[Tango]

Hey everyone,
I've been maintaining an older lady's 30 inch Toro Time Cutter with the 8.75 B&S engine with OHV. She is really good about having me changing belts, changing oil, etc. It has the guaranteed to start Auto choke system. And to my amazement it always started on first or second pull.

She brought it to me today and it wouldn't start. Here is everything I did. PLEASE tell me I missed something!
1) Cleaned Carb. No blockage and gas was fresh. Auto choke was closed like it's supposed to be
2) Put 4 different RJ12YC spark plugs in and had them gapped to .020
3) Spark tester showing bright red light when I pull the rope
4) Compression test was 65 psi
5) Sprayed carb cleaner with the straw attached through the body of the carb, straight into the intake manifold.
6) Pulled magneto. Cleaned the magnets on both fly wheel and magneto.
7) Pulled OHV cover and just made sure valves were operating right. small wiggle on both rocker arms at TDC.
8) disconnected on/off switch just in case it was intermittingly shorting out

The most I ever got was 3 soft pops before sputtering out

I did not check the flywheel for timing issue because I wasn't getting any snap back on the pull rope.

Did I miss something? Please give me feedback.

Thanks

Tango

 

[tabora]

Did I miss something? Please give me feedback.

Did you check the flywheel key for partial shearing? If she hit something solid, the key can shear and throw off the timing.

 

[Grunt]

I did not check the flywheel for timing issue because I wasn't getting any snap back on the pull rope.

I agree with Tabora, a sheared key doesn't ALWAYS produce a kick back. Do you see any large nicks in the blade that indicates a foreign object hit?

 

[Tango]

Update: Possibly SOLVED

I checked flywheel for timing (which was good). I didn't think the timing was off because the two blades are belt driven, in my opinion the belts would slip/break before the flywheel would get outta whack.

So I tore into the head and noticed a couple of cuts in the head gasket. Just to check if that was the culprit, I filled it in quickly with some sealant (not meant for head gaskets) and reassembled everything. It runs now but not properly (like compression is still a bit low). So I ordered a new head gasket which will come in tomorrow. Will keep you apprised.

The cylinder wall looked great and the piston didn't have any play in it, so I believe the rings are still good.

Tango out.