Small Engine Carburetor Rebuild or Replace?

[Jon Claude Killy]

How do I know to replace a carburetor on a small engine instead of rebuilding the carburetor?

[Lawrence]

How available and expensive is a new one? How much to rebuild? If you do the work, How experienced are you, or confident, are you with a rebuild? Is there any rust on the old carb?? Do you just want to get it repaired quickly or do you want to save a few bucks and maybe learn something but even if you totally screw it up then you really learned something hopefully yu can still afford the replacement, lol.

[Doug Miller]

Assuming that you are able to rebuild the carb, the only reason I can think of for not doing so is inability to find the parts needed for rebuilding -- usually only a float, needle valve, and one gasket, IME.

[hrhofmann]

What make, model, age, conditon, problems you are having that make you think it is the carburetor???????

[Jules Richardson]

I seem to find a lot where the holes in the carb body for the throttle plate spindle have worn, so they leak a lot of air around the pivots - I don't think anything to fix that is usually in rebuild kits. They can probably be drilled and some form of sleeve fitted, but finding a suitable sleeve might be tricky.

(I've never seen a bad float - heard of it happening many a time, but I'm yet to find one in any carb that I've had apart!)

cheers

Jules

[Hank]

I agree with Jules. I've "cleaned" a lot of carbs on motorcycles/ATV's and mowers. I guess you could call them rebuilt if you want to, but

99% of the time they only need dis-assembled and the jets/transfer ports cleaned. I have never seen a float that leaked, but have seen some bad float valves and bad float settings.

I can't remember the last time I even had to buy a gasket or kit. Like Jules said, the only time you would ever need to replace a carb is when the throttle plate shaft wears down the housing to the point of having so much slop that it lets air leak thru. Or, the housing is broke/cracked for some reason.

Hank

[Bob Villa]

n

I have seen 2 gas-logged floats. One I needed fast...emptied and heat- dried it and soldered the hole closed. Most carbs can be cleaned and adjusted without rebuilding. Some mechanics will charge for the rebuilding kit and not even install it. I'm not saying most...just some!

[salty]

One exception was automatic chokes. They were quite unreliable on some cars.

[gfretwell]

The problem you run into with small engines is a lot of them don't have fuel, filters and people tend to store them with old gas in them. The carb does not really need rebuilding as much as it just needs to be cleaned. Usually you can just remove the float bowl and blow out the main jet. On those little Walbro carbs in weed eaters and chain saws, remove the big screw and plate before you blow back in the main jet so you don't blow out the check valves. Slip a little piece of fuel hose over the nozzle of your spray can and you can work it over the jet in the venturi to get a good squirt

[KC]

Have you priced a new carburator lately? Do it and you'll answer your own question.

[Jim Elbrecht]

I've said before that they were too cheap to spend any time/money futzing with an old one--- but I've met resistance every time so I quit posting it. I guess it is a matter of choice & what else one might do with that time to frustrate themselves.

Jim

[dpb]

Jim Elbrecht wrote: ...

I don't know what your carburetors are or where you're getting them but "cheap" hasn't been in the lexicon of any I've had to deal with...

I think the other poster was implying if OP were to price a new he'd definitely be looking at rebuilding if I were to guess the intent.

--

[Steve B]

Have you priced a new carburator lately? Do it and you'll answer your own question.

reply: That's when you can find them. There isn't a huge stock of carburetors at the local store, and a lot of them are out of production.

I have an updraft carburetor on a Lincoln welder with a Continental engine. I had to rebuild it myself, and that included making new gaskets. It works. On some of the older models, you can fergeddabout finding new carburetors.

Steve

Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Learn how to care for a friend.

[Steve B]

They get $5 or more for the little rubber primer bulb on a Briggs. Can't imagine what they would want for the whole carb.

Steve

Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Learn how to care for a friend.

[gfretwell]

I got one of those Walbros for my chain saw for about $40 from an online guy. They had a fairly good selection

[Jim Elbrecht]

About $50 for most of the ones I've priced in the last few years. I hate to waste $30, a day of running around, remove, clean, replace, pray- and then find out it was one of those balls under a Welch plug that won't reseat. For $50- I remove, replace, and start the engine. [the last two I got were dead on adjusted from the factory.]

Look yours up-

site search sucks so I use the part number & Google it once I get to his site]

Jim

[jamesgangnc]

I remove, clean, and put back on. No running around. Cost $0.

[Bob Villa]

On 2_cycle carbs: turn Hi and Lo screws in (until they lightly bottom) half turn at-a-time (make a note of each); spray WD or carb cleaner into the holes (with spray tubes); turn screws until they lightly bottom and back-out as you previously noted for each. No dis-assembly. No running around. Cost $0.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

That's step 3. Step 1 is determine it is a gas problem. Step 2 is dump gas and replace with fresh.

Then step 3. . . . If all that fails- Step 4 is buy a new carb and go do something else until the UPS guy drops it off.

Jim

[jamesgangnc]

t

That's fine on my 30 year old chain saw. But if you've bought anything recently you'll find that it has no high/low screws. They are factory set and blocked or otherwise unaccessible.