Poulan 3400 countervibe help needed

[Lab455]

Some help would be much appreciated to troubleshoot my no-start problem with a Poulan 3400. It will not start and will not pop at all. Has been in the family cabin shed, used on and off for the past decades without much use and care and maintenance, but I know it was run in the past few years by my bro. Looking to revive it cuz our father’s initials are engraved in it, so it needs to run forever, or at least a few times while I am above ground and for the third generation to use..

Here is where it sits, not necessarily in order:
- It will not start or pop, period.
- compression good by pull feel and thumb test
- new spark plug, good spark with switch On, nothing with Off
- new fuel, fuel line, fuel filter, air filter
- walbro carb clean and rebuild
- pulls fuel visually when pulled
- starter fluid In plug hole and carb with no pop
- fuel/oil poured into plug hole with no pop, also into carb with no pop
- L&H jets reset and tried with all of the above

I don’t get it. Good spark and starter fluid should produce at least a hiccup, right?

Someone please tell me the simple thing I am missing..

Thanks for any nuggets!

 

[grizz55chev]

Some help would be much appreciated to troubleshoot my no-start problem with a Poulan 3400. It will not start and will not pop at all. Has been in the family cabin shed, used on and off for the past decades without much use and care and maintenance, but I know it was run in the past few years by my bro. Looking to revive it cuz our father’s initials are engraved in it, so it needs to run forever, or at least a few times while I am above ground and for the third generation to use..

Here is where it sits, not necessarily in order:
- It will not start or pop, period.
- compression good by pull feel and thumb test
- new spark plug, good spark with switch On, nothing with Off
- new fuel, fuel line, fuel filter, air filter
- walbro carb clean and rebuild
- pulls fuel visually when pulled
- starter fluid In plug hole and carb with no pop
- fuel/oil poured into plug hole with no pop, also into carb with no pop
- L&H jets reset and tried with all of the above

I don’t get it. Good spark and starter fluid should produce at least a hiccup, right?

Someone please tell me the simple thing I am missing..

Thanks for any nuggets!

Flooded!

 

[Lab455]

Fair enough, I made it sound like that and thought that too.. Any recommendations on how to rule that out? I have pulled the plug, changed to new dry plug sparking well,, and tried to start with choke off and then on partial and full again and still nothing.. thanks!

 

[L34]

Remove plug
Blow out cylinder with compressed air.
Start with throttle held wide open no choke.

 

[Lab455]

Well that got it to sputter after about 25 pulls. I did half choke and trigger lock, and it popped off. It ran for several seconds. When I reved it up, it wound up high and then killed after I released the trigger.
I tried to repeat the starting process multiple times, with no luck to get even a sputter. My arm is about to fall off..
Any ideas on next steps? I assume once I can get it to start consistently, I can fine tune the carb settings. Or, is there something I need to pre-tune to get it to start consistently? Chicken or the egg?
Thanks!

 

[Goinwheelin]

Not too familiar with the 3400 Poulans. Could be a vacuum leak or the metering lever in the carb is set wrong. Maybe it needs crank seals. Vacuum tester will go a long ways towards diagnosis if you have one.

Try asking your question here. Very knowledgeable folks when it comes to Poulans they gave me a ton of help when I did my 5200

https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/niks-poulan-thread.98495/page-2792

 

[Efisher26]

No spark? Or bad plug/gap


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CaseyCreek]

Well that got it to sputter after about 25 pulls. I did half choke and trigger lock, and it popped off. It ran for several seconds. When I reved it up, it wound up high and then killed after I released the trigger.

I think it sounds like your carb isn't working just right. I know you've rebuilt it, but I have had to rebuild them more than once to get it right. On a 3400. The little lever that moves the needle up and down needs to be set even with the edge of the carb. If the lever has too little or too much angle on it, the saw will run a lot like you describe. BTW, those are fun little saws when you get things working. I wouldn't sell mine for twice what I paid for it. One more thing: are you using canned gas or are you mixing your own? At least for the initial repair/testing, you may want to use canned gas.

 

[Lab455]

CaseyCreek, I really had no clue on the angle of the lever dangle, so I left it as is, but I assumed it was kind of impotent. Can you explain about setting it even with the carb? I am trying to visualize how to gage this or rule of thumb it in some way, and can’t see it yet.. Bend it more or less angle, based on what you have seen here?
I am using new canned gas.

 

[L34]

Do a Google search on setting metering lever height.
I am sure you will come up with a Video.

 

[Ax-man]

Crank bearings and seals is the first place to look for a possible bad air leak . The second place to look is the main nozzle check valve in the carb for gunk plugging that little screen over the valve itself. If the carb is bad most likely it is that main nozzle check valve.

 

[Lab455]

Well guys, I pulled the carb to check on the metering lever height, since I was reminded that it might need some attention. Thanks on the direction of where to find instructions. I get it now- flush to straight edge across top face of carb. Of course it was high by quite a bit. It spent a lot of years in the corner of the shed because of this. Bent to level and put all back together.
Fires up and keeps running now! Starting needle valve settings were pretty close to well tuned.
Thank you all very much for guiding me toward a quick path to recovery!