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Douglas W. Brand (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 207.69.137.42
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 06:30 pm: | 
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I am having a problem with my 2000 Argo Bigfoot (18 HP Briggs & Stratton Vanguard V-Twin) fuel system and I am hoping somebody can help. On my first ride this spring the engine surged, hesitated, and then eventually stalled (deep in the woods). When I looked at the engine, I noticed the in-line fuel filter was empty, but there was plenty of gas in the tank. After a lot of cracking, the engine restarted and, by driving it just above idle, I was able to limp the Argo home. I replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, the fuel pump pulse line, the fuel line from the filter to the pump, and the line from the pump to the carburetor. The fuel line from the tank to the filter did not need to be replaced. The Argo then ran fine for the next two months; so I assumed I had fixed the problem. Then two weeks back I had the exact same problem. The engine started to hesitate and surge (this time I turned around and went home). When I checked the in-line fuel filter it had very little fuel in it. I doubt my new fuel pump failed. The fuel lines are tight. I even checked the vent line for the gas tank and it is clear. Now I am puzzled and would appreciate some suggestions. |
jim stefanowicz
Member
Username: Maxindetroit1
Post Number: 32
Registered: 03-2005
Posted From: 75.10.3.40
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 11:48 pm: |
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If the vent on the cap is open, make sure your not pinching the fuel line in between the top and bottom half of the body, also could be some dirt in the gas tank. |
Rogersmith
Advanced Member
Username: Rogersmith
Post Number: 114
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 70.234.100.185
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 09:39 am: |
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I'd get familiar with taking the top off the carb and blowing it out with cleaner and compressed air, with the idle jet removed which is outside. When mine was new, if it sat for a month I'd have to clean the pump, carb, replace the filter. Finally had the tank out of it for another reason, saw some yellowish gummy stuff in it that was very hard to dissolve. Not that that's your particular problem, but something to look at. One drop of water or dirt in the bowl is enough to cause problems.
The filter looking empty, that's normal. Depending on how they lay, it's trapped air. |
Douglas W. Brand (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 207.69.136.204
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 09:39 pm: |
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Thanks for the tips. I will check the vent and fuel lines this weekend. I will also try to see if there is any crud in my gas tank. I particularly appreciated Rogersmith’s suggestion on the carb. I never thought of just removing the top of the carb. and cleaning it in place. I had thought I should try cleaning the carb (my Vanguard has the Nikki carb), but when I saw I had to remove the intake manifold to get the carb off of the engine, which requires removing the engine’s blower housing, which requires removing the Argo’s cooling intake duct and brake cooling duct, which requires etc., I got discouraged. It is tips like this that make this site valuable. As for the empty fuel filter, I guess you could position the fuel filter so it looked empty, but since I bought my Argo in 2000, the filter has always looked about 2/3 full. When it died in the woods this spring it was totally empty. I unhooked the line no fuel dripped out. With the new fuel pump the filter was about 2/3 full, that is up until it started surging again. Once again thanks for the help; I will let you know what happens. |
david berger
Senior Member
Username: Davidrrrd
Post Number: 382
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 72.72.92.214
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 02:04 pm: |
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sounds similer to problem that plaged tim okeefe a while ago,
he had done an oil chainge and the short vacume line from the same valv cover as the oil fill cap had goten oil into it also wich ruins the fuel pump.
it is a good idea to lenten this line with something that is hard enoph to prevent vacume signal loss but at least long enoph to to put a loop or two in it or maybe insted you might relocate pump, higher if posable in an effort to keep the oil out of the line alltogether,
i imagine there might be a dozzen senairios in witch oil might migrate into that line,not the least of witch might be a rollover or near rollover,
this is a weakness on th brigs engines,
also if theres any vacume leak of any kind the reduction of vacume pulss felt at the pump would not activate it,
so you must make sure there are no vacume leaks
(air leaks) "even the dip stick"
a good fix for all our briggs aatvs would be a chainge over to some sort of machanicle fuel pump.
some people are expirementing with the pricey argo electric fuel pump.
i started fooling arrount with an off the shelf low psi model with a psi reducer inline but so far i have not achieved the results i was looking for on one of my snowmobile engine aatv's, but this is a problem in commone (lack of pulss to activate pump)
hope this helps |
Douglas W. Brand
New member
Username: Dougbrand
Post Number: 1
Registered: 06-2006
Posted From: 207.69.137.11
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 11:24 am: |
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David - Thanks for the help. I will lengthen my pulse line and put at least one loop in it. As you say there are many ways that oil could get into the pulse line and while I don’t know if this is what happened to my pump, I want to prevent it from happening. I will also check for vacuum leaks. Your comments on vacuum leaks reminded me I should probably check the crankcase breather, if it is leaking it would affect engine vacuum.
Everybody – I have checked gas tank vent line, the fuel line and the in-tank fuel line. All are fine. Without removing the tank, I don’t see and dirt, crud or scum in the gas tank but I probably should investigate this further. Once the rain stops, I will take it out for a run. If it is running fine, I will wait and see if the problem reoccurs. If it isn’t running right, or the next time the problem occurs, I will remove the top of the carburetor and clean it in place. |
Douglas W. Brand
New member
Username: Dougbrand
Post Number: 2
Registered: 06-2006
Posted From: 207.69.139.13
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 23, 2006 - 09:13 am: |
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I thought I should give everybody an update. I have been on vacation this week and using my Argo a lot. It seems to be running fine. I don’t really know what the problem was. Perhaps my dip stick was not seated tightly and so I wasn’t getting a strong enough pulse from the engine to run the fuel pump. Or perhaps I had a bit of crud in the carburetor that got pulled through or dissolved over time. While I should be glad the Argo is running fine, I don’t like problems that mysteriously disappear. Once again thanks for all of the help. |
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