Honda cutting out.

[lexi]

Hi guys
I have Honda BF8A. Problem is it goes for hrs and sometimes days then cuts out. It can cut out when going hard or trolling. It will start right away and idle no problem every time. Carb is full of fuel. Fuel system has been checked thoroughly.....all seems in order.

After it cuts out and you start it.... it stalls immediately as you forward or reverse it. Six or seven repeats of this will see it take off until it repeats the scenario 5mins or 5hrs later.All coils are within resistance values and continuity has been checked on every wire around the engine. Kill switches and dead man switch have been isolated when running and it makes no difference.

Going round engine I have only been able to find that silicone rectifier for charge circuit is dud........and ignition timing was out maybe 1-2 deg. I swapped out CDI coil with HT leads for a S/H one.....symptoms are the same.

Have tried primer bulbs and different tanks Exhaust is not rotted and engine does the same with hood on or off. sSparkplugs are good colour and mixture set up per W/M. Engine is long shaft with tiller and all CDI ign.

Any ideas appreciated

Alex

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Had engine out again this week. Went good for two days at all speeds then the same scenario. Started it about twenty times and idled perfect until put into gear.........STALL! It finally moved forward ........only to cut out again.

Started engine and idled it in the dark..........no gloworms Peehole is working at all times.........water is cool.

Alex

 

[FishyFun]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Air leaks, air leaks, check your gas line for air leaks both inside the engine and out. Make sure your gas line is a shorts as possible and your bulb is hanging vertical, so the check valve tends to stay in position.

lee

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Thanks Fishyfun. Will pay heed to that. Bulb is hanging vertical. the problem persists despite using 3 different tanks and bulbs. Will keep going through it as it is such a sweet engine when running properly.

Alex

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

All connections tested today with airline. Pressured them slightly and sprayed wth soapy water. Did primer bulb and tank as well........all good. Ran a biocide additive through system in case any bugs are lurking. I have already cleaned tank and carb. When you guys speak of CDI unit on this model do you refer to CDI ignition coil or the little rectangular black box that all the coils feed into? I have already swapped out Ignition coil which says CDI on it (albeit for a s/h one). I also have continuity at all the wires going into black box.

Fishyfun Do you think engine would go two days at all speeds then give trouble with air? Only stalls under load. Torqued up carb flange and checked with spray.

Don`t want to sidetrack on too many options guys but a few years back I cooked an impeller on this engine by running carb dry with cavitation plate slightly out of water. I replaced impeller which was chewed up and thought no more about it. Don`t remember my current problem happening before that.
If there were a chunk of something going about cooling system would it not affect water spout? This pumps good at all times. Head gasket looks good and have sprayed it while running and does not leak or hiss. Thanks for your patience guys.

Alex

 

[FishyFun]

Re: Honda cutting out.

My next priority would be the carb. They are not difficult to clean, just be careful not to lose the small parts, use a good carb cleaner. also check your plugs, even though they look good put a new set in and try them.

lee

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Thanks Lee
Have stripped carb and soaked in carb cleaner. All jets and tubes blown with compressed air. Paid attention to the small stuff. new plugs are in NGK DR5HS. I will do a compression test when the kit I have ordered arrives. I took hose off crankcase breather and noticed a a deformity at the bottom which would restrict flow somewhat. Mmm. But that would only make engine smoke?

Alex

 

[cp]

Re: Honda cutting out.

lexi - Bet you've solved the problem by replacing the plugs.

Had exact symptoms as you, except on an old 2-stroke Johnson. Had put in new plugs in the afternoon, went out fishing all night with the motor running just fine the whole night, next morning came into port, shut down for a short while then started right back up. Headed out and motor sputtered and died; would restart but as soon as put in gear would die.

Did many of the same things you've done: changing/ruling out fuel, cleaning carbs, check compression, etc. Never suspected plugs 'cause they were new, but after ruling out everything else, including putting the boat in the water several times only to have it start right up, run fine in neutral at various rpm but always die in gear (fwd and reverse), finally pulled wires off plugs one-at-a-time and found that it didn't matter (no change in rpm) when one or sometimes two were pulled. Swapped the plugs around to see if only certain plugs could have their wire pulled without effect and found that it wasn't consistent so just replaced all the plugs. Problem went away and never came back. Just a bad batch of plugs I guess.

