questions for the master mechanics...

I keep trying to reason it out.
1' Stuck ring. I don't know why it would start with gas down the plug if the ring was stuck.
2 Bad plug. again I can't figure why it would start at all.
3 clogged muffler, till I get out and try it, I'm thinking that is the best bet. When I pull the plug to stick the gas in, it gets a breath of air. If the cylinder is a vacuum now with the clogged muffler, then pulling the plug would change the oxygen content in the jug. At least that is the theory for today.

If it fires when the muffler is off, I have to do some thinging. That muffler has a hole drilled in it and I would like to find one laying around that would fit without a hole. I'm tired of the little ladies running for their lives in fear when I'm still a block away.
 
Well it ain't the muffler. I'm gonna have to go with something more serious than is worth the trouble to fix. Poulan 1 deacon 0...

Yeah I'm with you on the low compression I have ruled out about every easy fix I can think of. If I had a guage I would check it before I tossed it but it does seem to turn easy.

I'm gonna put the homelite on a bike so I have something to ride then give some thought to a bigger engine and a better frame build. Or something like that lol.

thanks for all the help guys. I think I'll look around for a guage on ebay.
 
oh heck I'll hang on to and this winter when in a deep dark funk, I will take a look at the jug. It was junk when I bought it and it will be junk when I dump it. I should have bought the second chains saw the same as the first one then I could just switch out the parts. Oh well.

Instead I have two junk engines.
 
Deacon, Sorry to hear that you are having a bit of a go with your bikes. I have always wondered how it was that you could run your engines without the cooling shroud in place. The engine fins were not intended to cool the engine without forced draft. I suspect that it could take toll on the longevity of the engine. All the best to you in sorting out the problem. Following your posts I see you enjoy the quest as much as the the finish. Have fun, Dave
 
When I see a compression tester I will pick one up. These engines are cheap enough that I can put it in a corner for now.
 
the 33 poulan that I have been working with so long really doesn't have any compression to amount to anything. That it happened all at once is surprising unless I broke the ring or some other catastrophic failure. I'm not going autopsy it, just give it a decent burial after I dismember it.
 
I bought a compression tester on ebay. When it comes I'll let you know the readings if it works. One never knows with things from ecrapshoot.
 
deacon, I got me a cheap idea. You could use one of those tire valve and rubber stem from a tubeless tire and hook it up to a bicycle pump with gauge. Then with a helper holding the rubber stem to the sparkplug hole, pull the starter rope and read the bicycle pump's gauge for compression.^5

I have a bicycle pump that locks onto the valve stem when I add air or check my air pressure. If you have one of those it'd be easier to work with.
 
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If the compression tester I bought doesn't work I'll give that a try. Sounds like it should work. I have the tire guage built into my electric pump but I could try one of the sliding ones I have. I have plenty of old tubes around with valve stems.

Somewhere, god alone knows where, I have one of those adapters I used when I had a plug that fouled out. I was no more than the end of a spark plug with a hole in it. the idea was to move the plug farther back from the fuel oil mixture. I bet that would be ideal to old the valve stim with a little help. That would have been a fun experiment.
 
Deacon, I'm not sure if you know this but hold the throttle open when doing your compression test. Also let us know what the results were.
This sucks that you're having so many problems with this motor.
 
Ah but once you mentally write it off it becomes a puzzle. I am at that point now. I probably will disect the engine to see what it really was. I am not going to try to fix it but I am curious. Oh I would fix a bad butt gasket but not much else.
 
Okay the pressure guage arrived.

It looks like about sixty pounds of pressure tops.

It leaks down of course immediately. I expected the gauage to stay up but it leaks back down almost immediately. I couldn't run the threads in completely the piston wouldn't clear it. Not sure if that effected it or not. Any ideas.
 
60 is low, it will run but not well. You could put grease on the threads and see if it will be better. Small engines are hard to get good readings from. Have fun, Dave
 
will run but not good would be consistent with will run on carb cleaner, but not run with the carb.

I'm going to have to give this some more thought.
 
Careful with the carb cleaner that stuff will take all the oil off the cylinder and send the piston to the scrap heap, LOL. We used to start all the engines in the shop on WD40 but the new version is not good for starting. It would add oil and fuel, I wish they would have left it alone. Have a nice Thanksgiving. Have fun, Dave
 
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