'97ish FE290 - Crank, No Start

[LBC970]

I have been searching the forums for a few days now, and have been through the troubleshooting steps in the service manual four times, and still no luck...

'97ish ClubCar with the FE290 engine, step on the pedal I get a good crank from the starter, but the engine wont start. Here is what I have done so far:

1) Compression Test - tested nearly 40psi low, squirted a tsp of oil in cylinder and retested, tested within 5psi of factory.

-Replaced piston rings with factory spec set.

-Replaced all seals and gaskets.

-Adjusted valves to factory specs.

-Retested compression, tested within 5psi of factory.

2) Checked fuel system - I'm getting fuel, lots of it at the carb.

-Replaced all 3 fuel lines with new.

-Replaced fuel filter.

-Replaced fuel pump. (Figured what the hell, it was the factory one.)

-Drained fuel and filled with fresh gas. (91 Octane!)

-Replaced carb with one from a known working cart, no longer spitting fuel into the air filter hose, but didn't change anything. I also rebuilt the original carb with no luck.

3) Electrical tests!

-Tested all posts on solenoid, everything within specs.

-Tested all micro switches, everything within specs.

-Tested for errant grounded wires, found none.

-Tested battery, 13.1V and about 400 CCA.

-Checked fuse, ohm'd it too! Within specs.

-Tested spark with a spark tester, getting a flash. Not sure how bright it should be however.

-Replaced, and gapped plug to specs.

-Followed the service manual test of the engine kill circuit, made no difference plugged in or not.

I'm running out of ideas here. I have been through the book, I have fixed three other carts in the last week with various issues, but this one has me stumped. So I am coming to you guys. Is there something I should be looking into here?

If there is any other info you guys need, just let me know. I will be continuing with this cart Monday afternoon. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

Cody

[nobuckbuild]

im going to go out on a limb here and guess you had pulled the engine with that ring job , i bet your turning the engine backwards in late 96 they changed the rotation of the engines from ccw to cw screwing up a perfectly good design and what i think is either you hooked up the wires to the starter generator backwards or maybe you changed the cam with one from a ccw motor either way im guessing that your pumping fuel out the carb was the due to the engine pumping backwards

[LBC970]

Originally Posted by nobuckbuild

im going to go out on a limb here and guess you had pulled the engine with that ring job , i bet your turning the engine backwards in late 96 they changed the rotation of the engines from ccw to cw screwing up a perfectly good design and what i think is either you hooked up the wires to the starter generator backwards or maybe you changed the cam with one from a ccw motor either way im guessing that your pumping fuel out the carb was the due to the engine pumping backwards

Actually, it is spinning CCW. I just hooked the starter back up the way it came out. The only service manual I have is a 1995-1996 one too, so I could see how the starter might have been installed incorrectly by the mechanic before me as well.

nobuckbuild, I will give it a shot real quick and get back to you. Thanks for the help!

Cody

EDIT UPDATE: nobuckbuild, that was it. Sort of. I checked to see what year our parts cart is, it's a '96. So I can only assume the starter came off that cart 2 years ago, and thats why the previous mechanic parked it in the boneyard. After a "rebuild" and a correctly cranking engine, it is one of our best running carts now! I swapped in a starter from another '97 cart and it runs great.

Thanks again for your help!

Cody

[nobuckbuild]

glad to hear it worked you had everything else fuel spark compression , just had it going the wrong way