I realized today I did something dumb. I went out my front door and was gonna run my buggy some with my wife's stampede. Got the starter box out, put the buggy on it, got it primed by spinning it over, and went to start it. The starter box wouldnt turn it over. It was contacting the flywheel fine, but the engine wouldnt turn over. So I messed with it and rolled the flywheel with my finger and couldnt get it to turn over doing that either.

So I thought maybe something internal let loose. I didnt know how it could have just sitting in the house, but I pulled it off the buggy and took it apart. When i got into it, i found a really short piece of wire in the crankcase jammed between the rod and the crankcase.

It took me a minute, and then... WHAT AN IDIOT!!! [:@] I had cut a very short piece of wire off the brake linkage when I was working on it the other day because it was hitting the fuel tank. I didnt have the air filter on it, and the carb was open some to get the linkage where i needed to get it cut. I never found the wire, and apparently it went right down into the carb of the HPI S-.25 engine.

Moral of the story is pay attention to the small things. I got the engine back together and it seems to be running perfect, so no harm yet. Its been a tough engine, so im hoping to get some more use out of it.

Eric