Good luck, hope your plug changeout does it for you like it did for me.

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Thanks for reply my friend................but new plugs made no difference. Have found some resistance readings on CDI unit that are way above the figures I have in W/M but don`t know if that would cause the symptoms. Cleaned and soaked carb once more then went out and tried it. Engine cutting out five or six times in a day but this time when starting it again it pulls the load immediately rather than stall on going into gear. It also spluttered a bit and part stalled before picking power up again...........which it hadn`t done before.

Alex

 

[gss036]

Re: Honda cutting out.

It will interesting what you find in the end. I have a 1993 15hp Honda doing somewhat the same thing, just not as often as yours. At the worst point, while on the water, I had to drain the carb bowl before it would restart. I have attributed it to the small orfices that the Honda has and maybe something in the carb bowl. I pull my fuel from the boats main tank (115 gal) through a water/fuel seperator filter plus the one on the engine. It is flusterating, so I will definately be following this thread to see if you can come up with a solutition. GOOD LUCK

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Thank you for interest my friend.

Cleaned carb AGAIN. I had noticed some very light deposits in float bowl.. So flushed a chosen tank out again plus bulb and lines. Carb cleaner shooting out of all the tiny orifices in Venturi and jets. Put it all together with new fuel in tank and set off on water. It cut out after 5mins. Started 3 times from neutral then stalled when loaded. It moved off on 4th start and trolled happily for four hrs. Cut out when motoring across deeps . Started and moved off first time. two hrs later did it again.

Next on list is to borrow a good CDI unit. I have found a fair few of the resistances very high according to my Manuals figures.
Will let you know....

Alex

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

I have a CDI unit from my friends engine. It is a slightly later model but has the 9 wires the same as mine. Two of the colours are differrent but they correspond to the same position as my unit. My unit says C1 10A 0.4
His unit says C1 10 A 3.7. Does anyone know what the the last two digits signify?

Alex

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Couldn`t take a chance fitting this other CDI unit as they come up as different part numbers on Honda parts system.

Alex

 

[gss036]

Re: Honda cutting out.

lexi, I had my boat out again on Wed and after about 15-20 miuntes, it started bogging down, pumped up the primer bulb several times until hard and the problem went away. The engine ran great the rest of the morning.

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

That sounds like air GSS. Maybe even a lil bit of dirt under float needle? My bulb is always full when engine stalls. The carb is full as well. I have no air leaks. Even if Ipull the fuel connector out of engine the fault does not change. Yesterday I took the two bolts out of the fuel tank that holds the feed tube. The hose lies on the bottom of tank with a sock filter on it. Removed the filter and connected it all up. Put compressed air into the bottom of pickup tube then clamped it. Primer bulb stayes rock hard. sprayed all connections and no bubbles from pickup to carb.

Cleaned carb again with Toluene and a Mutha air compressor. Will try on water again and if I can`t get a result will have to buy components to try and eliminate the malfunction.

Alex

 

[gss036]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Sounds like your at wits end on this. I has asked about a card rebuild kit and was told that it nothing but a new set of gaskets. It does not include the needle vale, which really what one hopes to replace on a rebuild. My motor probable has 3000-3500 hours on it as I troll for 5-6 hours a day when I am out. My big motor has 750 or so hours so I figure about 5 times that. I wish you luck.

 

[MajBach]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Check the neutral safety switch-this happened to me on my 90.

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Thank you my friend. Removed neutral switch and it behaved the same, Also disconnected deadman switch and kill switch on tiller with same result. That is an impressive total of hrs trolling GSS. Honda are good. I`ll keep taking the engine out and trying different things........keep eliminating and keep learning

Alex

 

[houston007]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Hello, I have been reading through the post's and I am having a very similar prob with my honda 75. I have found that when this starts to happen if I play with the choke it will keep it going and eventually get it back to good. I have as you tried many different solutions and nothing seems to fix. VERY FRUSTRATING.

 

[lexi]

Re: Honda cutting out.

Choke makes no difference to mine my friend. Got a S/H pulser coil from a breakers. Resistance measured the same as mine which is book figure. Fitted it and motor went well ..................for ten mins. Then it did it`s usual thing.

So top of the list are CDI and Carb fault. Have ran engine with fuel cap off just in case ....same result. Checked valve clearances ........fine.

Alex