Ok fella's. I have a new engine that i have built. It is a 50 cube opposed with billet rods and an arc flywheel. I fired it up for the first time friday and it ran and sounded great but after a few minutes it got a little bit of a pop in it. So i changed the timing about 2* and tried starting it again. It fired up and of course still popping so right before i went to kill the engine the key stripped out ([straight key]my fault didn't have the nut tight enough
). I took the valve covers off and check the valves on the cylinder that was popping and the exhaust valve was way to tight. Checked all of them when I was assembling it but i guess i used the wrong feeler to messure the gap. Anyway thats not my issue, just said all of that to complete the story.
My problem is that after church today it was so nice outside i rolled the mower outside for the first time since i got it back together after paint and was going to start the motor back up. Put another key in it and torqued the flywheel down tight this time. (I set the timing back 2* to where it had been before.) I had just put the fuel tank back on it so the lines were empty so to save on the starter i pored a tiny bit of gas in the carb. Hit the starter then the ignition and it fired right up just for a second then died. The filter now had some gas in it so I started to crank it again and it kicked back and sheared my plastic starter gear. Soooooooo I set the timing all the way to the negative side of the scale and put another starter gear on and started to crank it again and boom stripped that gear out too! and yes i took the flywheel nut off to make sure the key didn't shear. I quit to go get ready for church and now ive been thinking about it and I don't have any idea why its doing that. The key i put in there was an old one but it wasn't wore bad or anything and i wouldn't thank that it would put the timing out that bad any way. I'm going to get a brand new key tomorrow but i thought i might would ask for some advice on here before i try it again. And im going to just pull the plugs and check the timing by turning it over with the starter. If its not in the timing i don't know where else to look. I wasn't kicking back at all friday and all at once it started it.
Thanks, Derrick.