crank seal?

Don B.

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Dec 28, 2010
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thisi is on the 300 Enticer with the 340 engine I put together; Soaked the carb, new fuel lines, had a Helluva time getting it to stay runnin on its own; verified vacuum on the crankcase line, verified flow to the carb, still gotta "bottle feed" I have a 1qt oil bottle I mixed up some 40:1 in and drilled a small hole in the cap; I gotta dribble fuel into the carb to keep it going; I DON'T have the choke plunger in its hole since I had to pull the gastank cover to get to the fuel pickup; I pulled teh plugs and dribbled gas in there probably 20X to get it to run for that 30 sec or so; then pull plugs, repeat;
I have the airbox out, I have to keep my hand over the throat and thumb over the choke plunger hole to keep it running; the suction (vacuum) seems quite good as I hold my hand over the throat of the carb while it does run;
what's going on?
1) just the lack of the plunger being in place?
2) Didn't get the carb totally clean?
0r (hope not) 3)crank seals shot?
I did nothing to the 340 other than check compression and bolt it into the 300 chassis;

I have always had "trouble" with anything 2 cycle that isn't an outboard boat motor; Lawn Boy, weed eater chain saw etc but have been working on 4 cycles quite successfully for the better part of 30 years (since my teen years)
 
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you should be able to spray some carb clean around the pto seal, see if engine rpm changes when doing that, the recoil side is not able to do that. I would go through the carb if it were mine.
 
OK I went and bought a fresh gallon bucket of carb dip; carb go-thru #2, is underway.... just got the seat back today from being recovered; I was hoping to throw the seat on and go for a ride.....
 
I'm gaining; it now starts on about 4 pulls but will not idle for $#!t and as smokey as it runs, I am quite positive the oil inject works, probably "too" well.
 
Do you still have the choke plunger out still? You may want to try and install it and see if that cures the low speed running issues.
 
I did put it back in; still won't idle. tried it "in" out" and in between.
this carb has 1 mixture screw. is it supposed to work on idle or hi speed? It does nothing anywhere in the speed range of the engine, and it don't matter where I have it set either. It does seem to have gobs of power for "only" a 340. I just wish I could let go of the throttle and have it idle on its own.
It does seem to take a bit more throttle than I would think for the clutch to start to engage. though it has sat for IDK how long, (most current reg expired in 1987, doesn't mean it wasn't ridden in that long) and both clutch halves were stiff, about 10 laps around my yard and it has freed up quite a bit, but still seems to take a little more revs than I thought it would (may be normal for this model, IDK)
sled has 2400 miles showing;
engine I put on had a lil over 6K from another sled, its most recent sticker was Y2K.
I still have the orig engine that came off, w/good compression; but I never heard that engine run, it's only a 300; I wanted "more power" so I put the 340 engine in there instead. I got rid of the 340 carcass and kept the 300 engine, specifically to have a spare. but if I cant get the 340 going I'd rather have less power of the 300 and "running good" vs the 340 running like crap.
1st choice is to get the 340 engine running as it should but i aint spending much on it to do so, since I do have the other engine (all except for the carb, that is)
I've been working on engines for 30 years but 2 strokes have always given me fits.
sled is 79 Enticer 300, engine came from 80 340 Enticer Deluxe. carb on the 340 has always been with the 340, I never got one with the 300.
 
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Did you remove the pilot jet and make sure its not plugged?
 
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Jay13 said:
Did you remove the pilot jet and make sur its not plugged?

x2 - the carb has to come completely apart and a wire or drill bit (by hand) run through all the passages and jets.

The engine RPM's may not be correct because of the mismatch of pulleys. Each pulley has to be matched to the sled and the engine used. When you change that, the RPM's may be incorrect for the sled to operate properly
 
PZ 1 said:
x2 - the carb has to come completely apart and a wire or drill bit (by hand) run through all the passages and jets.

The engine RPM's may not be correct because of the mismatch of pulleys. Each pulley has to be matched to the sled and the engine used. When you change that, the RPM's may be incorrect for the sled to operate properly

Both sleds I had were Enticers, a 79 300 and an 80 340 Deluxe (elec start)
Everything looked identical from the gas tank forward; the only difference I found was the 300 has a shorter tunnel. and no compartment in the seat.
I left the drive half of the 340 clutch on the 340 engine; the orig driven half is still on the 300; all the belts matched up the exact same part number, that would tell me right there, that I didn't change any pulley sizes; the engines bolted directly in place of one another, and the exh matched up w/o any "custom" work;

the only thing you say that I didn't do was to run a wire thru the jeets and such; I did blow them out though and could see daylight thru them.
 
