Expensive Day

[PHPaul]

Hopped in the truck to go get some underlayment for a project, turned the key and....clickety-clickety-click. Did manage to convince it to start and had NAPA test the battery. Bad, way down on cranking amps, charge state iffy. Well, after 11 years (OEM) I guess it don't owe me much. Swapped in a new AGM in the parking lot. $250 with tax for battery and one cable end.

Got home, unloaded the plywood, set up to cut it to size and halfway through the first cut, my Makita hypoid saw quit. Checked the obvious stuff - brushes, wiring, switch - and got it to run intermittently but not enough to cut with it. Motor windings look a little toasty in spots tho I didn't get any smoke or that "oh, shit" smell. Replacing it ain't gonna be cheap either, tho a little less saw will do anything I'm likely to take on at my advanced age.

 

[mcfarmall]

Bummer. I picked up a Skil worm drive saw for $50 on Craigslist. 4 months later I turned one down at a flea market for $15. I kick myself for not buying it. That Skil kicks @$$!

 

[85Hokie]

Hopped in the truck to go get some underlayment for a project, turned the key and....clickety-clickety-click. Did manage to convince it to start and had NAPA test the battery. Bad, way down on cranking amps, charge state iffy. Well, after 11 years (OEM) I guess it don't owe me much. Swapped in a new AGM in the parking lot. $250 with tax for battery and one cable end.

Got home, unloaded the plywood, set up to cut it to size and halfway through the first cut, my Makita hypoid saw quit. Checked the obvious stuff - brushes, wiring, switch - and got it to run intermittently but not enough to cut with it. Motor windings look a little toasty in spots tho I didn't get any smoke or that "oh, shit" smell. Replacing it ain't gonna be cheap either, tho a little less saw will do anything I'm likely to take on at my advanced age.

Sorry to hear about all,

But you know this stuff comes in threes - right?

The other shoe will fall - but I hope it is a small and cheap shoe!

 

[RCW]

Sorry to hear about all,

But you know this stuff comes in threes - right?

The other shoe will fall - but I hope it is a small and cheap shoe!

@PHPaul - - sorry to hear as well.

Hokie beat me to the comes in threes....

My luck seems to be multiples of threes...

 

[PHPaul]

Sorry to hear about all,

But you know this stuff comes in threes - right?

The other shoe will fall - but I hope it is a small and cheap shoe!

Gosh, that's encouraging...

I'll let ya know what bites the dust next.

EDIT: That saw was about 30 years old, has built a 24x48 garage, a 20x24 tool shed (later turned into a shop) a 30x40 two story barn, half a dozen sheds and several decks. Like the battery, it doesn't owe me a nickel.

 

[lugbolt]

oh let me tell you about my fun stuff

I'm working on a customer's honda TRX350FM (Rancher). Starts and runs but runs really rich, like the choke is on. I've been fiddling with this thing for a couple weeks and decided that tonight I'm gonna make something happen with it. Either it's gonna get the problem found, or it's going away.

The choke on these is a plunger attached to the end of a cable. When you pull the choke lever to "choke", it retracts the plunger in the bore of the carb that opens two passages-one for air, one for fuel.

Well the original choke plunger was fubar. Stupid Honda, the cable they used leaks water down the cable housing and into the choke plunger bore, so the plunger gets STUCK to the carburetor. I had to drill a hole in the plunger and use a sheet metal screw to extract it from the hole, similar to a broken bolt extraction. It ruins the plunger, which was already ruined (or in Arkansas, we call it "rern't" not ruined)

I ordered and installed a new cable/plunger assembly but it still don't run quite right. Close, but close ain't cutting it-I'm more of a perfectionist with this stuff. I'm thinking there is an issue with the new plunger so I took the old one, screw still in it, polished it up and stuck it into the bore of the carb. Runs a lot better but still not quite perfect. Close though. So I went to adjusting on the air screw underneath to get the idle quality to improve and got it to the leaner side of "perfect"-which is where it needs to be. Gave it a couple more cranks to find the lean burn limit, then I usually back up a little bit toward the rich side.

Of course I have the airbox off in order to get to everything, stupid Honda, they put the airbox in the way of everything.

