Need help, I have the HD 36 Norwood sawmill with 23 horsepower vanguard engine purchased back in March. To date, I have worked about 2 hours with this sawmill and everything was fine. I moved the sawmill out to the house and took a week of vacation this week to saw all the logs collected over the past few months. My problem - The vanguard engine will not start. It is turning over fine with the battery but will not start. Things I have done: Checked both spark plugs - firing OK. Checked all connection including the emergency stop button. Disconnected the emergency stop button and all wires dealing with it. Did all the troubleshooting from the book and nothing. Drained the gas and placed new gas. Checked fuel lines and feul pump all working fine. We have exhausted all possibilities and stumped. Does anyone have any suggestion on how to get the motor running? This is really crazy as I have never seen anything like it.
Thanks Gary
If you squirt a little starting fluid or gasoline in the air intake, does it fire? If so, it could be a plugged needle valve.
I had a problem with my B&S engine sputtering and running poorly, I took off the bowl, the float, and ran a tip cleaner through the needle valve. No problems since then.
If you don't have a tip cleaner, take a bit of stranded wire, pull out one strand (about 4 inches worth), It should fit down the needle valve.
Make sure the oil is full low oil shut down may be the cause.
It’s fixed. Took to a dealer and the carburetor was clogged with debris (white flacks) in the new gas tank. He took the carburetor apart and cleaned it good and we emptied the gas and cleaned the tank. Had to be from the manufacturer of the gas tank. What a pain in the ***. Spent two days of my vacation dealing with this. Thanks for your comments.
GAS MOTORS = needed to run is gas,sparkand water unless air cooled
DIESEL MOTORS = needed to run diesel fuel,air,water,again unless air cooled.
As my late father told over & over SIMPLE.So I remmeber KISS =KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

And I never forgot
I check plug for spark and see if it wet with gas leads to flooding,check cab if it got gas,none means pugged line to tank,check fuel filter and check to see if there is gas.Cause it may have been evporated or stolen.Diesel pretty much the same .Simple things COST money.He toled me to look for the poroblem OR GO BACK TO SCHOOL.So I looked for problem and fixed it myself.Easy to read book on the motor.Or nowaday GOOGLE IT.B&S motors are simple if you can't find the problem GOOGLE IT,SIMPLE.Ilearned from my Dad when I was just 6 years old that what makes a motor run.And I never forgot it.We nevedr had internet just trial &error and listen to other that had that problem.
hi, i bought a hd 36 with a 23 hp vangard b&s a couple of months ago, everything was great at first but after awhile it started to spudder and buck when it was idling .
now it takes forever to start , sometimes up to an hour but once it starts it runs perfect , then if i shut it down for an hour i have to go through the whole process again.
Ive changed the plugs , flushed the tank .it has lots of spark and is getting gas .
Today i took the old spark plugs and cleaned them up, put them in and it started up right away but after 10 minutes or soit started to act up again , i have only cut around 8000
feet with this mill , does anyone have any idea what my problem could be
Thanks
Gerry
I would suspect the fuel may have caught something in the intake. Maybe take the fuel intake apart, make certain the float is good, and the needle valve isn't plugged?
I always run higher grade fuel in mine (with one exception, where someone gave me lower grade fuel even though I asked for premium).
I have a new HD36 with the Vanguard 23. First use we would get a backfire at the finish of a cut and release of handle. Called tech support, was told to use Non-Ethanol gas. We made the switch and are having the same problem. We have about 35 hours on the mill and if we do not come out of the cut and release the throttle slowly we get one some times a double back fire. This does not seem correct for a new motor. I am going to call tech support again. Wondering if anyone else is having or has had this problem?
If cleaning the plugs helped for a little while, I would suspect flooding. I have not had any problems with my Vanguard motor, but had a Vanguard motor on a riding lawnmower that flooded every time I shut it off. Ended up being the electric shutoff valve in the carburetor bowl. I would get the Briggs and Stratton dealer involved as it sounds like you’re still under warranty. Hope you get it ironed out soon - sucks to be down with mechanical problems. As Mr Garrison suggested I would only run a good grade of fuel. I took to only using ethanol free fuel in all of my small engines after getting water in my fuel a couple of times. Haven’t had fuel system failure since.
Hello. I am new to the sawmill biz, but I had a lawn service for 19 years. All our machines had Vanguards. There is an electric solenoid on the bottom of the carborator bowl. It has an automatic shut off there. You probaby pulled one of those wires when you moved it. I hope this helps. Happy sawing!
One thing that I've found helps eliminate backfiring of the Vangard on my sawmill is to release the throttle just before finishing the cut so the momentum carries the blade through the last bit of the cut. That way, the blade is slowing down the engine, rather than the engine slowing down the blade. It takes a few tries to get a feel for it.
Good judgement comes from experience... experience comes from bad judgement.
I tried Post Oakie’s trick of letting off the throttle at the end of the cut and I stopped backfiring. Just takes a little practice to remember to do it.
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately go to full throttle
Does anyone know where I can get a diagram of the the throttle linkage with set up instruction? Took apart to clean carb and know it immediately goes to full throttle.
A new record for repeat posts! Which Vangard do you have-- the older version with the detached plastic fuel tank or the newer one with the inegrated metal fuel tank? I have the older version, and will post a photo, if that would help.
Good judgement comes from experience... experience comes from bad judgement.
having the same issue. vangard23 / with the plastic fuel tank. any help would be great.
I have had some real issues with the Vanguard 18hp. Third one is in the shop in under a year. That one was right from Briggs with a throttle already installed. TinyTach had the rpms at 3500 and after 11 hours is just doesn't want to run. rpms are 2000 max and it will run for a minute or so then just die. That one is in the shop now and I am looking at replacing it with a Kohler CH620.