801 starts runs fine for 2 minutes then dies

polishdan

Member
After it dies I let it set for a few minutes and it restarts right away and runs again for a few minutes. Blew out fuel line and carbs (2 of them, no difference). Tightened & sealed fittings on fuel bowl - not sucking any air. Do I have 2 bad carbs or a curse? Ant comments would be appreciated.
 
My 840 was doing a similar thing recently - would start, run a while, then die. I checked for good fuel flow from the tank and that was O.K. When it died if I gave it a whiff of ether or gas to the carb air intake it would burp showing I still had ignition. Unlike yours, if I put in my spare carb it would run (although my spare carb had a different problem). I put a carb kit in the suspect carb and carefully adjusted the float level, reinstalled and then the tractor would run. The way I figure the fuel bowl wasn't being filled fast enough and when the bowl's fuel was used up the engine died. If allowed to sit for a while the bowl would slowly fill allowing another start/die sequence. Of course your mileage my vary, these things are often hard to pin down.
 
Could be a number of things. So fil in the blanks what have you done to it? If you just did a tune up and change the condenser put the old one back in good chance the problem will go away. Other wise do this trouble shooting.
#1 the moment it dies make sure you have a good blue/white spark at the center wire of the distributor cap and at the plug wires that jumps a 1/4 inch gap or more. If no spark try a hot wire from the battery ignition side to the ignition side of the coil. If it runs how wired good chance you have a poor connection or bad ignition switch. If you have good spark
#2. Pull the carb drain plug and make sure you have a good steady flow of gas that will fill a pint jar in less then 3 minutes.
#3 when was the last time you serviced the air cleaner and dumped the mud and water and fill it with oil
 
Thanks, you have helped me out a number of times. Spark is fine, when I pulled the bowl cap it was a slow drizzle probably less than a pint/3 mins as far as I could measure. Air cleaner is clean. Should Iadjust the floar and try again>?
 
I would if the flow is slow work your way back to the tank till you find where the flow slows down. Maybe even take the line loose at the sediment bowl and with the gas cap off blow some compressed air into the line so as to make sure you have a good clear line
 
In my first reply I didn't want to get too bogged down in details specific to my situation. The malfunctioning carb was a Zenith replacement. I ordered a broad application kit from Ebay. The seat and needle were a bit different than the originals so I used them and adjusted the float level to the specs on the instruction sheet. I was mainly interested in seeing if this would make the carb work so I didn't go to the nth degree tearing everything else apart on the carb. It seemed to work. So I guess my job would be considered a small kit. My backup carb is the original Marvel, some day when I get ambitious I'll go through that one with a fine tooth comb.
 
Was the bowl full when it died? Shine a bright FLASHLIGHT in the fill hole and look at the screen on the shutoff.
 
Make sure if you flip the carb right side up then up side down and it is off the tractor that you can hear the float moving
 
Thanks to all who have replied, I have ordered rebuild kits for my carbs. My theory is sticking needle valve caused by ethanol gumming or rubber degradation on the tip of the needle valve. Will advise after rebuild.
 
Ordered a kit?? If you have a local O'Reilly's auto parts they carry a Walker Brand kit 778-505A which while a basic kit it covers most common problems wit ha carb and cost is around $20
 
I recently had a fuel flow problem on a 601. I found that the sediment bowl mounting bolt cross drilled hole did not line up with the inside of the casting. Redrilled in line with the cavity, worked perfectly.
 
SUCCESS! Thanks to all for your help. The gremlin was the sediment bowl screen, just dirty enough to slow the fuel rate and not replenish the carb bowl sufficiently.
 

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