[maxine]

I used my rotavator a few weeks before Christmas & it was fine, went to use it last week & noticed Id left the fuel on Oooops!  It started but died after a second or so, did this a few times so I gave up & left it........Been down allotment & tried it again, its doing exactly the same thing.  Its a big old fella but Im getting sooooo angry with it that Im going to use my womanly muscles & throw it at the next passing person!! 
The only info I can give is that its a Honda engine & uses unleaded fuel. It was serviced last summer & I was told although its old it is in good working order.  Help please 

[R Tallentire]

I had a similar problem with a Chinese copy of a Honda engine and it turned out to be that the fuel had run through the air filter and into the sump. I’m not sure if genuine Honda carbs are exactly the same but check if the sump is overfull of thin “petroly” smelling oil. If it is, drain the sump, refill with fresh oil, clean the air filter and try again.
Regards, Richard

[Gwiz]

Genuine Honda engines do the self same thing.

[stompy]

I had a similar problem on mine the last few weeks.
I sorted it on Friday, the air filter was saturated with fuel and dirt, i gave it a good clean and also removed the sparkplug and gave that a quick clean an scrape too and it runs great now.

I just need to put some oil down the throttle cable as its a bit sticky.

Worth a look at both those things 

[olde9856]

Replace the spark plug. They tend to break down and give those start stop symptoms

[maxine]

Right I will try all of the above! 
So do I need to check the sparkplug even though its firing up but then stopping, I really need to find someone or somewhere to show me how to service this rotavator as Im getting a bit sick of dragging it up the allotment & loading it onto the trailer to be fixed.  Thanks for all the help, Ill let you know how I get on 

[stompy]

Just remove the sparkplug and check it.

If it looks black or wet then it will need to be cleaned with some sandpaper between the gap, if it looks a light brown colour then it is ok and the problem lies elsewhere.

Probably the fuel/air mixture screw or blocked fuel, or choke not working or, the list can be quite endless to be honest.

can't you ask any of the old guys on your site to have a quick look?