07 F8 weird starting problem

[hoamskilet]

Had a weird problem with my wife's 07 F8 recently I wanted to run by you guys to see if anyone has had something similar happen.

We've had it for our 3rd season now and haven't had a lick of trouble with it. This last trip it ran great until the morning we were loading to leave. It's always taken 2 pulls to start when cold first thing in the morning, and then 1 pull the rest of the day. Behaved the same way this trip. The morning I went to load it, on the second pull, it sort of "puffed".....didn't backfire (which it occasionally will do). After that, it didn't even act like it was trying to start. Eventually the rope broke (had a frayed spot and knew I was going to need to replace it this offseason anyway) and we had to yank it onto the trailer.

Fast forward to tonight. I got the rope fixed. For ****s and giggles I pulled the 2 plugs out on the muffler side since it was already off and they were easy to get to. Both were pretty gnarly. Good brown color, but pretty crusted over. Threw em back in and went to see if it would start by chance.....2nd pull like normal it fired up. It kinda chugged for about 20 seconds, which it doesn't normally do, but after that it cleared up and sat there running like normal. Shut if off and let it sit for a bit....first pull fired right up.

The plugs for sure need to be changed for next year, but I don't think that's what the issue was the day it wouldn't start.

Any ideas what might have been going on?

 

[euphoric1]

before it clears out does it sound like it is running on both cylinders? maybe you do have a plug that may be fouling? check plug caps, do you have a brown like dust on and around the ceramic part of the plug under and below where the cap is on the spark plug suggesting arcing ?

 

[WorkHardPlayHrd]

This happened to my 800 in Sault Ste Marie. Normally started second pull no problems. Second pull to leave in morning and a puff then nothing. Ended up towing it to dealer. Yanked out the plugs. Blew air in, put them back in and then it started. Had somehow flooded. Sometimes when pulling now if one of the kids is riding it we hear what you are talking about. The hand immediately goes to the throttle or half the time it dies and won't start unless it's left alone for at least two hours. It doesn't go on long trips anymore and I'm not willing to take to a dealer and get told. I have no idea, but here is the bill.