Home Lite gas Engine starts but will only run at high speed at

I have attached a diagnostic sheet to help you determine what is wrong.

Needs a carb adjustment, cleaning, or possible rebuilt. Try adding a little seafoam and running at half choke for about 5 mins or longer this may clean it up nicely. also check the spark plug.

You probably need a slight carburetor adjustment. Try to turn the L mixture screw (the one near the bottom of the carburetor on the air filter side, closest to the engine) 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn counterclockwise. These mixture adjustment screws ( L and H) have odd heads on them and conventional tools won't turn them. I use an automotive type plastic wire connector (around 22 gauge) with a ring terminal end which I can hold. Tap the plastic end of the wire terminal connector onto the head of the screw with a small hammer and this will enable you to adjust the L screw. This adjustment will increase you high speed side and possibly allow it to run off choke in a regular manner.

Sounds like the low speed fuel adjustment is out of whack....you can reset it by turning it in all the way clockwise...then as a starting point, turn it out 1 and 1/2 times, start the engine and slowly adjust the screw until the engine starts to choke out..when this occurs, turn it back in until it starts to choke again...then you need to set it somewhere in between to find the "happy medium"....thew high speed screw is adjusted after you get the engine idling properly...if you haven't messed with this then I wouldn't worry about it..unless you have poor high speed operation, then you will need to set the high speed screw...the object here is to obtain the best low to high speed throttle...if , when you throttle up the saw, the engine bogs or goes to high speed slowly , here is where you adjust to get the best throttle response...use small increments until you achieve the desired response

Hi murban001,
From what you describe, it is running lean, and you should adjust your carburetor. Obviously if running with the choke it has more power, turn the high speed mixture screw out (counterclockwise) with engine running 1/8 turn at a time until it runs better. With engine stopped turn that high speed mixture screw in or (clockwise) until lightly seated,( but remember the screw setting before doing this). This is to check how much it is turned out. The high speed mixture screw should not be adjusted less than 1 turn out from a lightly seated position to prevent running too lean, as that could damage the engine because of overheating. The adjustment process is to turn the H screw in until it just starts to run bad now turn it out until it starts to run bad, adjust the screw in the middle of those 2 positions to get the ideal setting, a bit richer is even better to help cool the engine. The gas helps to cool the engine, but some people don't think of that as being the case. When you accelerate the engine, if it sort of misses or hesitates turn the L or idle speed mixture screw out a bit, adding more gas to the mixture help with acceleration. Hope this is helpful. Regards and good luck. Denis.

If it starts at completely cold to fine tune the high jet adjustment.first off the high speed jet should be initially set at 1 1/2 turns out from lightly bottomed all the way in. next when you do your prestart routine,choke all the way on,primer pumped two times,throttle set at the high speed position,ignition key on,fuel line turned on.(this is my prestartup for my 8hp tecumseh)yours may be slightly different.use whatever starts your machine the easiest! once my machine starts up i can almost immediately turn the choke completely off. i can do that because the high speed jet is opened enough or rich enough for the engine to run.if you adjust the high speed in it will lean the motor out(you found that to be true!) to where it will miss and backfire and eventually quit. start at 1 1/2 turns out and start the engine,once the engine starts if you take the choke off right away use what it does as a guide to high speed adjustment. if the engine quits turn the screw out 1/4 turn and so on.use the very first cold startup as the test for high speed mixture adjustment. at completely cold startup you have the jet adjusted correctly when the engine will sustain itself when you completely take the choke off very shortly after startup. let the amount of choke you need at cold start to keep the engine running be your guide.too lean and the engine will not stay running without the choke at all,too rich and the engine will not pull under extreme loads and will show signs of black soot out the exhaust. you want the jet adjusted so within 5 seconds of cold start the engine will stay running with no choke at all. find that needle setting ( don't ad any more!! ) and you'll be good to go.keep in mind the above is not optimum and is a little rich but you will like the way it starts,stays running,and overall performs as adjusted above.

It sounds like the fuel mixture is running very Lean..There are usually two adjusting screw screws on the carburettor that control the mixture. A Larger one is for the Main Jet and a smaller one for the Idle Jet. There is also an adjusting screw on the throttle butterfly to control the idle speed.
To adjust setup, start with at least a half tank of fuel, and have engine at operating tempurature (That is warm but not overly Hot). As a starting point, loosen (anticlockwise) Main Jet screw about half a turn, to richen mixture,so that engine will run without choke. Run engine at full speed and adjust main jet for highest smooth speed without engine missing due to mixture being too lean or rich.
Allow engine to idle and the adjust Idle Jet Screw for smoothest idle. Idle Speed screw may have to be adjusted if idle speed is too high/low.
Sequence above may have to be repeated to get best running. If engine hesitates sometime when sudden load is applied but then picks up, try adjusting Main Jet by 1/8 to 1/4 turn richer until it handles the load without faltering.

Start your adjustment by turning both screws (gas and air) all the way in and then back them out one and a fourth turn. Start from there. Hope this helps.

did you try fresh gas

Try turning the high speed adjustment screw counterclock wise a little at a time and see if that helps.