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Wood splitter LCT engine

C

Crem

Member
I am working on a friends Forest King 22 ton wood splitter bought at Menards a couple of years ago.
It has a 6.5 HP LCT 208 Series engine. The engine will run but kicks back when starting. It will rip the cord right out of my hand with a lot of force. At first I thought about maybe a compression release problem but adjusted the valves to no avail. I pulled the flywheel to check for a bad key but all is well there so I cleaned up the flywheel and coil areas but it still pulls out that cord out of my hand like a mule. There is not a lot of information out there for these engines. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Thanks.
 
I forgot to mention that when pulling the start cord with the switch off there is a lot of compression but it never pulls the cord out of my hand. Turning the switch on and pulling the cord is taking a chance on getting the handle ripped out of my hand.
 
Check to see if the flywheel key that indexes the flywheel to the crankshaft is in place, and intact/not sheared or partially sheared.

If this is like most small engines, ignition timing is determined by that key, and it sounds like your ignition timing is too far advanced.
 
For Whatever Reason,.... The Timing is OFF You can Pretty much count on that, Double Check that Flywheel Key! I'm betting on that... Larry in N Ga.
 
Thanks guys for the thoughts on the flywheel key. I have had the flywheel off twice to check around and there is a woodruff key that looks nice and tight and the flywheel groove is ok too. The funny thing is that both times after I had the flywheel off and then reassembled everything the start cord pulled easily and it started right up. It ran for about five seconds and stopped both times. Trying to pull it again right after that was risking getting my arm tore off. LOl. Anyway I am taking a chance that the firing circuit which must be built inside of the coil is what is causing this. I have ordered a new coil from Ace Hardware which cost under twenty bucks to see what happens. It should be in around the middle of the week and I will update any results.
 
Well I finally figured this thing out. I installed the new coil and it still acted the same but that was all that I could think of trying at the time.
I started to think about the compression release and decided to pull the cover off of the side of the engine. The compression release is located on the back side of the cam gear. It has a spring that pulls a tab under the lifter to keep the valve open a bit. The spring had a piece of hard plastic stuck next to it so that it stayed in the running position even for start up. I am not sure where this plastic came from but there were other pieces in the oil. I think that it came from a part of the low oil sensor which is located there. Anyway it pull starts and runs great now.
I think what happened when the compression was not released and I pulled hard on the cord, it would get up to just before TDC and stop under high compression and it was at the point where it would fire. That would drive the piston back down and pull the cord out of my hand. It was pretty vicious and after a few hits actually broke the handle from slapping the engine on the way back.
 
Well I finally found out where the broken plastic pieces that kept the compression release from working came from. There was a black plastic oil fil/dipstick located on the back side of the engine. The thin shaft of plastic that shows the oil level was broke off and fell down into the bottom where it probably was beaten up. There is a separate larger metal cap and dipstick that I used so I never saw the plastic one.
 
Crem I hope your still active on this site. Your post I'm replying to is 3 years old. Just wanted to say thank you. I'm having the same problem with my LCt engine on my Forrest King log splitter. You have saved me a ton of trouble shooting research.

I drained the oil on my splitter and found pieces of plastic in the oil too. I put fresh oil in and the problem didn't go away. I took the pull starter off and turned the engine over with a drill on the crank. That's how I'm starting it now. Can you tell me how to get at the compression release spring in more detail? I am no mechanic but I can do things with a little help. Thanks again.
 
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