On Dec 16, 9:10*pm, wrote:
On Dec 16, 8:43*pm, Jay Chan wrote:





On Dec 14, 5:12*pm, ransley wrote:

On Dec 14, 2:21*pm, Jay Chan wrote:

I have a John Deere Snow Thrower Model 522 that has a Tecumseh engine
(model HSSK50). *Since several years ago, I have been having a problem
running its engine without any choke. *It will run if I put it on Full
Choke or at more than 60% choke. *But the engine will stop if I reduce
the choke to less than 60%. *I was under the impression that this
problem means that the carburetor needs to be fully cleaned. *Today, I
finally have the carburetor fully disassembled and sprayed and soaked
the components in carburetor cleaner. *And I also replace some parts
with parts from a repair kit. *But after I have cleaned it and re-
assembled it, I find that the problem is still there.

Now that I have the carburetor cover removed, I can see the arms of
the various valves of the carburetor in action. *I notice these:

1. *When the engine is running at Full Choke, the throttle valve is
open. *I think this is normal because I am running the engine in full
throttle.

2. *When the engine is running at 80% choke, I notice that the
throttle valve is nearly closed. *This is odd because I have set the
throttle lever to Full (Fast); the throttle valve seems to be closing
by itself. *The engine "seems" to be running fine. *But I have a
feeling that the engine "sounds" like it is running in slow throttle.
Is this normal? *What's sucking the throttle valve from Full to Slow?

3. *When the engine is running at less than 60% choke, I notice that
the throttle valve is opening and closing, opening and closing, and so
on ... all by itself. *Therefore, the engine is speeding up and then
slowing down, speeding up and then slowing down, and so on... * This
opening and closing cycle is like just 1.5 seconds. *This opening and
closing cycle will increase to something like 2 seconds if I slightly
open the choke just a bit (something like 55% choke). *I don't think
this is normal. *But I don't know what is causing it to automatically
closed and then opened again.

4. *When the engine is running at 50% choke or lower (less choke, more
open), the engine will stop, and the throttle valve will go back to
the full open.

What is going on here? *I have checked the spring that keeps the
throttle valve at full open (and is the one linked to the throttle
lever), and it seems strong enough to keep the throttle valve at full
open position if the throttle level is in the Full (Fast) position.
What is so powerful that it can suck/push this throttle valve to
close?

Is the carburetor needed to be cleaned one more time?

One additional question: *The Tech Manual from John Deere asks me to
make sure the engine is running at 3600 rpm when the engine is set at
high-speed mode. *I am under the impression that we don't want the
engine to spin too fast and burn itself. *That's why we want to keep
its rpm to not more than a certain limit. *This means I need a
tachometer. *But tachometer seems to require seeing or touching the
spinning part of the tachometer in order to measure the rpm.
Unfortunately the engine is fully enclosed, and I cannot see the
spinning part of the engine. *Is there any tachometer that doesn't
require seeing or touching the spinning part of the engine? *Can we
measure the rpm by timing the number of sparks that the spark plug
makes?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jay Chan

If by cleaning you mean with spray carb cleaner, that isnt the same as
what you soak them in. Are there needle adjustments on the carb, often
that is all that is needed. 3600 rpm is a base for most all small
power equipment like this, a cheap hour meter usualy has a tach, they
have a wire that wraps around the plug wire- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for telling me that the type of tachometer is called "Hour
Meter".

Having said this I decide to get a cheap optical tachometer. *The
reason is that I have found a way to get access to the spinning part
of the engine, and I can use the optical tachometer to measure the rpm
of the spinning part of the engine.

Jay Chan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Jay,

the throttle on these small engines is controlled by a GOVERNOR
system, *when the engine is under light load, the throttle will be
more closed, when the engine is under heavy load the governor senses
the engine trying to slow down and will open the throttle to tey to
keep it running at a constant speed as the load changes. The governor
usually *is a mechanical setup with springs and rotating weightsw or
fan air pressure usually inside the engine that you cannot see. *All
you see of the governor is a lever that comes out of the engine and is
connected to the springs. *This level is suposed to move as a fnuction
of the engine spped. * You have to understand the concept of the
governor to troubleshoot these problems. *If you disable the goverenor
and operate the engine at wide open throttle and no load, IT WILL over
rev and can possible fly apart, that can be dangerous. * If you don't
nuderstand all this., proceed with caution. *When you first start it
up after any repair, you have to be ready to SHUT ER DOWN immediatly
if it starts to over rev. * There are many good websites on small
engine repair.

Mark- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for taking the time to warn me about the danger of letting the
engine to spin too fast. Yes, I know about this. This is the reason
why I want to get a tachometer to make sure I don't let the engine to
spin more than what the manufacturer's has recommended (3600 rpm). So
far, just by hearing the sound from the engine, the problem with the
engine seems to be running too slow and is not running too fast. The
tachometer will arrive in this weekend or early next week just in time
as a X'mas gift for myself.

Currently I am suspecting that the spring that is supposed to keep the
throttle valve open may have become weak; I am waiting for the
tachometer before testing this theory in case I manually open the
throttle valve too wide and let the engine spins too fast. Or the
throttle lever arm is not setup in the correct position; I checked
this once by following the manufacturer's recommended setup and I
don't think this is the problem.

The hardest part that I can think of is how to simulate the situation
when it is running under load while monitoring the rpm using a
tachometer. Currently there is no snow on the ground to test the snow
thrower. Even if there was snow on the ground, I would have a hard
time using the machine to throw snow while holding the handheld
tachometer to point at the spinning part of the engine. I may just
have to lift the wheels off the ground with wood blocks, and let the
wheels and the snow throwing mechanism to free spin. Seem like a
"Hour Meter" is a better device for this test instead of the handheld
tachometer that I have ordered. Oh well...

Jay Chan