golf cart engine, club car 99, runs strong dies... backfires, runs strong again

so.... the forums says small engine and mower.. hope someone can help me with my golfcart small engine because im not getting anywhere on my golf cart forums.

my golf cart starts and runs, then after running for sometime that could be up to a hour it will die and not start for several mins, has been as long as 10-20 mins before it will cough a couple times, backfire a couple times and then runs again.

my club car uses a fe290 kawasaki engine with a keihin carb


starts and runs fine.
1. randomly 3min to upwards of an hour it dies.
2. i have to crank and crank and crank before it goes again.
3. just before it starts it will cough a couple times and backfire.
4. then she sputters
5. runs and the process starts over again.

i have ........................
cleaned the carb
dipped the carbs over night
swapped gas pumps
new fuel lines
checked crank case pulse
restalled original gas pump as replacement didn't work any better
opened carb bowl drain to see if it has gas, and there is always gas in the bowl



would love some suggestions.

thanks john

Have you tried replacing the spark plug, Plugs can do weird things. And the other thing to check would be, when the engine quits have you checked to see if you still have spark. It sounds like a heat related issue which could be ignition module failure due to heat sink. Also may want to check valve clearances. Too tight of clearance can cause floating of the valves when hot, leading to loss of compression and then shutdown.

It sounds to me like you might have a faulty ignition coil. But before going there, have you tried cleaning or replacing your gas cap? Back-vacuum might be causing problems for you.

ILENGINE said:

Have you tried replacing the spark plug, Plugs can do weird things. And the other thing to check would be, when the engine quits have you checked to see if you still have spark. It sounds like a heat related issue which could be ignition module failure due to heat sink. Also may want to check valve clearances. Too tight of clearance can cause floating of the valves when hot, leading to loss of compression and then shutdown.

Click to expand...

msmallenginerepair said:

It sounds to me like you might have a faulty ignition coil. But before going there, have you tried cleaning or replacing your gas cap? Back-vacuum might be causing problems for you.

Click to expand...

I think starting off, I can kill two birds with one stone... I'll crack the gas cap a turn of so...

Run it and if it starts doing it, I'll check the ignition coil..... I'm no mechanic but you pull the spark plug lay it in something grounded at the threads and watch for a spark? Right?

Inline spark tester is better because sometimes a plug can spark when grounded but not under the compression of the engine.

I'm definitely not getting a spark when she's acting up.

Its too bight outside to see it, but I could definitely hear the crack, and when shes acting up nothing.

So guess that means coil? Anything besides replacing can I do to it?