80 LF problems

[Ryker Carruthers]

Been having nothing but problems with my 80 LF...
Last year I tinkered with it a bunch and it would run but not very well. It is a hard SOB to start. It will fight and fight you. And it is kept in a 70 degree shop. Once it's start it has very little power. My TF would smoke it. Now you could put around the yard at 30 mph and that's it. And it would slowly get weaker, spark got weak. I swapped external coils and cdi boxes with ones off of a good running engine. Same thing. Lost interest in it, tired of dicking with it so I stopped. Had a baby and other huge life changes. Finally in my own house and am trying to get it going once again... today I moved it from my garage to the heated shop. Came back a few hours later and there was gas under it everywhere. Leaking out of the exhaust. The cap didn't have a vent so I figured it got warm and expanded and pushed it out the pipe. So I pull it off and dump the pipe out. Pull the plugs and crank the engine over until it quit blowing raw fuel out. Put plugs and pipe back on and pulled it. Made 4 strong putts and was flooded again. This is the first time it has ever done it, I pulled the plugs and did it again.. another 5 times and it never did anything different. Like I said it has never done this before. The carbs are clean, new jets and good gas.

Anybody had this before? The spark problem or the fuel problem? I can't for the life of me figure it out.

[AirborneX4Special]

Sounds like your fuel pump is bad if it's flooding the crankcase. Pull the impulse line and see if fuel is coming thru the pump and into the crankcase. No fuel should be in the impulse line. Replacement Mikuni is p/n DF 52-73.

[Ryker Carruthers]

I'll check that out today, I thought I had put a new one on there but I may not have.
Thanks!

[Danzig]

new jets sound like the root of your problem, if you did change the needle and seat i am betting you are not getting a seal at the needle and seat thus causing raw fuel to flood the engine.

[sledhead16]

Yes either new or really nice clean jets, new pj orings, new float bowl gaskets and new mikuni needle and seats, then check fuel pump. More than likely you have a fuel delivery issue, was it running to rich before? Make sure chokes are good and set appropriately