Rebuilt my 87 EZGO Engine, still having issues, please help!!!

[Dave Box]

Sure thing, here it is. The choke cable is the silver cable at the top of the image. As you can see it just loops through the hole in the starter braket, between the engine and the carb and then to the choke lever. You should have a bracket between the carb and the air intake which acts as the stop for the outer part of the cable.

At the top center you can see how I capped off the old oil pipe with a screw, some mastic and a clamp. Bottom left you can see the pink pipe you refered to which as you know is the breather. I just bent it over and loosely tie wrapped it to the fuel pipe to stop it flapping around.

I hope this helps but if you need anything else just shout.

Dave

[YourCustomCart]

Thanks for the pic Dave. That looks very do-able. I'll have to make a bracket for the cable stop, but metal fab is one of my specialties being in the custom car business. My crank bearings came in today, so tonight I will split the case and clean up the innards of my 2pg. Don't worry, the dish-washer hasn't even crossed my mind! Tomorrow I plan to powder coat my case with some mirror black and hopefully reassemble by Saturday. I will post the progress with pics. Just need to find some decent gas resistant sealant/rtv for the case, hopefully at Autozone.

[madoc1]

just went and looked. i used perma tex "motoseal". it is grey color. don't think it an rtrv tho, but anaroebic. found at carquest. yamaha also makes an equivalent i heard. i am sure there other brands out there, just be sure it is gas resistant. no gasket needed. good luck. i love the these little engines. you can just pick them up, move them around-whatever. no need for a hoist. bench build.

[YourCustomCart]

I got the engine torn completely down. Interstingly enough, I found orange rtv sealant was used on the case halves. Apparently, this case had been split before. The inside of the case was surprisingly clean and the crank is in great shape. There is no play in the rod bearing which really surprised me too. I completely cleaned the inside and outside of the case before I removed the crank bearings and old crank seals. To get the crank seals out, I simply grabbed a big flat head screw driver and little by little pried them out. Next I used a 32mm socket that fit perfectly inside the hole where the crank seals were and proceeded to beat the crank bearings out of the case. It only took a few good wacks with my two pound hammer to get all three crank bearings dislodged from the case. Then I cleaned the entire case inside and out to literally removed every spec of dirt and grime. Afterwards, I prepared all of the metal pieces that I wanted to powder coat. This involved Scotch-brighting every piece to assure total cleanliness. Then I taped off all openings with a special kind of powder coating high temperature tape and powder coated all of the lives in a mirror black powder. After chronic the powder in the oven, the lives look outstanding! I installed new crank bearings with the hammer method and installed the new deals as well. I'm going to reassemble tomorrow and then begin cleaning up the engine compartment. I'll be sure to post pics afterwards

[YourCustomCart]

Well I've got the engine fully assembled and ready to be reinstalled! I cleaned up and painted the engine compartment. Now I need to put the clutch and pulley back on the crank snout. The only way I can think of to do this is to screw in a 7/16-20 threaded rod into the crank and use a nut and washer on the rod above the clutch to act as a pulley install tool. Unfortunately there are no 7/16 fine thread rods in my city apparently because I've been everywhere to find one with no luck. Any suggestions?

[EZ-GoingJon]

YCC,

All you have to do is put the bolt back in the center of the clutch that threads into the crank! Thats all! No special tools, it is a friction fit. Just a piece if info for ya', i WOULD put some Anti-Seize on the mating parts of the clutch and shaft! It will make your life alot easier if you have to ever take it off again!

Jon

[YourCustomCart]

Originally Posted by EZ-GoingJon

YCC,

All you have to do is put the bolt back in the center of the clutch that threads into the crank! That's all! No special tools, it is a friction fit. Just a piece if info for ya', i WOULD put some Anti-Seize on the mating parts of the clutch and shaft! It will make your life alot easier if you have to ever take it off again!

Jon

Thanks Jon. For some reason I thought it had to go on further than that. I felt inside of the clutch/pulley tube and actually found an edge that the crank snout rests against. So I took your advice and put on some anti-seize and slid it on. I then gave it two taps with a rubber mallet to make sure it was fully seated. Lastly, I installed the plastic spacer and the clutch bolt with a big flat washer and a lock washer. I hope to have the engine back in the Marathon by late Tuesday. I can't wait to start her up and share the good news of a properly running 87 2pg. I hope I didn't just shoot myself in the foot, but I'll let you know!

Thanks again!

[EZ-GoingJon]

Sounds great!! Let us know!

Jon

[YourCustomCart]

Of course...It could only get worse. I put the engine back in, welded up a replacement muffler, got all of the electrical cleaned up and reconnected. Jacked the rear wheels off the ground and hit the gas pedal. It fired right up!
Suddenly it quit running but I saw the starter/generator keep spinning. After further investigation, I saw that the clutch had slipped rearward some and was just rotating on the crank snout. WTH?! I tightened the bolt in the clutch more and the engine ran for a few seconds only to have the clutch slip off again. I tightened the bolt more so and suddenly it stripped and can no longer be tightened to any substantial amount. I can't believe this!

Anyone think I could remove the belt, loosen the engine bolts and tilt the engine forward enough to slide the clutch off and re-tap the crank snout with a bigger bolt? Perhaps a 1/2" fine thread bolt? I would just re-tap for the original 7/16 fine thread bolt, but since I've already had to do that before putting the clutch back on originally, it would be pointless to use 7/16 again.

[EZ-GoingJon]

YCC,

That DOES SUCK!! I would try to re-tap it with a bigger size bolt. Keep us informed!!

Jon