Atomic 4

[sailnoproblem]

My Atomic 4 has been running good for 4 years. Now there is a problem, I have to keep the choke out in order to run. If I try to push in the choke it stalls. I cleaned the carb, changed the fuel filter, changed the gas, and changed the distributer to electronic. Before I purchase a new carb, I thought I might ask if anyone has any other suggestions.

 

[kloudie1]

Stalls at idle or under load at higher rpm or both?
Usually that cure means that the low speed circuit in the carburetor is plugged or partially plugged. I am not familiar with that carb, but you should see the low speed jet circuit and its adjusting screw .. a small piece of trash is plugging something..

 

[sailnoproblem]

Stalls at idle or under load at higher rpm or both?
Usually that cure means that the low speed circuit in the carburetor is plugged or partially plugged. I am not familiar with that carb, but you should see the low speed jet circuit and its adjusting screw .. a small piece of trash is plugging something..

Thanks for the tip. It's a Zenith carb. I'll give the adjusting screw a try.

 

[Benny17441]

Needs a carb cleaning. It needs to soak in a carburetor cleaning solution for a few days. It may be so badly clogged it may require replacing.

 

[Potomac sailor1526]

The same thing happened with ours and it started as we were going in to repaint the bottom so we had the marina look at it and they order a service kit form Moyer marine in Rock Hall MD and cleaned it and runs great now . They told us it was the low rpm circuit has we could go 1500 rpm no problems .

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I bet what your problem is, is water in your fuel. You have to choke it to keep it going. Check the fuel fill deck fitting to see if the little rubber O-Ring is good. Rain water might be slipping by it. So, look in the fuel (the sight glass - or bowl) or a filter, if you have one between the fuel tank and the motor.

 

[sailnoproblem]

I bet what your problem is, is water in your fuel. You have to choke it to keep it going. Check the fuel fill deck fitting to see if the little rubber O-Ring is good. Rain water might be slipping by it. So, look in the fuel (the sight glass - or bowl) or a filter, if you have one between the fuel tank and the motor.

I thought of that and used a plastic outboard tank with fresh gas. I also changed the inline filter. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Bill Roosa]

cleaning a carb is more of an art than a science. The holes are so small and the plumbing is so convoluted that is is easy to miss all the nooks and crannies that can hold more grit that was fine till you started messing around and making it worse. I find that a can of compressed air/gas, toothpicks, sewing needles and a good light source are key to getting things clean. Don't be afraide to unscrew everything that looks like it can unscrew. Do keep a record of the number of turns on things that are not screwed in tight. Also keep a map of where everything goes and diagrams of stuff that looks like it HAS to go back together in a specific way. Most of those have a spring on them to keep them from moving BTW/

 

[rbyham]

Get a rebuild kit from Moyer as others have said. Symptoms you describe are classic pointing to deep cleaning and rebuild.

 

[sailnoproblem]

I want to thank all for the advice. I have rebuilt the carb with help from Ken at Moyer. However one of the jets was buggered up and I was unable to remove it.
(That was 4yrs ago.) The motor ran fine, so I left it alone. I decided to purchase a new card from Moyer. Unless someone in the forum has a good used one for sale.

 

[Afrakes]

Check out my ad in Gear for sale.