Wednesday, 13 May 2020

Parsun Outboard - No Restart Fix - Throttle Wide Open

My old 5hp Parsun outboard starts up from cold (choke on) on the 2nd or 3rd pull.

However, once the motor is hot, it doesn't want to restart.

The fix is simple: Make sure the motor is in neutral, choke off, and twist the throttle almost wide open.

I never paid attention before, but there's an info graphic on the tiller that shows this:


As we said in technical writing... "If all else fails, read the documentation."

Keep in mind that this may affect many brands made by Parsun, including Coleman in North America.

https://kjopc.blogspot.com/2011/07/brands-made-by-parsun-outboards.html


Thursday, 12 September 2019

Stripe: No Such Customer

Stripe doesn't keep test data forever. If you have Stripe customers in your system and you get the message "No such customer", it probably means you are presenting an old customer ID to Stripe.
You may have to delete and recreate the customer data in your system.

Wednesday, 27 March 2019

Visual Studio and the Green Hat Cuckold Bug

Cultural differences are really tough to navigate. I had to chuckle over a "bug" report for Visual Studio 2019.


The complaints were about the following image:


Apparently a Chinese man wearing a green hat is considered a cuckold!



At any rate, the image was fixed. The Visual Studio Cuckold bug is gone!



Saturday, 9 February 2019

Don't Try Using a Warn PullzAll Winch in Cold Weather

I recently bought a Warn PullzAll winch (24v) for snowmobile emergencies such as winching the sled out of deep powder or a snow bank.

It turns out that my tracked UTV was the first machine to get stuck in about 4 feet of very soft, slippery snow.

The PullzAll turned out to be useless because in the -10 degree Celsius weather the batteries were only good for a minute or so. Good thing I found out while I happened to have a bunch of guys to help dig the show from under and around the SxS.

The PullzAll was expensive and that was the only task I had for it. The item is going back to Costco.

Now you know.

https://www.warn.com/pullzall-cordless-winch-2-batteries-885005

2019 Ski-Doo 600 ACE Won't Start - Known Defect - Intermittent

My 2019 Ski-Doo Renegade Sport (Orange Crush) intermittently refused to start. The system electronics would boot up but the engine (600 ACE) would sometimes not turn over.

Stranded out on the frozen lake, I was about get the UTV to tow the sled home when the starter decided to work again.

At the Ski-Doo dealership, the machine started fine (as expected!). The service manager suggested this was user error - that I hadn't waited for the complete boot-up sequence before trying to turn the engine over to start it.

That was not the case. The mechanic  discovered there's a known issue with the throttles on 600 and 900 ACE engines.

Apparently the throttle misreports that it is wide open. The onboard computer refuses to start the engine under the assumption that the engine would race, become a hazard, and destroy itself.

The dealership replaced the throttle assembly (BRP part 512061256) under warranty.



Thursday, 22 November 2018

Porta Puller Instructions (American Power Pull EZ2000)

Note: The poorly written the Porta Puller (EZ2000) operating instructions are printed in faint, miniscule text. Here's what I've inserted into the box for emergency use.

Raise the Handle


Straighten the handgrip and push the handle cylinder’s slot fully down over the spring-loaded button.

Do not use the holes in the cylinder. They have no purpose.

Unreel the Cable


Put the control lever (Up/Down Switch) into the forward position towards the long cable end.

Disengage the retainer pawl underneath by holding the lever (tail) of the retainer pawl against the frame, freeing the ratchet wheel to spin freely.

Tighten the Cable


Put the control lever (Up/Down Switch) into the reverse position towards the clevis end and away from the cable.

Pull the handle.

Saturday, 3 March 2018

Honda Pioneer 500 Emergency Gear Change Selection

If something goes wrong with your gear shifting on a Honda Pioneer 500, you can use a tool under the seat to put the machine into a gear that will get you home.

I've scanned two pages from the Honda Pioneer 500 User manual so I can blow it up and keep these instructions handy under the seat.

Here's a picture of the diagram showing where the special tool goes:

You may also want the instructions of the two pages, scanned as PDFs.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oqsYdOm6x1v2w2U1qjOj_afvFW3ptwre
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OAWSQCwhfhGohXAExJjga8oeKAAzhe9J

I haven't been able to find an online PDF from Honda. That's odd, because the dealer gave me links to the shop manual as PDFs.