I need help with this ST 350 engine and clutch. Please.

gadavis

I am working on a friend's car that he uses on his farm. It was getting hard to crank. He would have to keep running the starter for about a minute or so,(good starter!) and finally it would struggle to life. It was spitting back through the carburetor as it was trying to crank. Finally has gotten to the point it will not crank. I checked the valves and they had about .005 clearance. Then I checked for spark,OK. Changed plugs,the ones in it were oily and sooted up. Checked compression on both cylinders and it had 40 & 45 # compression. Squirted oil in cylinders and rechecked it found it had 85# then. Low compression seems to be causing blow by out vent pipe into air filter box. Checked for timing using a screwdriver to find TDC. it appeared close, but can you check it accurately with out pulling the timing belt cover? Looks like the clutch/starter pulley will have to come off to check the belt under the cover. I got the clutch center bolt out and looked at the threads to see if the regular 1/2" X 20 t.p.i. bolt would push it off, but the push off threads are much larger. I then stuck an 18 mm spark plug thread in the hole and it was larger than that. Must be about 19 mm. which is close to 3/4". How can I get this clutch off with out buying a puller for this one time. "help out a friend" deal? Here are some photos of it. Can anyone tell the year model of it. The engine is a 350, but there is not a model year info tag that we can find. The first picture shown the internal threads of the clutch. TIA for help. Gene Davis

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BGW

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mcdave71

Stole this quote from another thread on here.

gadavis

Thanks Mcdave 71. While waiting to see if any one had any advice,I picked up a 3/4' fine thread bolt, tried it and it fit. I then cut a 4" length of 5/8"round stock and popped the clutch off with my impact wrench. When I got it off, the belt was still in time. The only thing I can conclude is that 40# compression is maybe not enough to run. One cylinder has 40 the other has almost 45. Spark is blue and present at both new plugs. The valves have about .005 clearance and seem to be opening and closing as needed. The odd thing is that it will not try to run with gas put in the carburetor from a squirt bottle. Guess I will put it back together and continue looking for a gremlin.

Thanks. Gene

StoveBolt

I don't think that's enough either Gene, should be in the 150 range, what does the hour meter say?

Also should be a serial number/year ID plate on the left wall of the passenger glove box.

I think ezgo came out with that front cowl in 99, then 04 was the last steel dump box,
so I'm guessing it's in that time frame.

rusty shackel

tear it down mic bore if ok hone and add rings if not , bore it out and put in new piston n rings
also clean and reseat valves. it should be good then.

gadavis

Thanks guys for all the help. He has decided to take it back to the place he bought it from because it is supposed to have been a reconditioned engine and he says it only has a few hundred hours on it. With no hour meter that is a debatable question. That gets me off the hook for a bunch of stuff. So they can argue it out.

Thanks again and also there is no info plate on the passenger side glove box. Thanks for all the help. Gene