that one there are 4 holes on the carb arm to attach the governor spring to and it does make a difference (hard to believe...they are so close). Governors are usually either internal (weights) or external (fan). Try to find the service manual and see what it says about governor settings ("racing" etc.). It is possible that if it has been sitting idle for that long stuff just needs to operate for a while to get the cob-webs out.

If the governor is fan activated, check that the area is clear of leaves, mouse nests..... , if you haven't already OP.

Rgds, D.

 

[bcp]

Cartoon from the same day as post #1



Bruce

 

[dstig1]

I saw that one - love that cartoon!

This case is impossible to mis-assemble the governor. There are 2 holes in the throttle plate lever. One small one for the spring, one larger one for the linkage. No choices. The thing I don't see is the governor mechanism moving at all like it used to. Whether or not it is connected right (like I said, pretty much only one choice), I would expect to see it trying to adjust, even if incorrectly. It just isn't moving. I am always suspect when a new problem appears while fixing a different one, but i have personally seen it happen, so I know it can occur... I'll take a few pics, but it is a pretty common looking small engine design to my limited knowledge. And I don't know diddly about governors in small engines. The linkage goes to a bar that has a pivot on the far end that connects to something inside the engine. Haven't taken anything apart to look. No clue here.

Thanks again for the help.
-Dave