I'd take an engine removal on that than on anything built after 1995, though. On Ford trucks it's easier to remove the cab to get to the engine than removing the engine with the body in place. Add some Northeastern road salt with low-bidder metals, and you've got yourself one hell of a fun week!
Here's a 7 year old Ram 1500 hub bearing job I did a couple years back:
And here's a classic case of A-Hole engineering for ya ...
I will agree that the Troy-Bilt and the other Chinese lonesome engines are pretty sad design and actually there's three of those designs on the market right now.
I do so many of these a year I've lost track on how many I've done.
I did 625 pieces of equipment personally all by myself in 2020.
I've learned to be very efficient on these so I don't remove the carburetor or disassemble hardly anything.
When it runs but hunts for idle and surges that means the main jet is somewhat open or at least not fully plugged up and the secondary which we would call the old idle circuit back then in the old days is restricted.
Most of the time they won't run at all and sometimes you get lucky and after you clean out the main jet they will run perfectly so they don't need the secondary jet cleaned out but about 70 to 80% of the time you do have to do both..
I can do the mange yet on most of them that's not rusted or gummed up to pieces which is about 92% of mine in 9 to 12 minutes.
If I have to do the secondary yet it takes about five extra minutes.
You can do everything you need to do without ever removing any of the plastics or the muffler shroud or the carburetor etc.
Yes, it's a little bit harder work but I would rather work harder for a shorter period of time and get them done more quickly. I had a line of 52 of them here all t summer long and that's just push mowers. I stopped doing riders, handheld stuff, zero turns etc.
I've got my tools custom made down to a science.
All you need to do is drop the bowl on the carburetor and if it's not rusted up you wipe it out in under 15 seconds and spray it with carb cleaner.
Then I use my special little ground down quarter inch flat head to unscrew the main jet.
Then I also make sure I remove the tube above that, some call it an emulsion tube metering rod or whatever but I always pull it out and run a wire through its holes also and clean with carb cleaner and compressed air.
Then I blast some car cleaner up in the bottom aluminum tube part of the carburetor and then blast full air compressor air from the blow gun up in there for three or four blasts.
I do this three times in a row minimum as I have found it will often clear out the the secondary jet circuits and you stand a greater chance of it running without surging by doing this.
I also hold my finger and thumb on the two little cross drills to holes and that bottom part of the carburetor so it blast it up and through and not right out the holes.
Takes longer to say how to do this then it actually does to do it.
Then I make sure the float is working properly and not sticking with the inlet valve or anything or the needle valve. I usually have the machine up on its front while doing this so I will typically add fresh fuel to it and send it back down and work the float a couple of times to flush anything out.
Then I put the tube and the main jet back in and make sure the gasket hasn't fallen off the carburetor which it usually stays in the carburetor body and put the bowl back on and tighten up the 10 mm bolt and set the machine back down and start it and see if it surges.
Pretty much a sign that the secondary is clogged up is it will surge unless you give it a little bit of choke and it also won't run at low speeds.
If I have to clean this one out you can push back that little small one inch wide plastic piece where it seemed there and I have a special screwdriver that reaches in and fits the low speed idle stop to remove it and then a smaller screwdriver to lift up the plastic secondary jet assembly.
I used to use needle nose pliers but I got me a small set of stainless steel curved on the end that looked more like a medical instrument where I can reach in there and lift it up.
Then I have a very tiny wire that came off of a wire brush wheel that I used to run through the brass jet in the tip of that plastic piece and then I use my card cleaner to blast that hole and blow it out and then also the hole in the body of the carburetor where it sits.
I also blast the compressed air through that three times also to clean all the holes and passages out so it will get more air flow which makes it run smoothly.
It's tedious but I can do it in under 5 minutes.
Makes me feel like a surgeon. I did take pre-med in college. Lol
Now this of course is under the most basic and close to ideal conditions but about 90 to 92% of the ones I get in are like this.
When you pull one apart where the entire bowl has a rust coating or varnish you have a lot more cleanup to do but even on those I rarely remove the carburetor..
I keep good old bowls around to replace them but occasionally I have to sand the entire surface of the bowl and blast it and WD-40 it etc to get it like new again which is not ideal but it works.
Then you also need to clean out the inside part of the carburetor because often that aluminum tube has varnish or rust on it. I have some little sanding sticks that work perfectly and I use just some tear off crocus cloth.
Then you'll get the occasional one where the tank is totally empty or it is flooded out the crankcase with gas because the float stuck or actually the inlet needle stuck.
This requires you to pop the float out but once again I can do it with the carb still in its original position on the machine.
Then you have to clean that up well I use carb cleaner and compressed air and then sometimes you have to sand and scratch the entire float clean.
I wiped the rubber tip on the needle valve off with microfiber towel and I will usually soak in brake fluid while I'm doing the rest of the work to soften it up some.
Sometimes you have to polish the seat but normally a q-tip with some carb cleaner does the trick and just flush some fuel through it.
I know this sounds pretty intense and time consuming but I can take one that's rusted bowl or a stuck needle valve and do all this to it right about 30 minutes or a hair over.
Most shops about 3 years ago stop doing any carb cleanouts or carb rebuilds are overhauls as they called them.
Now they just replace carbs and some people would say that's a lot simpler and quicker but the way I've got it down too a science it takes at least 30 if not 45 minutes to disassemble all that remove the carburetor put the new one back on and put it all back together.
So whatever floats your boat. I do mine this way without replacing the carb so I can keep the prices down.
I'm quite the weirdo and I don't believe in "Spinning the money wheel" even if it's with someone else's money.
On the majority of the push mowers that come in all season long I have time myself multiple times and the fastest would be the older Briggs & Stratton engines with the aluminum carb. I can do those carb cleanouts and have the mower ready to pick up and mow with in 6 to 8 minutes..
The new Briggs with the plastic carb takes me right at 10 to 12.
I see no reason to throw a new car on it or even a new jet tube assembly into it even though you can get the entire carb for 10 to $12 shipped to your door.
I can swap one of those carburetors but it still takes about 2 to 3 minutes longer to do that than it does to clean them out the way I do and it saves that 10 or 12 bucks..
