Carb repair

[schleeb]

Just a related piece of advise... these small carb jets seem to take nothing to clog them, causing all sorts of problems. A few years ago I finally decided that as soon as I got a small motor device I would put a fuel filter (get the lowest micron size available) in line with the gas hose from the tank to the carb. Its a small investment for worry free operation. You can buy a whole package of them on eBay for not much $$. And, during spring startup I put some Sea Foam in with the fuel to get rid of any fuel residue that may have developed during the winter storage. This is my routine... you might consider something like this for the future. I have several garage sale finds.. edger and shredder and I am seldom lucky enough to find anything that doesn't require carb work... I also have an ultrasonic cleaner. I use 80% rubbing alcohol as a cleaner for carbs. Probably not the best cleaner but it does get them clean. A UT cleaner is nice but its not the ultimate solution. You still have to take some wire (get a pack of welding torch, tip cleaners, below...) to clean out those pesky little passages in the carb. The smallest ones work well and they have a bit of an abrasive finish which will work out anything hard. Can't beat 'em...

 

[StarTech]

You still have to take some wire (get a pack of welding torch, tip cleaners) to clean out those pesky little passages in the carb. The smallest ones work well and they have a bit of an abrasive finish which will work out anything hard. Can't beat 'em...

Actually be the worst thing you can use on some carburetors especially the small cube carburetors use on handheld equipment. several of the passage actually have rubber check valves which are destroy when wire probed.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Actually be the worst thing you can use on some carburetors especially the small cube carburetors use on handheld equipment. several of the passage actually have rubber check valves which are destroy when wire probed.

Yup, folks bring in stuff they tried to clean the carb on And used carb cleaner and a bread tie wire and ruined the carb. I can fix pretty much anything on a cube carb but the check valve. Got a box of them with bad check valves. Really shouldn't use carb cleaner or brake kleen on cube carbs or pokey wires.

 

[elmrfudd]

Fortunately, I have never encountered those passages with the rubber check valves on a four cycle engine, but I use the torch cleaning wires all the time, and they are great as long as you don’t ream out the hole with a wire with too large a diameter. When I use the ultrasonic cleaner, I use about an 8:1 mixture of water to Simple Green liquid cleaner, and a tablespoon of Dawn dish soap. I strip the carb down totally, including all jets inside the main jet port. Usually I cook the carb at about 180 degrees for an hour+, depending on how gunked up it is. I put all the small parts in the bowl while cleaning. I also pull out the small plastic jet (on many carbs) and wire clean that. That plastic jet has two small seals and a tiny port that must be clear or your engine will surge. I don’t sonic clean the plastic jet at high temps, as it will swell and be very difficult to re-insert. After cleaning, I blow out all residual water with compressed air, then reassemble. If you’re not going to replace the brass seat, I would clean it out with a dab of toothpaste on a Q-Tip until swabs come out clean. Failure to do this may cause needle/seat failure. Just a tip to let everyone know what has been very successful for me in the past. God bless you all!

 

[Freddie21]

Lots of good tip and I apricate them all. I do most of them now and haven't run across the cub carbs as I stay away from 2 strokers. I was wondering what a good cleaning solution is and I'm close using Purple Power.

 

[schleeb]

Thanks for the tips... but I don't believe I've encountered any rubber gaskets/seats yet. I'm mostly Briggs and Stratton motors and the like. I would like to get a better cleaning solution though and save my alcohol for some other purpose. Even though I have close to 15 gals. of it. (Home Depot had 80% ethyl alcohol in gallon jugs of the stuff, on clearance, for 75 cents a gallon! Couldn't pass on it...bought all that was left, 14 gallons) One thing I'm going to check out is the NRA's cleaning solution formula that they recommend for cleaning cartridge brass. Published a long time ago and it works very well in my UT cleaner for my rifle brass. Their formula is:

1 Pint water (I use distilled water)
1 cup white vinegar (5%)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon dish detergent (I use Dawn)

It cleans the hell out of cartridge brass... but it dulls the finish a little, so I run it through my vibratory brass cleaner with a mix of walnut shells and stainless steel pins and common BBs, for a BB gun, to polish them back up. I'll post next time I clean a carb.

 

[davis2]

Thanks for the tips... but I don't believe I've encountered any rubber gaskets/seats yet. I'm mostly Briggs and Stratton motors and the like. I would like to get a better cleaning solution though and save my alcohol for some other purpose. Even though I have close to 15 gals. of it. (Home Depot had 80% ethyl alcohol in gallon jugs of the stuff, on clearance, for 75 cents a gallon! Couldn't pass on it...bought all that was left, 14 gallons) One thing I'm going to check out is the NRA's cleaning solution formula that they recommend for cleaning cartridge brass. Published a long time ago and it works very well in my UT cleaner for my rifle brass. Their formula is:

1 Pint water (I use distilled water)
1 cup white vinegar (5%)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon dish detergent (I use Dawn)

It cleans the hell out of cartridge brass... but it dulls the finish a little, so I run it through my vibratory brass cleaner with a mix of walnut shells and stainless steel pins and common BBs, for a BB gun, to polish them back up. I'll post next time I clean a carb.

That formula is very close to my weed killer formula

 

[elmrfudd]

My dad used to reload center fire cartridges when he was alive, and he tumbled his brass with water, Palmolive dish soap and Lemi-Shine dishwasher additive, using stainless steel pins as his medium, and his brass came out clean and shiny, but always used purified water with no contaminants. I’ve cleaned some coins and jewelry with that protocol, and it did a great job! I’ve not tried it on carburetors yet, although I’ve considered adding a squirt of Lemi-Shine in my USC.