My 601 is had to start after it is ran for a while

farmer3333

New User
my 601 is very hard to start after it has been running for a while I have to choke it very heavy to get it to start and some times it just stops running this is something that just started happening. I have made sure the gas flow to the carbarater and the carb is clean. I have changed the points, the distributor cap and the rotar buttons. Where do I go next? Please advise. Thanks Alex
 
Check more, change less.

At moment of hard start.. what's spark like?

If good, move to air/fuel/compression side of coin
 
(reply to post at 18:56:26 01/17/15)
t has good spark but it like it has a hard time drawing the fuel cause the plugs will be dry and I have to put my hand over the carb to get it to draw enough gas to start. It starts great when the engine is cold but after it warms up sometimes it dies out of the blue and then I can't get it started again without choking heavy and putting my hand over the carb...
 
If it starts good, runs OK, then stalls and spark is good and
plugs are dry, try start fluid, if it takes off immediately, check
carb first

Starting good cold likely means compression OK.

PS, might check timing too
 
I wouldn't expect valve clearance to change suddenly, however if suspect, the dry/wet test will tell some
 
When it dies carefully pull the gas cap off . Listen for a vacuum type sound or a blow out sound. Gas tank vent maybe clogged up and pulling a vacuum which means the carb does not get gas. Or the fuel line maybe going bad and closing off when it gets hot which it does. You can also pull the carb drain plug and make sure you have a good steady gas flow when it dies
 
I'm with OLD on this one...had a Deere lawn tractor do the exact same thing...turned out to be the gas cap vent was plugged. Took a while to figure it out after cleaning carb, replace fuel filter etc...finally unscrewed the gas cap, started right up. Cleaned the vent hole- whala! Besides it cost nothing (except for all the time I had the carb off and so on and the fuel filter). Just loosen the cap and see if it starts.
 

yelp... or a piece of gunk floating around in the tank.. That stops up the drain and cuts it off... so check the cap and if not drain the tank, remove the drain valve and clean all.
 
Assuming its fuel as you say the spark is good

How long after starting does it get in trouble? 1 minute? 20
minutes?

During that window of time when it is running, can you load the
engine, or will it stall?

My Jube did this very badly and it was a clogged filter in the
tank, as others have said.

Does it do it on first starting in the morning, or do you have to
run it a few hours and then it acts up?

did anything change such that the fuel line might be now in
contact with the manifold and causing boiling?
 
(reply to post at 19:50:52 01/17/15)
Thanks to everyone for the help. It is much appreciated. I have used a seperate one gallon gas tank to rule out the trash in the tank. Installed a new fuel line and filter with no change to the problem. I was thinking it might be valve clearance but I wasn't sure if that could cause this problem so that will be my next step is to check that. Does anyone know the clearance specs are off the top of your head. The problem starts 20 min to an hour into work. Thanks again for all your input. Also I havent checked the timing yet so will do that as well. Alex
 

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