LT2000 won’t start

jerrycmorrow

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Mar 16, 2014
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U need spark, compression, and fuel. I told U that before. I see U have gotten tons of spark plug replies, that U can file in the garbage can. Test the compression and if U have above 60 lbs. it certainly should at least fire. Keep us posted, and I will help U along.
Did you actually read my post?
 

jerrycmorrow

Active Member
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Mar 16, 2014
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I'd bet a mass of frozen water in the bottom. Enough of it melted during the brief test run to show up in the oil.

I changed the hydraulic fluid in my woodsplitter. Still suffered from slow ram action. After removing the engine to expose the tank's interior, I discovered a slab of ice over a quarter-inch thick and 6- to 8-inches around. The pump would suck the slab tight against the fluid uptake pipe, lol.

Just guessing you may have a mini-iceberg too!
Maybe so. We’ll see
 

TobyU

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Jun 1, 2014
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You can forget about wasting the time adjusting the valves for now. If it started and ran a little bit ago then it's not really a problem with the valves despite the fact they're probably looser than they should be cuz that's what they do but not a big deal until it gets hard to crank over.
The red flags here are that the spark plug was wet which and that the oil was diluted with fuel or at least it sounds like it.
That leads me to believe it has the all too common issue of fuel migration which is when the carburetor does not shut off properly with the needle and seat the way it's supposed to and it floods out the carburetor when it's sitting. The first sign of this is often that the machine won't start when you choke it like you have always done for years but when you turn the choke off and crank it a little bit longer it fires right up but also blows a little bit of white smoke for a couple of seconds.
People often find this has become the new way they have to start their lawn mower by no choke and of course these are supposed to need choke to start.
That's the most minor and probably the most common early on. Then you have the issue where you come out and smell gas and see it leaking on the ground and then you have the ones that leak all of it out and your gas tank is then dry but you know it had gas when you parked it.
Then you have the ones that depending on how the engine Coast down to a stop, will flood out the entire cylinder with gas and hydrolock so it will start to crank and then stop abruptly.
Then, when you pull the spark plug out and crank it over a little bit you better have an old shop cloth handy and point it in a proper safe direction because it will blow gas and spray it everywhere.
It's also possible for a stray spark if the spark plug wire happens to be in the right location to catch that fuel on fire but it usually wouldn't go anywhere from there and just smothering it with a towel would put it out.
It is worth being cautious though.
You can often remove the air filter and look with a flashlight to see if there's gas peddling in the intake but that only works on the flat rectangular air filter and maybe one other one and the D shaped hole went on the twins because most of the newer ones have the round air filter that sticks onto the round tube and there is a 90° turn in the tube so you can't see much.
 
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