On-going Problem

[printjunky]

I've had a similar problem recently. Very challenging to diagnose, because some of the time it runs like a top, starting with barely a crank, and other, seemingly random times it's cranking, getting spark, but not kicking over at all. It now seems (now that the things dead in the Dairy Queen parking lot, that is) that the culprit was an intermittent fuel pump. It ABSOLUTELY felt/seemed like an electrics/ignition problem (and I'd been over everything 15 times!). But now that it's dead, the cause seems to have been no fuel flow on crank SOME of the time. And now that (I think) I know that, it does smack of fuel starvation, when it wasn't starting.

I won't be 100% sure until I get a chance to do a temp fix this afternoon (or maybe until I get the chance to do whatever permanent fix I decide on (elec pump or R&R the oem pump.)), but that's what it looks like at the moment.

Also, someone probably already said this, but bad grounds (batt to chassis, starter to block, etc) can cause all kinds of weirdnesses.

[Paul and Judson]

Thank you for your good thoughts. I changed the fuel pump (mechanical) recently because I thought it may have been a fuel related problem. However now that I hear some of the instances of a new pump being defective I will have to watch it and consider it if the problem persists.

Good luck with your repair.

[printjunky]

When it was experiencing the no-start condition (but everything else was fine and triple-checked), I pulled the fuel line off the carb and got nothing. It might not be quite that easy though, as in both our cases the condition seems intermittent. And in my case, seemed to come and go pretty randomly.

Off to throw on an electric pump, at least to get it home. It's a beautiful, sunny 16-degrees out (6 windchill!).


Edit: The electric pump seems to have solved that problem at least. Might be worth it to temporarily plumb in an electric pump, see if the condition still pops up. If it does: $50 wasted, but if it doesn't ...

You can always replace/rebuild the mech pump afterwards if you decide to stick with that. I suspect next shadetree season. I'll put new guts in my mechanical pump and keep the electric in my onboard spares as a backup.