Got it to the lean burn limit and it sneezed back through the carb, popped the choke plunger out of it's bore, which hit the frame, bounced off that part, hit the side of the frame, bounced off of it and went right down the carb throat exactly the same time I had applied throttle to keep it running-this all happened in a split second. Well the plunger and screw are sitting on the back of the intake valve, valve is partially hung open. Maybe the pushrod is holding the valve open and the screw didn't hold it open far enough to hit the piston. That's as far as I got. Everything's still hot, so I said you know what? I think this is a good stopping point before I foul up something else.

 

[GrizBota]

oh let me tell you about my fun stuff

I'm working on a customer's honda TRX350FM (Rancher). Starts and runs but runs really rich, like the choke is on. I've been fiddling with this thing for a couple weeks and decided that tonight I'm gonna make something happen with it. Either it's gonna get the problem found, or it's going away.

The choke on these is a plunger attached to the end of a cable. When you pull the choke lever to "choke", it retracts the plunger in the bore of the carb that opens two passages-one for air, one for fuel.

Well the original choke plunger was fubar. Stupid Honda, the cable they used leaks water down the cable housing and into the choke plunger bore, so the plunger gets STUCK to the carburetor. I had to drill a hole in the plunger and use a sheet metal screw to extract it from the hole, similar to a broken bolt extraction. It ruins the plunger, which was already ruined (or in Arkansas, we call it "rern't" not ruined)

I ordered and installed a new cable/plunger assembly but it still don't run quite right. Close, but close ain't cutting it-I'm more of a perfectionist with this stuff. I'm thinking there is an issue with the new plunger so I took the old one, screw still in it, polished it up and stuck it into the bore of the carb. Runs a lot better but still not quite perfect. Close though. So I went to adjusting on the air screw underneath to get the idle quality to improve and got it to the leaner side of "perfect"-which is where it needs to be. Gave it a couple more cranks to find the lean burn limit, then I usually back up a little bit toward the rich side.

Of course I have the airbox off in order to get to everything, stupid Honda, they put the airbox in the way of everything.

Got it to the lean burn limit and it sneezed back through the carb, popped the choke plunger out of it's bore, which hit the frame, bounced off that part, hit the side of the frame, bounced off of it and went right down the carb throat exactly the same time I had applied throttle to keep it running-this all happened in a split second. Well the plunger and screw are sitting on the back of the intake valve, valve is partially hung open. Maybe the pushrod is holding the valve open and the screw didn't hold it open far enough to hit the piston. That's as far as I got. Everything's still hot, so I said you know what? I think this is a good stopping point before I foul up something else.

That’s a pisser to be sure. Try to make it a little better and it ends up a lot worse.

I had a pair of Yamaha Grizzly 80s for the girls. Had both of them idling one day to adjust the carbs. Well the one I wasn’t adjusting at the moment made a metallic noise and stopped dead. It seems Yamaha thought it was a good idea to use to two screws to attach the choke plate to the pivot rod across the throat of the carb. Without the benefit of lock tight. One of the two screws rattled out and down it went and punched a hole in the piston. That was the end of that little bike. One of the girls upgraded to a bigger bike and a couple years later we ended up selling both of the little Grizzlys to a guy for his grandkids.

 

[lugbolt]

That’s a pisser to be sure. Try to make it a little better and it ends up a lot worse.

I had a pair of Yamaha Grizzly 80s for the girls. Had both of them idling one day to adjust the carbs. Well the one I wasn’t adjusting at the moment made a metallic noise and stopped dead. It seems Yamaha thought it was a good idea to use to two screws to attach the choke plate to the pivot rod across the throat of the carb. Without the benefit of lock tight. One of the two screws rattled out and down it went and punched a hole in the piston. That was the end of that little bike. One of the girls upgraded to a bigger bike and a couple years later we ended up selling both of the little Grizzlys to a guy for his grandkids.

when you said grizzly 80, that was my very first thought-screws come out of the choke plate. Remember doing quite a few engines on those for that very reason. Yamaha fixed that issue eventually but they ate a lot of engines to get to that point. Grizzly 80's Raptor 80's and especially the Raptor 50's. 50's were more common for this issue for whatever reason.

 

[GrizBota]

when you said grizzly 80, that was my very first thought-screws come out of the choke plate. Remember doing quite a few engines on those for that very reason. Yamaha fixed that issue eventually but they ate a lot of engines to get to that point. Grizzly 80's Raptor 80's and especially the Raptor 50's. 50's were more common for this issue for whatever reason.

That’s an interesting coincidence. I did read on the net after the fact it was a common failure.