TRY, TRY, TRY and crying

spuron

1974 HD, model D, gas cart.

Have done the following:
Rebuilt clutch, carb, new points, condenser, spark plug, and replaced solenoid, and checked all electric circuits and coil. Checked and cleaned fwd/rev switch. New mounts for starter/generator and new belt. New transmission drive belt last year. Rechecked timing and replaced points and condenser. Adjusted carb with wheel jacked up and run at full throttle. Got best RPM possible. Replaced muffler also.

This cart will run at no more than about 70-75% of the RPM's at stand still with wheel jacked up and adjusting carb, and will only go about 10-12 MPH on pavement full throttle. (It used to go about 20 MPH, at best, before replacing solenoid and doing all electrical checking. Now the engine just will not give up the usual old time revs ! )

The cart flat quit one day and when I put on new solenoid it then ran again---BUT it will not run as fast as it used to. It starts and backs out promptly. Then the problems arise. Change to forward, step on throttle and have to help it along with the choke for about the first 200 yds. (about normal). However it has a difficult time getting up to its max ,slow speed. If you are in heavy grass it has to be choked and coddled to get it to start moving. If you stay in heavy grass it never gets to speed of pavement travel.
Have tried excessive choking after it starts and it begins to get to its max speed to no avail. It all but dies. When it gets going and you let up on the accelerator, it has a hard time getting back up to speed. So Slowly!
No jerks, no backfire, but exhaust is vile. No smoke, and not too excessive a smell except when working on it while standing motionless and running. Then it is arcid and makes eyes tear.

My problem is that after I have replaced parts and tuned,it refuses to get the RPMS up to where it used to. This cart is VERY slow and loses speed on ANY SLIGHT grade. How can it lose revs with new electric and tuning ???
WHO CAN HELP AND/OR SUGGEST ?? PLEASE !!!

Anyone, please. Remember: ALL suggestions, ideas, comments, anything at all are needed. I'M AT WITS END !!!!

BGW

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TomStark

There is a reason in pro racing that you never change more than one thing. (Well unless you are not in the field and have only 1 pass left to qualify, then you just change all sorts of stuff and hope you are at the track Sunday and not just spectating! LOL!).
With all the changes you made, you perhaps made a mistake, or had a bad part, or what ever. You may have made 3 things better and 2 worse, or what ever.
But you are where you are and did what you did, so where to go from here would be the question. I don't know a lot about carts, and have never even seen a HD cart. I am going to GUESS it is 2 stroke, is that correct?
From what you are describing, I am suspecting that you are lean, and may need a little more timing. Again, REALLY hard to say without the cart here, but choking helps it, makes it seem lean to me, and late timing will keep you from getting the revs you need. Most of the combustion happens before TDC, so late timing will REALLY hurt you. Hope this is helpful to you!
Tom

spuron

Thank you for replying. Yes it is a 2 stroke.
I have retimed and done carb tweaking quite a few times(3-5) and more but will do it all again.
It is just baffling to me to me that the rpms are not there like they used to be.
I did most of the attempts one thing at a time and not all at once which in itself is mysterious to me and I know what you speak of in doing too many changes all at once.
Thank you for the reply and I will have another go.

backyard

Yes it is a single cylinder 2 stroke.

How are you getting the rpm count?

Test the compression. That will tell you what your top end looks like.

Jack it up and crank it up and spray starter fluid around the seals and gaskets without spraying it in the intake and see if your rpms go up. If it does, you have an air leak in that area. Try not to spray it on the points because it could go boom.

The timing on mine had moved because I didnt tighten the points down good enough and the crank pushed the points back, changing my timing. Maybe you should check the timing again to verify.

Are you sure you didn't suck some trash up in the carb and clog it up?

spuron

Thank you for the reply and suggestions !

The revs are only about 60% of what my ears have heard before.

Your suggestions are great and help getting my 90 yr old brain going again.
I'll re-do the timing and try the starter fluid. If nothing appears I'll check the carb intake complete and try to get a compression check as per your suggestion.

I do appreciate your giving me time and suggestions very much. In the old days I used to be pretty good with 4 stroke engines and a few 2 bangers. BUT, this one has really got me stumped and it is not mechanic friendly by design. So much to disassemble to get at another part. Good engineering but tough to work on. Age does not help either ! Thanks so much for your input !!

Ron Benedict

Try checking the voltage going to your battery from the generator.Jack it up and using a volt meter see how many volts the generator is putting out. If it is over 141/2 volts the regulator is bad and this will suck up a bunch of horse power.

TomStark

Not to mention that the points will arc, and make it run poorly. I had a guy bring a slant 6 to me for a valve job one time. Sears said it needed a valve job. I did a compression test and all were good. Seems when Sears put on a new rocker cover gasket, they pinched the field wire under the cover and grounded it, making the alt put out all it could, making the points arc, making the engine miss. So rather than a $400 (around 30 years ago!) valve job I did a set of points and fixed the rocker cover gasket for $50
Tom

73eldo

Compression test was what I was thinking. Especially without the governor its pretty easy to overheat these things. I have pulled em apart where you can't even tell there were rings in the pistons.

Is the replacement muffler an OE style one?

ez-ha

You may want to try a slightly smaller or larger gap on the points, the HD cart I had years ago seemed to be super sensitive to not only the timing of the points but also to the gap...just a thought. Hope it helps.

joe100

Check the seals on both sides of the crank 2cycle engines are notorious on the H-D engines That fixed my 76 @ $ 700.00 in parts to rebuild it ran great after rebuild winter months job. good luck Joe100