Honda BF8D no start

[clogan97]

So motor is only a few years old, worked like a dream last time i had it out on the water fires up first go. I never drained the fuel over the winter but i keep it in my garage so i did not think it would be an issue. Well I was wrong. Cannot for the life of me to get this thing running. Emptied the carb a few times. Ended up taking the carb apart to this best of my knowledge. Only taken apart dirtbike carbs before so I have a rough idea what im doing. Float appeared to be working blew out what i believe to be the main jet at the bottom of the jet assembely. Put it back together and still nothing. I used a small ammount of starting fluid it starts after a few pulls but only runs for 1 mayby 2 seconds then dies. Bought new fuel, it has spark. What am I not seeing here, I work on all my equipment so Im not a complete rookie with mechanics but this is my first time owning an outboard. Please Help wanting to go camping in 2 days need to get this thing running!! THank you

 

[clogan97]

So motor is only a few years old, worked like a dream last time i had it out on the water fires up first go. I never drained the fuel over the winter but i keep it in my garage so i did not think it would be an issue. Well I was wrong. Cannot for the life of me to get this thing running. Emptied the carb a few times. Ended up taking the carb apart to this best of my knowledge. Only taken apart dirtbike carbs before so I have a rough idea what im doing. Float appeared to be working blew out what i believe to be the main jet at the bottom of the jet assembely. Put it back together and still nothing. I used a small ammount of starting fluid it starts after a few pulls but only runs for 1 mayby 2 seconds then dies. Bought new fuel, it has spark. What am I not seeing here, I work on all my equipment so Im not a complete rookie with mechanics but this is my first time owning an outboard. Please Help wanting to go camping in 2 days need to get this thing running!! THank you

so after reading a little more I read that the low speed idle jet is notorious on these small hondas to clog up or crack. I took carb apart again this time removing the jet i did notice a crack so im gonna need a rebuild kit. I blew a whole bunch of carb cleaner and air and was able to see daylight and witness the cleaner blowing out of all holes. Im a complete loss here. Its almost like theres an electrical issue telling the motor not to run. Anyone have any suggestions what my next thing I should be looking at here?

 

[MattFL]

If it runs for a few seconds on starting fluid then stalls, then you've got a fuel problem for sure. When you cleaned out the carburetor, did you also put cleaner through the holds in the carburetor itself (not just the jets)? Warning: keep the carb cleaner away from o-rings and seals, it makes them swell up. Is the carburetor bowl filling with fuel? Will it run at all with the choke on?

 

[clogan97]

If it runs for a few seconds on starting fluid then stalls, then you've got a fuel problem for sure. When you cleaned out the carburetor, did you also put cleaner through the holds in the carburetor itself (not just the jets)? Warning: keep the carb cleaner away from o-rings and seals, it makes them swell up. Is the carburetor bowl filling with fuel? Will it run at all with the choke on?

I ended up putting fuel into the combustion chamber and that worker way better. Got it to start it was miss firing but after a miniute I turned the choke off and it idles nice. But after leaving it for a few hours I went to start again and same thing does not want to fire. Repeating fuel in the chamber gets it to start and the most recent time it did fire without adding fuel but took 3 or 4 pulls and is certainly not running right. I’m trying to source a cart rebuild kit.. I cleaned everything in the carb and it appeared that everything was moving nicely so not sure if that’s my issue. It appears fuel is not getting to the combustion chamber very well which I believe is just vaccum pressure that gets it from carb to chamber? Thanks for the tip about the carb cleaner, did not know that. The bowl is filling up it appears fuel is getting to the carb no problem just is not firing very well. I’m at a loss although it is running a lot better then it was still not starting very easily if at all tomorrow we’ll see.. any other suggestions I would love to hear. Thanks

 

[clogan97]

I ended up putting fuel into the combustion chamber and that worker way better. Got it to start it was miss firing but after a miniute I turned the choke off and it idles nice. But after leaving it for a few hours I went to start again and same thing does not want to fire. Repeating fuel in the chamber gets it to start and the most recent time it did fire without adding fuel but took 3 or 4 pulls and is certainly not running right. I’m trying to source a cart rebuild kit.. I cleaned everything in the carb and it appeared that everything was moving nicely so not sure if that’s my issue. It appears fuel is not getting to the combustion chamber very well which I believe is just vaccum pressure that gets it from carb to chamber? Thanks for the tip about the carb cleaner, did not know that. The bowl is filling up it appears fuel is getting to the carb no problem just is not firing very well. I’m at a loss although it is running a lot better then it was still not starting very easily if at all tomorrow we’ll see.. any other suggestions I would love to hear. Thanks

Ok so hoping someone can tell me what I need to hear, I’m going camping tomorrow and not having a working motor would really put a dampener on things. I can get the motor running with fuel in the combustion chamber. Only way I can get it to start when cold. It idles and runs what sounds pretty normal. Once it’s cold will not start! Obviously fuel is not getting to the combustion chamber by itself. I have cleaned the jets and I’m at a total loss of what’s wrong. Fuel pump is moving fuel, bowl fills up if anything float looks a little high so how could it not be getting fuel??

 

[MattFL]

Since it was perfect when you put it away and now with nothing other than storage, it's not running then you're still more than likely looking at a dirty carburetor issue. Did you only clean the main jet, or did you also clean the pilot (slow speed) jet too? Some of them have EPA limited screws that cannot be removed without breaking the screw. If your fuel screw is one of those that can only be turned about 1/8 turn then that's what you have. Some of them are completely blocked off too. If you cannot get the screw out of yours easily then you can try using the other holes on the carburetor to get cleaner into that circuit. I'm not familiar with that specific motor, but often Honda will have small holes around the intake side of the carburetor. Spray cleaner through these followed by compressed air if you have it. Sometimes there are tiny holes inside the carburetor throat, see if you can figure out what hole to spray cleaner into for it to come out those holes. Follow it with compressed air if you have it. In an ideal situation you could leave it in a hot ultrasonic cleaner for a while. The holes used for slow speed fueling in small 4-stroke carburetors are tiny, itty bitty, and clog easily and sometimes you have to really let them have it to get them clean. Especially if you used gas with ethanol in it.

Edit --> If it seems to run OK otherwise and only has trouble starting when cold (even with the choke), then worst case you can get a can of starting fluid for convenience and see if it will start after a good shot of that in an open carburetor. Warning though, that stuff is really flammable. This is of course a band aid and not a solution.

 

[dave shearer]

Check timing settings .

 

[clogan97]

Check timing settings .

I went camping for 4 days. In order to start the motor I have to put a small vial of gas directly in spark plug hole. usually fired first or second pull. Once running ran perfect, idled, ran good at WOT as if nothing wrong. If it was a timing issue i feel like it would have a missfire. Also nothing has been done except I did leave the same gas in it for approx 3 months. For those gurus what exatly could not be working right in order to not get fuel in the combustion chamber. The Idle jet i believe its called has a small crack in it, I have a new one ordered if that does not fix the issue then next move would be to soak it in some sort of cleaner. Any feed back appreciated

 

[MattFL]

If it was working perfectly before storage but now has a problem after being stored with gas in it, then I would say 95% chance the issue it's carburetor related. Does it have a manual choke? If it runs perfect once started but requires extra fuel to get started, then I would check on the choke and make sure it's working properly.