A sticking exhaiust valve can cause blow back out the carb.
Pull off the rocker covers , check the heights of the valves, they all should be the same,
Watch the operation of the valves.
These engines tend to bend pushrods.
Ok so Lets think this through. Gas fires in the cylinder. Fire should only be there. What stops the fire from entering or exiting the cylinder? Valves that are timed correctly so they open and close at the correct time so burning gas does not go into the intake manifold or exhaust manifold when it is not supposed to. So if fire is in the intake manifold either some one has places a spark plug in there or the valve is not closing at the correct time or completely. So what could cause this? Timing off, in correct valve lash. So I would check the valve lash and the shear pin. Not just look at it but remove it and inspect.
Curious, What gives the module the signal to do "it's thing"?
Only thing I could fathom would be the flywheel magnets via the
coil.
Just had a thought, could one use an automotive timing light to see
if indeed the module is making spark way off of TDC?
If so, HOW?
The voltage generated by the coil starts from 0 V then rises to around 200 V then drops back off to 0 V
The module reads the rising voltage being generated by the coil and when it gets to a predetermined level it diverts to an earth circuit and send the voltage down the wire to the primary windings.
You can use an inductive timing light to check the timing fairly easily.
Remove the engine cover and spark plug.
with the piston at TDC pop a dot of white paint on the top of a ringear tooth and another spot on the engine case opposite it.
With the timing lamp connected to an external battery start the engine and read where the dot is when the engine is running.
You can count the teeth between the dot on the tooth and the dot on the cases to convert this to cankcase degrees.
Limit this to 10 minutes max as running without the cover will overheat the engine.
To check the stability, once you have established where the dot will be at running speeds, put another mark , a line for instance at this spot.
the rin the engine a second time checking for the dot dancing around the line.
If you want to be really accurate you can stick some wide masking tape on the crank case and mark it out in 2 deg steps from TDC to 20 deg before TDC and paint the while top of the tooth so you are looking at an arrow head and not a dot
Thanks Motoman and Bert for the "high voltage" lessons :laughing:
The replacement igniter was OEM. My uncle told me to go ahead
and order another OEM igniter to try.
Next time at my uncles, I'll throw my timing light
on for kicks and see what happens. Not sure if there's any
specs on those engines for degrees before TDC running,
or if any advance is built in to these igniter modules.
If it would start, I wouldn't even worry about the timing
but thought it might be another diagnostic tool I haven't used yet!
I like working on old outboards....... with points and condensers, lol.
Tom
The new igniter arrived today, so I went to my uncles.
I checked the ohms on the new igniter against the
slightly older igniter. They basically tested out the same
on the meter.
I guesstimated where TDC of the piston was and made
a chalk mark on the flywheel, which basically when the
flywheel magnet is lined up with the coil shoes.
Cranked the engine over with a timing light attached,
first with the older chip, then the newest. The older chip / igniter
seemed to fire the plug a little more advanced than the newer,
but the newer chip fired the plug when the magnet was centered
with the coil shoes.
Tried starting mower with new igniter, and "no go". It's still
creating flames in the carb intake and not really sounding like
it wants to start at all.
We're totally baffled. Surely someone has had this same thing
happen before? :confused2:
Thanks for any more ideas!
Did you ever figure out what was wrong with the motor? I'm experiencing the same thing. I very much don't want to toss parts at it.. I'm experiencing the same behavior you were seeing.