Robins 244cc on my Three Wheel Cart
 

I'm having a hard time figuring out my cart year, from the descriptions I've read it can be from 1979 to 1990, the serial number was removed from the from passenger side.

My problem is to keep it continuilly running. If I pop in a fresh battery it starts and runs great but after a short period it acts like it's not getting enough gas and slows down and then coughs and dies out.

My guess is it's the regulator not working therefore it's not recharging the battery, I'm thinking if it were the soleniod it wouldn't start at all or the Cutout Switch which I can hear clicking as well, maybe the Relay.

I'm kinda lost here just trouble shooting wondering if there's anyway to easily test these to figure out which one isn't working. The wires on the Generator/Starter get hot so I'm presuming there's a charge going out to the battery.

Thanks for you help.
G-

Re: Robins 244cc on my Three Wheel Cart
 

there should be some kinda identification tag on the engine, that would narrow down the year of the cart. i have a 3-wheel and it has a 244cc robin with a internal starter/generator, it is a 1979

Re: Robins 244cc on my Three Wheel Cart
 

could be carb needs a good cleaning, bad fuel, bad fuel filter fuel pump, the draining of the battery sounds like a short somewhere could be bad connection some where.

Re: Robins 244cc on my Three Wheel Cart
 

OK thanks, I've been through the carb and pump, broke em down and cleaned out everything. By the smell of gas when running I'd say it might be running too rich. New problem now is that there's no spark.

I've read about an igniter on the bottom of the engine but don't know if it's this year or not. Do you have any diagrams or pictures of what your engine looks like. Seems like a lot of wiring for a simple single cylinder engine. Looks like I have a coil, regulator and then a little box next to the regulator and then something between that and the coil. There's a black wire that goes from the coil to the bottom of the engine somewhere but I haven't been able to figure out where. I'm presuming the coil is the black thing that has the spark plug wire coming out of it with a whole lot of other wires. Also looks like someone before me simply cut off a few of the wires from the coil so I have no idea there. Man my VW bug was easier to figure out.

I'm going to presume it's a 79 so if you have any pictures or diagrams of it that would be great, it also has the generator/starter as one unit which I've also broke down to clean and everything looked great. As a matter of fact when I keep trying to turn it over the one wire (i think F1) gets really hot, like smokin can't touch it hot.
Thanks,
G

Re: Robins 244cc on my Three Wheel Cart
 

It's worth trying the simplest things first...

If it was me I'd try cleaning/replacing/upgrading your wires that run to/from the starter/generator and from the battery (including the ground wire!)

Make sure they are all solid and all the connections are clean both the wire end and where they attach to whatever they are attached to.

It may just be that you have a bad connection causing you not to get a charge so your battery wears down. Ground connections can be particularly problematic.

Also you can check this by jacking up the cart so the wheels are off the ground and with the motor running verify your voltage at the battery. It should be a minimum around 13.5 while the motor running..up to 14.5 volts.

For what it's worth, you can replace all those dinky wires with #4 or even #2 for a few bucks. Make sure you use/put good soldered ends on them! I replaced the two main battery cables on mine with #2 and the others from the generator/starter with #4

Re: Robins 244cc on my Three Wheel Cart
 

I am all to familiar with what your going through, just finished my engine, had pretty much the same issues. It is a very simple engine, When I did mine I started with all the simple, low cost items first. End results was points and condenser were shot. But during all the trouble shooting I replaced all the wiring, replaced all the fuel lines, new filter, soldered new diode for the starter cut off box which is located under the regulator,new plug and wire. Now she runs like new. I found it a heck of alot easier to pull the motor to work on it.