Hi Guys:<br />What can the home mechanic do to systamaticly trouble shoot a motor that has an intermittent problem. Let me explain. Here are some of the symtoms.<br />1. Gas bulb is soft every morning.<br />2. Cylinder #1 plug is fouled and looks like it's flooded with oil and has carbon deposit on 1/2 of smooth bottom of plug. <br />3. Engine would not start. Removed kill switch.<br />I now get motor to start every time but only runs on (2) cylinders.<br />4. Removed (3) plug wires, (3) coils and switch box and had local mechanic bench test. He said they are all OK.<br />5. When I reinstalled all components the engine started fine on all three cylinders.<br />6. Problem came back the next day. Started motor in morning when it is cold and only runs on (2) cylinders. #1 is not firing. Remove cowling cover of motor and #1 cylinder started to fire. Though the problem was in the spark plug wires but I have not been able to dublicate removing the problem. Problem came back. <br />7. Just removed the cover from the motor and the problem went away. Checked all the wires and can't find a one that is shorted. <br /><br />Intermittent short comes back when engine is cold. Just raising and lowering the engine has caused problem to go away.<br /><br />How do I trouble shoot:<br />1. Stator. 2. Trigger. 3. Switch box. 4. Coils. 5. Wires.<br /><br />Is there something inside the switch box that gets reset every time you turn the engine on or off?<br />Please help with a step by step instruction for troubleshooting. I made up a grounded screwdriver and went around looking for shorts but could not find one. Bought a $10.00 dollar spark tester and yes I do have spark and I don't have spark coming to the #1 coil. This leads me to believe that I have a trigger problem or a switch box problem. Help-----Help-----Help.<br />How do you trouble shoot these parts.<br />Thanks. <br />Roger2
