Countax ride on mower

[TriQPilot]

I have a problem with my Countax ride on mower fitted with a Honda V twin engine, and I am hoping someone will help me out with solving it.

The day after normal operation, It would not start.
Both plugs OK with good spark.
Fuel supply is OK, no blockages.

Then I found that it would start on one cylinder provided that the other cylinder did not have its plug installed.
Once that plug is installed, and I tried a new one, the engine will not even start.
Fuel is spitted out of the open plug hole while running on one cylinder, which proves that it is not a fuel problem

Anyone?

[E-bmw]

You say it will run on one with the other plug out, is this either way round, or just one way?

[TriQPilot]

I think that it is only one way. I have been away for a month since this happened and I believe that I checked that but I'll check again. Watch this space ....

[GreenV8S]

Will it run with the second plug installed but not connected?

[TriQPilot]

No.

[TriQPilot]

Well, before I went away it would only run on the one cylinder, and it was a painful and slow process cutting the grass before I left.
I did the same yesterday and it took even longer because of one months growth!

I have just been out to the garage to confirm that it wouldn't run with the plug installed in the other cylinder and ..... it started and runs perfectly now!

I previously spent hours trying to trouble shoot the electrics and the fuel.

Perplexed! But many thanks for your reply, E BMW and Green V8s.

(I have a V12 E-Type, perhaps I should change my moniker to WhiteV12?)

I am now going out to put it to a real test, cutting an acre of grass! I may be back ......

[GreenV8S]

Do you think it might be a starting issue rather than a running issue? I imagine that it would crank over faster with only one cylinder having compression.

[TriQPilot]

No, I don't think it was a starting issue. The battery was fully charged and the engine turned over briskly with both plugs installed.
Certainly, the power of the one cylinder was overcome by the non firing compression of its twin, and would only run when the other plug was removed.
But, it is now running fine without a glitch, and I am not aware of doing something, anything, to have solved the problem!

Thanks to all who responded.

[Casperdude]

Hi All
We had the no starting issue on the Honda engine. Pulled the carby off and checked inside. All fine. Tried the fuel cut off operation (similar to what is on the Kawasaki engine) and it didn’t work. Turned out to be the connector had pulled out in the middle of the big loom that leads back from the engine so turned out to be a simple fix after putting everything back together again.

[Camaro]

Sounds like the ignition coil is breaking down / producing a weak spark.

Coil will often fail when hot or after they've been used for a while. The resistance in the coil goes either low or high depending on how it's failing. Either way, it will not be conducive to having a decent working igntion system.

I would bet it has a wasted spark set up too, where one coil just fires both plugs at the same time, and the cycles are offset that the coil will fire on the compression of one cylinder and the exhaust of the other.