SuzukiSavage.com - Print Page

SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl
General Category >> The Cafe >> Mantis
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1399318775

Message started by rl153 on 05/05/14 at 12:39:35

Title: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/05/14 at 12:39:35

Any body know why this happens? I have an older 2 cycle mantis rototiller , It starts ok ,runs strong ,but wont start again when its hot. Also it wont idle. I cleaned the carb with spray cleaner.Run gas to oil ratio,40:1. Thanks!

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by Dave on 05/05/14 at 12:54:09

Most likely you need to take the carb apart, clean it, and put new gaskets and diaphragm's in the carb. Ethanol fuel is horribly hard on the rubber parts in the carb.

ZAR is our resident full time small engine mechanic.....maybe he will chime in.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/05/14 at 13:14:06

Thanks Dave.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by LANCER on 05/06/14 at 04:05:09

Yep, gotta take it apart. Those carbs are tiny, simple, and exposed to harsh elements, besides just sitting for months during winter and such. There is not much to that little carb at all and won't take much to clean and rebuild with gaskets, etc. It will do wonders.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 05/06/14 at 04:55:48

If its like a weed eater carb, be very gentle inside there. Those little plastic things with U shaped slots are actually the reed valves.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by WD on 05/06/14 at 07:55:01

Crank seals is a possibility. Ours is ancient, like first year or so they were available ancient, been used so often that the tines have collapsed. I refuse to fix it since Honda makes a 4 stroke version...

2 smoke engines are evil. Still considering turning the 1971 Honda CL100 into a chainsaw instead of a rigid tracker for the grandniece... 4 stroke 4spd chainsaw... 8-)

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 05/06/14 at 07:59:41

I had ( operative word, HAD) a 4 stroke tiller/weed eater from Sears. I was weed eating & forgot it was a 4 stroke & held it at an odd angle, killed the oil flow & lopped the cam lobes off some,, still runs, but its gutless.. I dont need the tiller any more, got a Real One,, & replacing the weed eater cost me a lot less than parts for fixin this thing & the time to do it,, I dont have the time,,

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/06/14 at 10:36:46

Thanks,for the input.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by ZAR on 05/08/14 at 19:52:58

rl if it stays running until you shut it down I doubt it's the carb. More likely it's crank seals drawing air like WD's thinking. Remember that a 2-smoke engine has no true intake or valve system to draw fuel into the cylinder.

The fuel/air mix flows from the carb into the crankcase,allowing the oil in the mix to lube the bottom end,before being drawn into the combustion chamber.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/09/14 at 17:28:13

It wont idle, but if I keep giving it some gas it will keep running.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by Lipi on 05/14/14 at 06:32:25

I had an old two-stroke before and I had similar problems. On that bike the gasket was bad at the connection of the intake between the cylinder and the carbureator and the rubber intake was cracked at the same place.
I made new gasket from the hard cover page of a copybook and covered the crack on the rubber connecting-part with insulation tape and these have fixed the problem.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/14/14 at 10:28:17

WD ,did you know the tines on these tillers are guaranteed forlife? If the teeth are broken they will send you new ones for free.I got two.You can get their adress on the mantis website.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by WD on 05/14/14 at 11:12:19

Have a 5 foot tiller hanging off the back of a gray market Kubota L1510... not willing to get in a fight with the black widow or the copperhead that call the Mantis home right now. Replaced the engine (Kohler) on the Garden Way-Troybuilt Horse model with a Yamaha engine last year, and still have a running Garden Way-Troybuilt Pony model tiller. No hurry on the Mantis, it has an electric back up anyway for the tighter sections of the gardens and flower beds.

Do things a mite oversized on our place, the "small" riding mower has a 60" cut, a diesel engine, and on demand all wheel drive. The rough mower is a 12 or 14 foot cut, the finish mower the same. Pull them with a 65 horse power 1960s Massey Ferguson diesel farm tractor that got a full rebuild last year...

Just shy of 60 acres total, have a lot of toys... even a utility company surplus bucket truck.

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/14/14 at 14:28:42

Wow,thats a lawnmower! I have a 30 year old ariens,still runs good.Just 1/2 acre to mow,another 1/4 acre unmowed. Those facts about your land and equiptment are very interesting!

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by WD on 05/14/14 at 17:59:34

Main house was built in 1841. To replace the one that burned down in 1836, which was itself a replacement for the cabin built in the 1790s. Land grant for the farm was issued in 1793 as payment for services rendered during the American Revolution... have a copy of it around here somewhere... This land has been farmed since TN was part of North Carolina.

Keep digging up oddball junk from previous residents. Including tons of War of Northern Aggression era musket-Minie-pistol rounds. Worth a whopping $1.25 each to the tourists. ;D

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/14/14 at 18:16:09

Has this farm always been in your family?

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by WD on 05/14/14 at 20:02:37

Nope. Wife's parents purchased it in 1958 as a mere shell of a house on 180 acres. The last time it had been in the family was before the War. Satellite to the family's main plantation. There were 10 or 15 satellite plantations, ours was 2500 acres back then, with the main one plus satellites totalling a bit over 25K acres. The doctor's office from the 1840s or 1850s was on ours, that building got torn down in the 1970s. The same era school house was technically on a former part of ours, it was torn down in the 1960s and a house built where it stood.

Still capable of running carbide (acetylene gas) lamps in the old manor house. Tubing is intact, fixtures are in the attic or the garage, just need a new carbide tank. Swimming pool and pool house are where the original kitchen building was. Fig trees growing out of one original brick cistern, the old TV satellite antenna the other cistern (hand dug, lined with handmade bricks, fed by handmade wooden gutters and pipes).

We're turning it back into a working farm (pecans, black walnuts and heirloom vegetables, organic eggs and meat), combined with a Southern Agriculture Heritage center, private park/campground (motorcycle friendly) and nature/naturist reserve.

Have a long way to go, right now it looks (and smells) like a chunk of Amazonia. :-/

Title: Re: Mantis
Post by rl153 on 05/14/14 at 21:19:48

Thats some history,,good luck,keeping it going.