FourtyCaliber
Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2014
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 20
At least I think it's a carburetor problem. First things first. Hello all. I'm new here. I don't know why I'm new here. I should have joined long ago as much as I find myself working on all of my equipment. I have perused this website before while searching for answers to my problems, but only joined now. I'm glad I did. I hope to learn some more in my time here and help out others as I can.
I have a Craftsman 2-stage snowblower with 5.5 HP Tecumseh engine. The engine model is LH195SP, Spec 67517D. This thing has never run right since I got it. Last year, at the beginning of the winter, during the first big snow, it died on me. I couldn't get it running and it got really cold outside, and we were getting a LOT of snow, and with all of the other things I had to do, I couldn't find enough time to try and fix it. So, I shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled. All winter long. This year I swore I was going to try and get it running before the snow started falling. We've been lucky here, so far, as far as the snow is concerned, but I still haven't got it running right.
Before it died, I always had to run it with the choke partially on. This year I cleaned the tank out and cleaned and rebuilt the carburetor (non-adjustable, EPA compliant). The carb "looked" pretty clean before I cleaned it. Anyways, after messing with it for a couple weeks, taking the carb off and re-cleaning multiple times, I finally gave up on it. A couple times it gave a few "putters" where it attempted to start, but it never did. I used new gas and a new spark plug, even though the old plug was still fine. I checked for spark and it is good. It would just not start.
After all this I bought a new carburetor. I bought the "older" version of the EPA carb that came with the snowblower. The one I bought has the adjustable main jet and the adjustable idle mixture screw. I installed the new carb and after a few pulls, she started right up. To me, that makes it obvious that there was something wrong with the old carb, whether it was plugged-up passageways or whatnot.
After some adjusting, I got it to run "OK" at full throttle. It's not perfect. There's a little "popping" going on. The thing is I cannot get it to idle. When I move the throttle lever down, the RPMs drop and eventually it dies, even if I try and partially apply the choke. I preset the carb main at 1 1/2 turns out from lightly seated and the idle mixture screw at about 1 turn out from lightly seated.
I have good function from the main jet and the engine responds well to either leaning or enriching. HOWEVER, the idle mixture screw seems to do nothing. As a matter of fact, the engine will keep running even if I screw the mixture screw all the way in. I understand that the idle circuit doesn't even come into play until the RPMs reach a certain level.
The OEM EPA non-adjustable carb was a 640084B. The new carb is a 632107A, which is supposed to be the equivalent of the 640084B carb, but with adjustable main and idle mixture screws. As I said, it fired up fairly easily with the new carb and wouldn't even start with the old one.
I'm using new fresh gas, although it is E10. There is no E0 available in my area.
Th bad thing I did late this summer when I started working on this snowblower was mess with the governor. I don't know why I did, but I did. The thing about this governor is that the shaft barely turns. I checked it unhooked from the carb and the shaft will maybe rotate 5 degrees. I was watching a video on YouTube where a guy was showing about adjusting governors and he was showing the governor shaft movement on his Tecumseh motor (5 HP) and it was able to rotate WAY more than mine, more like 20 or 25 degrees I estimate. I don't know if this has anything to do with my non-idle condition or not. This snowblower has had very little use. I haven't ruled out any valve issues. When I did get it running with the new carb, I was able to rule out a bad gas cap, since it ran at high (not excessive) RPMs for at least 20 minutes until I shut it down.
Sorry for this long post but I'm out of ideas and would greatly appreciate any input. If any other info is needed please ask. Thanks
I have a Craftsman 2-stage snowblower with 5.5 HP Tecumseh engine. The engine model is LH195SP, Spec 67517D. This thing has never run right since I got it. Last year, at the beginning of the winter, during the first big snow, it died on me. I couldn't get it running and it got really cold outside, and we were getting a LOT of snow, and with all of the other things I had to do, I couldn't find enough time to try and fix it. So, I shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled. All winter long. This year I swore I was going to try and get it running before the snow started falling. We've been lucky here, so far, as far as the snow is concerned, but I still haven't got it running right.
Before it died, I always had to run it with the choke partially on. This year I cleaned the tank out and cleaned and rebuilt the carburetor (non-adjustable, EPA compliant). The carb "looked" pretty clean before I cleaned it. Anyways, after messing with it for a couple weeks, taking the carb off and re-cleaning multiple times, I finally gave up on it. A couple times it gave a few "putters" where it attempted to start, but it never did. I used new gas and a new spark plug, even though the old plug was still fine. I checked for spark and it is good. It would just not start.
After all this I bought a new carburetor. I bought the "older" version of the EPA carb that came with the snowblower. The one I bought has the adjustable main jet and the adjustable idle mixture screw. I installed the new carb and after a few pulls, she started right up. To me, that makes it obvious that there was something wrong with the old carb, whether it was plugged-up passageways or whatnot.
After some adjusting, I got it to run "OK" at full throttle. It's not perfect. There's a little "popping" going on. The thing is I cannot get it to idle. When I move the throttle lever down, the RPMs drop and eventually it dies, even if I try and partially apply the choke. I preset the carb main at 1 1/2 turns out from lightly seated and the idle mixture screw at about 1 turn out from lightly seated.
I have good function from the main jet and the engine responds well to either leaning or enriching. HOWEVER, the idle mixture screw seems to do nothing. As a matter of fact, the engine will keep running even if I screw the mixture screw all the way in. I understand that the idle circuit doesn't even come into play until the RPMs reach a certain level.
The OEM EPA non-adjustable carb was a 640084B. The new carb is a 632107A, which is supposed to be the equivalent of the 640084B carb, but with adjustable main and idle mixture screws. As I said, it fired up fairly easily with the new carb and wouldn't even start with the old one.
I'm using new fresh gas, although it is E10. There is no E0 available in my area.
Th bad thing I did late this summer when I started working on this snowblower was mess with the governor. I don't know why I did, but I did. The thing about this governor is that the shaft barely turns. I checked it unhooked from the carb and the shaft will maybe rotate 5 degrees. I was watching a video on YouTube where a guy was showing about adjusting governors and he was showing the governor shaft movement on his Tecumseh motor (5 HP) and it was able to rotate WAY more than mine, more like 20 or 25 degrees I estimate. I don't know if this has anything to do with my non-idle condition or not. This snowblower has had very little use. I haven't ruled out any valve issues. When I did get it running with the new carb, I was able to rule out a bad gas cap, since it ran at high (not excessive) RPMs for at least 20 minutes until I shut it down.
Sorry for this long post but I'm out of ideas and would greatly appreciate any input. If any other info is needed please ask. Thanks