Recent content by Gbannish

My 743 became harder and harder to start. I lived with it for at least a year, learning to squeeze the fuel bulb a few times right before starting (was always soft after resting), which helped immensely. Then I found a cracked fuel line to the first injector. Once replaced, it started really...

When it dies, is the fuel primer bulb soft or hard? That might give a clue... My 743 had a bad fuel pickup tube (like you already replaced) and would die after 10 minutes running and only run on a full tank of fuel. At that point, the primer bulb was soft... But I could get going again by...

I had the same problem with my 743 a few months ago, and wound up using the screwdriver trick successfully, although a bit messy (you might want to remove or cover your battery below). First, however, I failed miserably with a Harbor Freight rubber strap and plastic filter wrench, as the...

Thanks Tazza and Farmshop! Well some good news today, I received the thermostat and so was able to put it in and test her out. I was lazy and did not repeat the compression test or check for valve clearances. Well, after priming she fired right up. There was some white smoke but not a huge...

Yep, I checked the compression with a cheap harbor fright tester, and came up with 420 for all cylinders. Had never done before, let the engine crank for 2or 3 seconds until the pressure stopped increasing. I think one of the cylinders took a little longer to build pressure. My thermostat...

Thanks Farmshop, I'll recheck the fuel bulb direction and see if its compressed at full throttle. I do have my other machine, lucky for me, and can try flipping parts if it gets to that. If I were to swop fuel injector pumps, would I transfer the shims too? Today I adjusted my valves. First, I...

Ok, to clarify, today the machine is running better now at start up, idle, and up to medium throttle. I'm not getting the black smoke issues. I'll bet if I start it cold tomorrow, there will be white and black smoke at start up, but will resolve pretty quick. However, at 3/4 throttle the engine...

Thanks much for the replies! I switched the injectors (bad one was in the first cylinder, switched to the second). After warming up the engine, I tested the temp of the exhaust pipes from each cylinder again, and the cool exhaust pipe remained on the first cylinder even after switching injectors...

Thanks farmshop. I had a good day today, for me. I removed the exhaust pipe to gain better access to the fuel lines and injectors. The nuts on the exhaust studs were impressively rusty, I heated them with a map torch (don't have acetylene), then added PB blaster, then the nuts came off. I took...

Thank you Farmshop and Tazza! I found the problem this evening while cleaning the battery terminals. The thick red positive cable had a small red wire (ie 12 gauge) coming out of it right near the cable end. it had been crimped a few inches away and came apart. I reattached it. That small red...

I worked on it today. It smoked bad on startup as usual, got it into the driveway, checked the temp of the exhaust pipes at each cylinder as you suggested, found the back three were at about 195F, and the front one was at 160F. Cool! I then removed the injector, disassembled it, sprayed with...

Hi, After not fixing my existing 743 bobcat with a wheel bearing problem, I instead bought a second 743 for what I thought was a good price, and came with 2 buckets and pallet forks. The seller said it was hard to start, there was a lot of smoke on start up, and whenever the throttle was...

I got her started and very happy about that! It was hard for me and took 1/2 day. Here's what I did. I replaced some but not all of the fuel lines. Specifically the line from the fuel shutoff to the bulb, put in a new bulb, then from the bulb to the fuel filter. Also replaced the line from the...

Thanks guys, the machine cranked but was not bogged down. But the reason it wouldn't start is because I'm a moron and didn't push back down the fuel shutoff knob when shutting the machine off! I was so distraught at the gear/drive problem that I must've forgot. Once realized, but after I had...

Hi, Thanks for the suggestions, I'll plan to open up the chain case and inspect, and also to replace all of the wheel bearings (fun times, even bought a cheapo harbor freight 10 ton hydraulic puller for the project!). To clarify the motor issue, the motor would crank when I turned the starter...