3400 update.. she's running!

Just a quick update.. the 3400 I picked up back in November (rebuilt carb, found sheared rivets on the ring gear while changing fluids, etc.) is finally back together enough to turn the key.

Fired right off on the first try, but failed to keep running. Quickly realized that the brown wire from the relay to the coil was connected, but the resistance wire (which gives the coil its juice when the key isn't cranking the starter) was unhooked.

After fixing that, it fired right up.

Interestingly, if I hit the throttle hard, it basically roars for a bit and and then dies. On the other hand, if I increase the throttle gradually the RPMs increase and the engine sounds good. I'm guessing this is the accelerator pump on the Holley that is "roaring" and maybe flooding the engine?

Got some reading and learning to do but very excited to see things start up and run on the first try.. huge improvement compared to when I first got the machine back in November.

Also was able to confirm that the 3pt is now working (it was stuck before.. control valve was crusted up).

Thanks everyone for all the help and advice along the way!
Greg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr0gKoK87f0

Good to hear it is alive.

Vito

(quoted from post at 02:42:35 07/14/12) Good to hear it is alive.

Vito

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Thanks Vito! Did some more reading, planning to adjust the governor and throttle linkages tomorrow AM and see if that improves anything. It certainly can't hurt. Lots of other good information on things to check before pulling the carb again.

Got a friend dropping by on Sunday and hopefully with an extra set of hands I can get a better audio/video of what's happening when it shuts down.

Thanks again -
Greg

Good update Greg. Funny but that's about a half dozen ring gears on 3400s that I've heard of that grenaded or broke the rivitts in. Yet the 3000 is the same parts and you rarely hear of one of those going bad. Must be all the back and forth loader work that does them in on a 3400.
Maybe the accelerator pump is not working at all?

Did you get the tire off the rim? How did you do it?

(quoted from post at 14:10:49 07/14/12) Did you get the tire off the rim? How did you do it?

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Haven't got the tire off yet. Hoping to borrow my friend's tire hammer/maul today.

Made some more progress on the engine.. oil pressure sender is dead, plumbed in a gauge and I have 55-60psi. I can definitely live with that. Generator is working fine. Figured out why it was dying.. the rod connecting the hand throttle to the governor control lever arm is missing its clip, and when the governor kicked in that rod would pop out and the engine would die.

I safety-wired that so it won't come out, and now what I find is this:

1. Idle is OK, a little high at 800rpm but I haven't really fussed with it much yet.

2. I can gradually increase engine RPMs to about 1200 or so and things seem fine.

3. Beyond that, the engine starts hunting.. it will rev high then governor will kick in and it just cycles like that, revving and sputtering, revving and sputtering. I was able to reduce the throttle gradually back to idle and have it come out of it, but if I back the throttle down quickly it will stall/die.

I made a video, need to get it off the camera, will post a link soon. Time to go re-read the theory of operation section in the manual again. Nothing in the troubleshooting section about hunting. I don't have a lot of experience in this area.. seems like a pretty complicated system between the governor, the accelerator pump, etc. so any advice is more than welcome!

Greg

OK, here's a video showing how it starts to surge/hunt above about 1200 rpm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6sv9l5ZxQ

I'm going to go through the governor linkage/throttle linkage adjustments in the I&T manual to see if that helps. From previous threads I just read, I'll also try the choke to see if that helps, thereby indicating a lean condition.

If you've seen this issue before and know what the problem is (or just have ideas or thoughts) let me know. Thanks!

Greg

Way too much slop in the governor linkage, adjusted that by simply undoing the lock nuts and shortening up the shaft between the governor and the carb.

Also some slop in the hand throttle shaft that was bugging me (but wasn't causing the surging). Laid a small bead of new metal in the egged out notch where it mates and filed out a new tight mating surface for the bolt that captures it.

Now I can get it to idle down to 600 rpms, I can increase rpms gradually via foot or hand throttle to 2000-2200 or so no problem, and if I mash on the foot throttle it will bark and respond without too much hesitation, no stalling, no surging. I guess now I need to get the rear tire back on and see what it will do under load.

I have a minor fuel leak between the bowl and the carb body. Nothing dripping, just a thin film of fuel shows up there. I suspect that'd also be a small vacuum leak.. probably I need to pull the bowl and double-check those mating surfaces. Tightening the screws a little more doesn't help, so I worry that maybe they were once over-tightened and now things are a little warped.

All in all though, pretty happy with how it's running. Waaaay better. Have a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p72zlpD9Fiw

Thanks everyone for the advice along the way. The Tisco kit seems to have worked well!

Greg