If it is smoking and not idling well it may be running rich. Make sure the choke plunger is seating, there should be some up and down play in the cable at the carb.
 
PZ 1 said:
If it is smoking and not idling well it may be running rich. Make sure the choke plunger is seating, there should be some up and down play in the cable at the carb.
thanks. though I was leaning towards improperly adjusted oil pump cable, since the smoke is blue. I have no service info on this sled, setup specs, etc. so I have no idea where that cable is supposed to be set... there is an adjuster on the carb end.
 
I think I got it!

2 things; 1) I took my welding torch tip cleaner and (again) went thru the passages; there was one that was hard to get thru; I went up in size and got a couple sizes larger tip cleaner thru it; this passage, if you look into the throat of the carb from the airbox side, it was slightly to the right of center on the bottom; starting from the outermost part of the venturi cone, angled downward towards the back of the carb; and,
2) the choke plunger thingie; I thought it was seating downwards against its seat when the choke was released, but I guess it wasn't;
you see, as I pulled the engine from one machine, and installed it on the other, the donor sled had the choke cable and such but no carb when I got it; the cable from the orig sled was frozen in its conduit as well as the choke plunger being frozen in the carb; I had to heat teh carb body and ulitmately drill the plunger out on a drill press to get it to releasel
the "recipient" sled body didn't have the choke plunger spring on the cable; but I remember the "donor" sled cable having that spring in there above the plunger; luckily I found that I'd kept that frozen choke cable, the spring was still attached to it; (that cable was originally off of this carb too, when the engine and carb were in the other body!) I put that spring back in there and (re) cleaned a few passages and it now runs good, and starts easy.

Having worked on many many engines over the years, cars trucks tractors etc, but rarely a snowmobile or motorcycle, there are "just" enough differences among the different components, to throw ya for a loop compared to what you might be "used" to; car carbs and tractor carbs don't have a choke "plunger" for instance.....
I haven't yet had to, on any engine powered machine I have ever encountered, but due to lack of familiarty and service info, I "almost" punted on this one,
I was all ready to take the sled to a local guy that works on them out of his home garage, I called him to see if he would be home, since he was just leaving as I tried to take the sled to him 2 days ago, he was coincidentally just pulling out, as I was a block away; that did give me the chance to get his ph number off the back of his truck,
I called him tonite to see if he'd be there, so I could "punt" it off to him, and told him how tired i was becoming of this sled and it "not cooperating", and where I was at with it; and he gave me a few things to check, via the phone, and got me thru it.... I found that one dirty passage and put the spring back in the choke and that was it! I would think that 2 soaks, the 2nd one in "fresh" carb dip, would have eaten away any varnish within that old carb, but I guess not.... it was definitely much cleaner on the surfaces I could see, after the 2nd soak, than after the 1st!
Not knowing how that choke syst. is "supposed" to work, did throw me off track somewhat.
now to get a battery for it, for the elec start, and try and see if I can register it "legally';

especially since just as i was wanting to take it down the ditch line and into the field, a county cop conveniently drove thru the subdivision, a rare sight here. i have not yet left my yard with this sled, other than in the bed of my old Dodge, I don't need any hassle from them! My yard has many "laps" worn into the snow pack, fer sure.....

now I'm wondering if I shoulda torn into the old Skidoo that had been sitting alongside the original Enticer I had (the engine donor for this Enticer) instead of selling it via CL....

I started this endeavor, thinking I didn't want to sink alot of money into a sled with the limited use it would see in our "typical" winters, thinking that i'd rather have a quad that I could use year round; I don't have much actual money tied up in this sled but alot of computer time and hands on time, the $$ I sold the other Enticer carcass and the Skidoo project for, paid about 2/3 of what money that I do have wrapped up into this machine.
and this is not a "typical" winter, it'a a winter the likes of which I havent seen since '79-80 when I was in Jr High.
if I can find another one "cheap," that needs a little work, between now and next winter I may have to get it.... yeah, I know, I just got rid of one of those.
 


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