Unsolved problem

[Crazy Canuck]

Hi Folks,
I have a problem with my 88 ezgo Marathon. Will be bringing it home in a week or so as the season is over and will see if I can fix it. Here's the prob:
1. Seems to take forever to start when it has been sitting for a day. Turns over slow then gradually speeds up. I also have to have the choke out full. After about 30 secs to a minute it kicks over and away I go. Can then push in the choke and I usually run around for a couple of mins to warm up the engine.
2. Once I am going and stop for each shot, have to pull out the choke for a second or two to get it to start going. If I don't choke it, just keeps turning over.
Any Ideas on how I should go about fixing this or where to start.
A. Low compression
B. Fuel pump diaphram
C. Carb adjust. (don't really want to tamper with this as once its running all is ok
Thanks in Adance, Bob

[Honorstick]

You'll probably get a better response if you post this in the gas ez go section.

[kyerik]

You could check the compression pretty easily with a compression tester- anything over 100 is OK (but the higher the better).

I wonder if the one way valves in your fuel pump are leaking and allowing the fuel to flow backwards down into the tank- so the pump needs to suck the gas all the way back up the suction tube again when the cart has been sitting for a few days and this takes some cranking/pumping time to do.

The mikuni fuel pumps are really easy to rebuild. The rebuild kits can be found for cheap ($15 or so) if you do some digging on ebay -to my knowledge the are only a few older styles of mikuni pumps and the rebuild kit for the round style will work on any round style pump, no matter what the application was. I have a square mikuni pump on my 91 marathon and I ordered a generic (non golf cart) square pump rebuild kit and it fit perfectly for 1/3rd the price as the ones advertized as for my cart.

[BrewCityMusic]

let's actually start simple, sounds to me like the same thing MY 88 does about once a month (in all fairness though it gets driven a couple of hours a day on average) - your jets are quite likely in need of a cleaning. Follow this diagram to find and pull each circled jet one at a time and spray them out thoroughly with carb cleaner, make SURE there's no goop plugging the little holes (this involves NO change to the carb adjustment whatsoever so don't worry)

[amesmotorsports]

On this carb is there a way to bush the throttle shaft if there is a lot of play. mine is pretty bad for a carb that is only 2 years old. was thinking about bushing the shaft so it makes for no play. has any one heard of this or can it be done easy.

[essness]

Canuck, I dont know what year this is but I'm assuming it is a 2 smoker. Are you using the oil injection? If so, I would reccomend doing a compression test. It may very well be that the oil injection is not working and you need to rebuild the top end on this thing. The symptoms you descibe seem very familar to me..........

[1moretoy]

Originally Posted by Crazy Canuck

Hi Folks,
I have a problem with my 88 ezgo Marathon. Will be bringing it home in a week or so as the season is over and will see if I can fix it. Here's the prob:
1. Seems to take forever to start when it has been sitting for a day. Turns over slow then gradually speeds up. I also have to have the choke out full. After about 30 secs to a minute it kicks over and away I go. Can then push in the choke and I usually run around for a couple of mins to warm up the engine.
2. Once I am going and stop for each shot, have to pull out the choke for a second or two to get it to start going. If I don't choke it, just keeps turning over.
Any Ideas on how I should go about fixing this or where to start.
A. Low compression
B. Fuel pump diaphram
C. Carb adjust. (don't really want to tamper with this as once its running all is ok
Thanks in Adance, Bob

Try a new plug and check for old gas before you start removing anything.

[pachanga90]

New Plug & fresh-gas(its' only good for 2-3 months,and run 89 minimum,but 91 or better is my choice).Clean the carb(use carb-cleaner and some torch-tip cleaners),again,if it sits,its' clogged.Pre-Mix your fuel 1oz/gal.Check compression as well,but your issue sounds like a dirty carb.The fuel-pump may be loosing prime as well,which is why it needs to crank so much to start initailly.Hope this helps.

[RSP]

Brewcity has a good point, if the pilot just is alittle dirty that makes a big diffrence in starting, loose carb shaft = poor running engine

[DonoBBD]

Originally Posted by pachanga90

New Plug & fresh-gas(its' only good for 2-3 months,and run 89 minimum,but 91 or better is my choice).Clean the carb(use carb-cleaner and some torch-tip cleaners),again,if it sits,its' clogged.Pre-Mix your fuel 1oz/gal.Check compression as well,but your issue sounds like a dirty carb.The fuel-pump may be loosing prime as well,which is why it needs to crank so much to start initailly.Hope this helps.

Run 89 or less. 91 is junk for a two stroke with poor timing. You will run more gas out the tail pipe with 91 then burn and will make starting even harder.

If you have no problem stating and your motor is new and runs up to temp really really fast you could try running 91 but fuel mileage will be junk unless you and add more heat or timing to the motor.

Crazy Canuck make sure your getting good fuel pumped. It sounds to me like cranks seals not priming the carb fast enough. BUT it could be as simple as an small air leak on the fuel line between the fuel tank and the pump. Check all those connections or put a smart valve on the fuel pickup.

Don.