# old 3.5hp kawasaki motor on edger



## bigk3cincy (Jun 15, 2005)

hello , i'm new to thr forum , and i'm not terribly familiar with small engine repairs ,, but i always give it my best try before i ask for help .. i'll try and be complete in my description..
i have an old ( probably 15 years or better)kawasaki engine on an edger that my bro in law gave me...i thought i had the edger running very well because i dont use it very often ,,but i start it about one a week just to keep everything free, and fresh gas in it ,, and to let it warm up a little ..
it always started on the 2nd or 3rd pull , which i thought wasnt bad since it doesnt have a primer bulb,, just a choke... and then it always ran fine and smooth... thennnn , yesterday , i actually needed it , i was going to use it to edge a shallow trench just deep enough to bury an invisible dog fence wire..
i checked the oil and gas as always,, started the edger on 2nd pull,,and it sounded fine,, i let it warm up a minute or so,,, and started edging my trench... all of a sudden it just quit.. i got it started again after a few pulls and started the trench again i edged a total of about 8 feet and it quit again ,,, and could not get it started again with any amount of pulls...
now where i need help diagnosing the problem ...
to the best of my knowledge its getting good fire from coil wire to plug , just using a cheapy inline spark tester... i removed the plug from the cylinder and inserted it into the end of the coil wire, grounded it against block , and it seems to be firing good at plug tip...it doesnt seem to be getting much , if any at all gas to the plug itself since it was completely dry when i removed it ,,.. ok maybe a fuel delivery problem i figured ,,so i tried a bit of starting fluid into the carb ,, but it still wouldnt fire at all..so i removed the plug from the cylinder again and tried starting fluid directly into the cylinder , replaced the plug and wire ,, cranked it ,, but still wouldnt fire.. nothing... just to make me feel better i checked the compression of the motor ,, i'm not sure what the compression should be on a small 3.5hp motor , but it had a reading of 32 psi which i thought should be plenty for this small motor...
i cant find any kind of an on/off switch on this edger ,, i just put the throttle control down to it lowest point and it finally dies.to turn it off.
i asked a few neighbors about my problem , and they asked what color the spark was ,, blue , or red??? mine was kinda whiteish/blue lol ,,, is there a difference in the visible spark that would tell me if its the right kind of spark???
is the somethig else electrical that would keep it from running even though there is spark making it through the plug??...would i still be getting spark to the plug if i had sheard the keyway?? ... i must be missing something in this equation...
any help or suggestions on what to try next would be greatlt appreciated

thanks
bigk3cincy


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

could have a sheared key, but the compressions low, it may have blown the head gasket. also a sheared key will give spark also but a backfire or two atleast.


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## Iron head (Feb 3, 2005)

ok i had a similar problem with a pos sears blower. my problem hapened to be there were micro holes on the float. whic caused the float afte about 3-5 minutes to sink!! causing the engin to flood and stop. give it a few minuts to dry and it would start up again! maby you have the same prob i dont know. make shour that the needle is seating properly. to me it sounds like a gass prob not electrical.


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## bugman (Aug 12, 2004)

then why the low compression?


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