as far as the cam wear, yes it can happen quickly, once it starts it eats the lobe off in no time, ive changed enough to know - 8 in the last 6 months. no not on mine. as for the skipping a tooth, if it does you will gennerally have a bent valve, the clearances are close. depending on the direction of skipping. although not seen one skip without something causing it, saw a bolt fall out of cam gear and cause it. also saw someone put cam gear on wrong and same thing. the lobe would have been down to set clearance and is harder to see unless rolled up. as far as checking your cam timing its easy, take the plug out of the top of the starter cover, the end of the threads at the top of hole has a point. line up with the "t" on flyweel lines. 2 dots on cam gear will be parallel to top of cylinder head.

 

I would vote for the cam lobe worn

 

Thanks Again everyone for your advice.

I will try the air filter first. We did get a new spark plug, no improvement.

As far as the Cam Lobes, keeping in mind that I am not terribly skilled around a motor, if I lift the valve cover off, will I be able to see the cam lobe (s) (I know it has four valves) and if so will it be clear to whether or not it is worn?

I am assuming if it is worn, the cam will need to be replaced?

Thanks,

Mike

 

if you just pull the cover off its hard to see if not removing the tank. use a small mirror and look down in with a light. roll motor over and look at center lobe. if looks scratched, not real smooth, its shot. dont forget if this is the case to replaced the worn rocker arms also or they will wipe out the new cam in a matter of a cuple of hrs. let me know what you find. jeff

 

All you have to do is pull off the valve cover. Once you have the cover off you can slowly pull the rope start to rotate the cams so that you can inspect the lobe. If you are not sure what to look for in terms of wear, you can use the intake cam lobes as a baseline. Make sure to inspect for the alignment marks on the cams and that they are in line with the crank.

 

Thanks guys,

I will see if I can get at it this weekend. I was however reading on another post that someone had similar problems when the machine thought that the parking brake might be engaged ( i am at work now so I can't monkey with it to check that), and I know my foot brake sticks occassionally. Have you ever heard of anything like that?

Mike

 

The foot brake shouldn't be the problem since it does it in neutral (as far as I know).

 

Thanks,

I looked this weekend and everything looks in order. The timing marks appear to be where they should be. The cam lobes look good. I changed the air filter (per another earlier suggestion and a phone call from another member) and it helped a little bit but not much.

Something I forgot to mention before is that when I was plowing the second driveway of the day (Again our driveways are about 400' long and plowing about a foot of snow) the temperature idiot light came on for about 20 seconds. I stopped plowing and let it idle until the light went off, and then commenced plowing. It was shortly thereafter that it started running like %@#*. Does this give anyone any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike

 

I wouldn't think that over temp light would have any thing to do with it but I suppose it's possible. Is the coolant level OK? Radiator 100% clear of mud, debris, etc? Visually check the motor oil and sniff it for any signs of antifreeze (just in case you have a head gasket leak).

Did you ever bypass the rev limiter?

Is the carb boot (between carb and engine) in good shape? No tears?

Is the carb vent line obstructed?

Fuel tank vent line obstructed?

At some point if all else fails, maybe your stator/cdi is going bad.

 

Thanks for the ideas Polaridoo,

I will give them a try.

Thanks,

Mike