Pressure washer not pushing compressed water

[DirtAddsHP]

Hello,

I bought a used pressure washer with a Honda GC160 motor and a Karcher 2400 pump. It worked good for the first couple uses with the pressure kicking on nearly instantly when pressing the trigger, and then the response time start dropping and would loose pressure sometimes even with trigger still pressed after about 10 minutes of use.

Now i can only get the pressure to kick on for about 1-2 seconds and then the pump seems to kick back off. And for the most part i cannot get the pump to kick on at all, just a tiny bit of water coming out of the nozzle when the motor idling. the engine does not die, it just stops pumping high pressure water.

I looked at the air filter which looks okay and i checked the inlet nozzle which does not appear to be clogged.

Before i buy a new pump for $100 i would like to make sure that is the problem. I take it the carb is not clogged as the engine does not die, just the pump does not want to kick on in a timely fashion and keeps kicking on and off.

any tips or help would be much appreciated.

-Austin

 

[devildog101]

Hello Austin

You have a very common problem. it is not the motor at all. The issue is with the pump. All you have to do to fix it is apply a liberal amount of plumbers grease. (available at you neighborhood Lowes, HD, Etc.) on a valve in the pump.

I will try and make my explination as direct as I can. If you look at the front of your pump you will see a black plastic cap over the pump. It is about one to two inches wide and about an inch and a half tall. The valve is under it. Take a screwdriver and pry off the button holding the cap in place. it is simply pressed on. after you do this you will see 2 bolts that you need to remove. take them off and remove the cover they are holding down. Ok here is the fun part. When you remove the cover you will see the valve. dont try to pry it out it will not budge. what you do is put a towel over the whole pump, connect the water hose to the pump & fire up the engine. The valve will pop right out into the towel. After that clean the valve & use your plumbers grease liberally. Put it all back together and enjoy a good working pressure washer.

Took me all of 20 minutes from start to finish and my washer never worked better. Now I wish I could take the credit for solving this problem but I read it online somewhere.

Have a good one.
Ed

 

[DirtAddsHP]

wow thank you soo much, you just saved me a hundred dollars!!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Hello Austin

You have a very common problem. it is not the motor at all. The issue is with the pump. All you have to do to fix it is apply a liberal amount of plumbers grease. (available at you neighborhood Lowes, HD, Etc.) on a valve in the pump.

I will try and make my explination as direct as I can. If you look at the front of your pump you will see a black plastic cap over the pump. It is about one to two inches wide and about an inch and a half tall. The valve is under it. Take a screwdriver and pry off the button holding the cap in place. it is simply pressed on. after you do this you will see 2 bolts that you need to remove. take them off and remove the cover they are holding down. Ok here is the fun part. When you remove the cover you will see the valve. dont try to pry it out it will not budge. what you do is put a towel over the whole pump, connect the water hose to the pump & fire up the engine. The valve will pop right out into the towel. After that clean the valve & use your plumbers grease liberally. Put it all back together and enjoy a good working pressure washer.

Took me all of 20 minutes from start to finish and my washer never worked better. Now I wish I could take the credit for solving this problem but I read it online somewhere.

Have a good one.
Ed

I have a 2500 psi Karcher with a 6 hp Briggs OHV engine, horizontal shaft, and it started doing that, works, just doesn't have any real pressure, real mediocre pressure, I've been meaning to call (I have the number for a company that does Karcher warranty service and they have been helpful on the phone before) but I've been too lazy to. Think I'll go out right now and see if mine is made the way you describe.

Charles

 

[psychoclaw84]

Hello Austin

You have a very common problem. it is not the motor at all. The issue is with the pump. All you have to do to fix it is apply a liberal amount of plumbers grease. (available at you neighborhood Lowes, HD, Etc.) on a valve in the pump.

I will try and make my explination as direct as I can. If you look at the front of your pump you will see a black plastic cap over the pump. It is about one to two inches wide and about an inch and a half tall. The valve is under it. Take a screwdriver and pry off the button holding the cap in place. it is simply pressed on. after you do this you will see 2 bolts that you need to remove. take them off and remove the cover they are holding down. Ok here is the fun part. When you remove the cover you will see the valve. dont try to pry it out it will not budge. what you do is put a towel over the whole pump, connect the water hose to the pump & fire up the engine. The valve will pop right out into the towel. After that clean the valve & use your plumbers grease liberally. Put it all back together and enjoy a good working pressure washer.

Took me all of 20 minutes from start to finish and my washer never worked better. Now I wish I could take the credit for solving this problem but I read it online somewhere.

Have a good one.
Ed

Ed,

Thank you very much for the information. I own a similar Karcher pressure sprayer and every once in a while the sprayer will not pressurize water. As the other posting stated, I thought it was a bad pump.

The owners manual does not have any preventive maintenance for this pump, just for the Honda motor.

I'll give you full credit.

Thanks again.

 

[devildog101]

Im glad I could help. Figure I might as well share some info as I am always lurking and gaining tons of insight from the board.

Ed