On Wednesday, December 30, 1998 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-5, Unknown wrote:
The engine is under warranty and will be going into the service shop,
but before that I'm looking for opinions and advice from others that may
have experienced the same.
The engine is a 10HP Tecumseh with low oil shutdown, and is part of a
Coleman 5KW genset that's now about 3 months old. Bought in SAM's club.
When purchased in Sept, I ran the unit the recommended 2 hours with no
load, then changed the oil, and ran it for another hour. It now has a
total of 3 hours on the engine, in about 8 starts. Unit was put into a
semi-heated garage for about 3 months. All gas used had the full storage
dose of Stabil in it.
In Sept., the unit started and ran fine.
Tried to start it the other day, mainly because 3 other people I know
bought the same unit at the same time, gave their units the same
break-in, and in mid Dec., when they tried starting the units, they
couldn't get the engine running.
When I tried to start mine, it wouldn't start. Correction: it took about
100 pulls over an hour before it would start. When it finally started, I
let it run for 1/2 hour.
Next day, started much better - only 50 pulls.
Coleman 800# said to take it to Techumseh dealer for warranty service,
and further said that Tecumseh had problems with low oil shutoff
switches.
Today, tried again, only this time I hooked up an automotive timing
light to the plug wire. The timing light did fire, so something was
getting to the plug. Don't know if it was enough, though.
After about 30 pulls, during which it made no attempt whatsoever to
fire, I pulled the plug, and it was not wet. After another 20 pulls, it
started, ran for 30 seconds, then died.
Another 20 pulls, and it was running again - but every 15 seconds or so,
it would momentarily hesitate, drop in speed, then pick back up. Did
this for 15 minutes, at which time I shut it off.
Carb is one of the newer units, with no externally-accessible
adjustments.
I've had half a dozen Tecumseh engines over 35 years, and don't ever
recall needing more than 2 pulls to get them going - even after sitting
idle for 2 years.
And it's not just me, as three other units won't start either.

Has anyone experienced this on the Tecumseh engines, and what was the
final resolution / repair done?