Problem with my garden tiller

[Tyme2fish]

I let my neighbor use my garden tiller last week and he returned it in an unusable state.He tilled his small garden area with it and tried to re-till it but encountered a problem. He was very apologetic but I told him not to worry about it. It would start when pumping the primer button but then would die. Fuel problem. No big deal, I thought.

I removed the float bowl to see if there was gunk in it. When I removed the bowl, the gasket was trashed. Bought a new gasket and an air filter and attempted to reinstall the float bowl. The brace for the engine will not let me fit the bowl back in the correct position without messing up the gasket. Grrrrr. I think I'll have to remove the carb just to properly re-install the float bowl. I also discovered the gasket to the screw that holds the float bowl was bad. Grrrrrrrrr,another trip to the store.

So I got out my older tiller and put some gas in it and sprayed the carb with cleaner and the old one fired up. Yippee!! I'll have to let my ground dry out a bit before I till and I'm hoping that tilling doesn't get in the way of fishing.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Tyme, pull the spark plug and dump it. Last week I fired up my Honda generator that ran perfect 4 weeks ago. This time I fired it up, it ran 4-5 seconds, backfired a couple times and died. Same sequence repeated 6-7 times. I double check all the fuel stuff like you did, and same thing, short run, pop....pop....shutdown.

Threw a brand new plug in it, it fired right up and has not skipped a beat since.

Some times, for whatever reason, the plug just breaks down, get too high a resistance to it, and when the engine first heats up at all the plug just rolls over and quits.

[Tyme2fish]

Bob, thanks for the advice but the plug is good. I got it fired back up and running but the float bowl was still leaking. I'll keep your advice in mind for next time.

[LJP]

The ethanol in the gas is hard on gaskets and seals.

[Hlleonard]

The ethanol in the gas is hard on gaskets and seals.

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The ethanol they are putting in the gas now days doesn't seem to be good for anything you put it in.

[DJD]

The ethanol in the gas is hard on gaskets and seals.

Yep for sure....I had to replace my 5hp outboard fuel line and started using the additive to neutralize the corrosive nature of that stuff.. The little Merc runs a lot better now!! The inside lining of the fuel line was actually separating because of the ethanol. We had to cut it to see this....no biggie since it was useless anyway.
I'm gonna get some for my weedeater and lawn mower next.