Jiffy - red hot muffler and sticking throttle cable

[mixxedbagg]

I bought a Jiffy SD60i a year ago. I've never had a problem with it until now.

First, after drilling 4 holes this morning (no issues with running poorly) I noticed that the muffler was bright red hot. Now, my gas is fresh, and it's mixed properly with oil for air cooled engines. I'm very anal about fuel mixing. It seems to be running fine, but it looks like the thing is going to melt. I've never noticed this before, but I can't say it hasn't happened previously...typically I fish alone and don't drill 4 holes in a row and typically I'm drilling during daylight and I may have only noticed the red glow because it was dark this time. If this is normal, isn't it really dangerous if any gas spills out between starts??

Second, the throttle cable is sticking badly and won't stop running wide open. I start it up, and often it will fire full throttle and I can't slow it down, even if I try to poke the cable back in with my finger. I thought maybe I got some water in there and it froze, so last time I finished fishing, I brought it inside for a few days to dry. Today, it didn't seem to have a problem the first couple of times I ran it, but then it stuck wide open after a moving a few times. Any ideas for solving this?

Thanks!

[MJ1657]

Muffler is hot because it is running lean. Sounds like you need to clean the carb.

[mixxedbagg]

How would the carb get dirty after very few uses and obsessively perfect gas mixing???

[Eric Wettschreck]

MJ1657 is correct. It's running hot cuz it's running lean. Be very careful operating like this. Lean means hot, and hot means piston/cylinder marriage and that's bad. Very very bad. Clean the carb or get it cleaned. It's not a big major job. Carbs, especially on 2 stroke motors get dirty/gummed up. It happens, mostly during summer storage but it happens to the best of them. Is it running poorly? If so, it may be starved for fuel to the carb. I'm not too up on the Jiffys. If there is a fuel tube from the tank to the carb it could be partially plugged.

For the throttle cable, sounds like you're on the right track. It could have a small frey in it causing it to stick. It could be freezing moisture. The return spring could be weak. You could try lubing it, while it's warm and dry, with dry graphite and see if that helps. Check the return spring to see if it has not lost it's strength, also.

[mixxedbagg]

Thanks for the tips. I now have some things to check. I had figured: new auger + properly mixed fuel = what could possibly be wrong?

Quote:

It happens, mostly during summer storage but it happens to the best of them.

Say, any ideas how to best prevent this? I hear a lot of stuff out there....store it laying down, store it standing up, put sea foam in it and fill the tank, use stabil, drain the tank and run it empty, keep it in warm storage, only use ethanol free fuel at the end of the season, blah, blah, blah...it's sort of hard to tell what's good advice and what's just talking out the wrong hole.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Ask 20 guys and you'll get 20 different answers. Here's what I do.

Fill the tank full with fuel. Add some Stabil, start it up and let it run till the exhaust smells a lot different. This tells me the stabil is not only in the tank, but in the carb also. Doesn't take very long, minute at the most. Hang it in the shop and kiss it goodbye until next winter. When I start it up the following fall, I give the carb a shot of Seafoam Deep Creep via spray can and have a bit of seafoam in the tank just to clean things out.

In the summer, as gasoline evaporates it leaves behind a gummy varnish type stuff that plugs up your carb. This is why some guys will say don't use an ethanol blended gas. I use ethanol blended gas and have yet to have a serious problem.

Some guys drain everything completely and run it until it dies, meaning the carb is completely empty. I don't like doing this as the fuel keeps the seals from drying out. Like I said, different guys do different things.

[mixxedbagg]

Thanks. Good advice....though I won't ever use "deep creep" again as I had a bad experience with it before.

By the way, I realized that I was still within warranty and took the auger in to have it looked at. The reason the muffler was hot is that the carburator was very loose! It was sucking in extra air. They tightened it and it ran fine.

They said some water was still in the throttle cable line and must have been freezing on me. They had a spray (JB something or another) that drives out water and used that.

Easy stuff.

[zamboni]

Another very very easy thing to do is take 5 minutes, once a month, and run it a little.

[mixxedbagg]

Good idea.

Say, that spray didn't work. The throttle cable froze back up. I have the auger in the house drying, and the cable is moving smoothly now. Any other ideas to drive the water out of the throttle cable line? It seems to me that it will keep freezing until I get this taken care of.

[highlife4me]

Thaw the cable out with a hair dryer this will also remove some moisture but not all then try injecting some anti-freeze or silicone based lube into the cable until it comes out the other end this will remove more moisture and lubricate the cable as well.

[zamboni]

Are you sure instead of JB it wasn't PB Blaster?

[MJ1657]

Glad your problem with it running lean got solved.

Use ethanol free fuel in it at all times if possible especially before storage.

[mixxedbagg]

Thanks.

Probably was PB Blaster...looks just like WD-40 to me. It apparently did not work.

I'll try using some antifreeze down the cable. (Would HEET work or bad idea?)

Whatever fixes it, I can't wait. Man does it SUCK starting an auger and unexpectedly finding it on full throttle. Then, after you drill your hole, you get a shower bringing the bit out (or, it grabs the side of the hole and starts burrowing back in at an angle) and you have to hold it out with one arm while it spins and hit the button with the other hand. Complete pain.

Other than the loose muffler issue (not sure why that happened) and the water in the cable (probably my fault for fishing on that rainy day before New Years), I love that 8" Jiffy SD60i. It's a little loud, but the horsepower is nice. It rips!

[swamptiger]

Quote:

Use ethanol free fuel in it at all times if possible especially before storage.

I'll second that - the gas with ethanol in it seems to get a lot gummier when it dries out. I usually run my auger empty at the end of the season, and store it in a dry spot and never have any problems. I also try to use 91 octane in my snowmobiles and boat motors, and add a little regular Seafoam at the end of the season. Got this tip from a guy who is now retired who was formerly chief of maintenance for one of the major airlines.

[mixxedbagg]

Yikes! It was glowing red again tonight. Took it in and the carburator was plenty tight. I wonder what they'll say this time.

[McGurk]

Check the O-ring between the carb and the engine block or neck, if there is one. If it is pinched, kinked, or otherwise not sitting right in the groove it will let extra air in. A lean mix is not something to mess with on a 2 stroker.

Use either a dry lube (graphite powder) or a silicon based lube or grease that is rated for low temps. If water is indeed getting in there a thick grease will make more sense, as it will take up any room that water may try to get into. Get it in, dry it out, and get it smoothed out. IMHO, it may just as easily be the exposed linkage connections on the carb or at the handle.

[mixxedbagg]

Quote:

Check the O-ring between the carb and the engine block or neck, if there is one. If it is pinched, kinked, or otherwise not sitting right in the groove it will let extra air in.

Took it to L&M because it's still under warranty. They said that O-ring was cracked. I thought that was weird, but they said they replaced it and ran it for quite a while without the muffler getting hot.

[Eric Wettschreck]

That's easy to believe, especially if it ran for a bit with the carb loose. The vibration, or re-tightening of the carb could very easily have cracked the o-ring. Or, exposure to air after sealing a fuel/oil mixture, then being compressed could have cracked it. Or, it may have been junk from the get-go. It's a $.05 part, prolly a zillion of them made in a shift, they're not all perfect all the time.

At least now you have learned a couple of things and know what to look for. Very important to remember high heat/lean running are pretty deadly for a 2-stroke motor. If your muffler is a glowin, shut her down.