Export thread

Greetings all. New here.
Father in law gave me this snowblower 20 years ago. 8hp Tecumseh. Think he had the JD dealer on speed dial every year with carb problems.
I ran it dry between uses and had no issues. Couple years ago had puddle of gas under carb when friend who owns small engine
shop told me not to run it dry and leave fuel on between uses.????? Tore it down, brass float had gas in it. Replaced float. Good a couple more years.
This year, puddle of gas. OK. Decided to just buy a new Tecumseh 632334A. Put it on, ran a couple minutes to set mixture. Left in shed with fuel on, all dry.
2 weeks later, started it up to move to garage. Sat about a week, then strong odor of gas in garage. Small puddle under carb. This was a brand new Tecumseh OEM carb. Not a slamazon chinese knockoff. Talked with seller, he said no warranty unless I'd replaced fuel line at same time due to machine being nearly 40 years old. Can't say I'm happy, but think it's a reasonable condition. Anyway, runs perfectly throws snow without hesitation, idles fine, high speed under load no issues. Think shutting off fuel and not worrying about returning is best solution. Next summer if I get bored, will replace fuel line and tear carb apart to check needle and seat for debris and float level if it still bugs me.
Just wondering what others here would do.

Seen this more than once, willing to bet your seller had that carb sitting around for a few years and the float needle seat has dried out. This is what I would do, replace the float needle and seat. Here is the procedure I use. Part number is 631021B.
Needle and seat replacement.

Remove the carb, and then remove the float bowl. Check the float bowl jet (which is the bowl screw) and make sure the jets both horizontal and vertical are clean and open. Tip the carb upside down and remove the float pin and float with needle attached. Look in the float needle passage and you should see the red float seat at the bottom of the passage. This is where a #5 crotchet hook would come in handy as you need to remove this seat. If you have no hook, but compressed air, you can blow through the fuel inlet and try to pop the seat out. Put your thumb over the passage to prevent the seat from flying who knows where. No air or hook try bending a stiff paper clip to dig the seat out.

I would either give the carb a good 24 hour soaking or have it ultrasonically cleaned at this time.

With the seat out clean the passage way with carb cleaner. Now you must find a drill bit slightly smaller than the passage way, to be used to press in the new seat. Apply a very, very small amount of a very light lube to the new seat. 3-1 oil or lighter, to help seat it better. Carefully insert the new seat in the passage way with the rings on the seat down toward the carb body. Slowly and carefully force the seat down with the back end of the drill bit. Once it is seated, check to see that it did not flip and the rings are up. Next check to make sure that the float does not have any liquid in it. If it does, replace. If everything looks correct, attach the new needle to the float and install with the float pin centered. It everything is correct, the float should seat level to the carb body, when looking at it upside down. If everything looks good reattach the float bowl, making sure that both the bowl gasket and the nut gasket seal properly. Reinstall on the engine and test unit. Remember to have patience and take your time. Good luck, but I don't think you'll need it.

PS: On the side of some Tecumseh carbs you will find a plastic cover. Under this cover will be an idle jet. Remove it and check to see that the jet is open both horizontally and vertically. You should be able to push the old float needle wire through the vertical opening.

Thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I had hoped to avoid by buying new. Could have rebuilt the original, but wanted to "treat" myself to the lazy way of fixing it. New fuel line never even crossed my mind, but your idea about a new part that is old never occurred to me either. No heated space to work, so maybe I'll rebuild the original per your guidelines and if the new one would start acting up swap them out then redo the new one when weather warms next spring. Gramma doesn't like gas smell in house, no fun working in 20 degree garage.
YouTube's Taryl and DonyBoy both have great rebuild videos on these carbs. They've scared me for 50 years but those guys have anyone tearing things down like pros.
Thanks again.

I’m also wondering if you really got an OEM carb, especially if you purchased it off FleaBay or Scamazon. Heard of people throwing crap carbs into to OEM box’s. Might not even be the correct one, just one that the seller says is compatible and will work.

Found a small engine shop that will sell me a factory for 15 bucks more than online. I may just eat this and buy from them. Really don't want to tear it apart

Provide us with the model and spec number for your Tecumseh engine. That way we can tell you the exact part number you need. I’m wondering why he is selling so cheap, those carbs are in demand and as you have found not cheap. My warning to you, penny wise pound foolish.

My John Deere parts book lists AM108405 which says marked as 632334A.
I think to actually get the engine specs I'd have to remove the flywheel cover. (too cold to tear machine apart)
It's an HMSK80, and the serial number of snowblower lists above carb as correct.
John Deere wants 185 bucks. The tecumseh dealer I visited with quoted 105, and I gave 90 online.
Having worked heavy machinery parts in college, know markup (back in the 70's) was about
double for most parts. That didn't hold if you were buying a whole new engine, transmission,or other assembly,
so figured Deere wanting a profit, around 100 is reasonable. (flawed logic on my part?)
Know full well to buy good quality and pay once. Used to see small contractors buy rebuilt rollers for crawlers using crappy parts come to us for factory ones, and crap their pants when we told them the price. Used to tell them the same thing, pay half and rebuild 3 times. Yeah could buy an Oregon for maybe 50 bucks, or chinese for 15, but figured 90 for factory was ok.

pheasant16 said:

Greetings all. New here.
Father in law gave me this snowblower 20 years ago. 8hp Tecumseh. Think he had the JD dealer on speed dial every year with carb problems.
I ran it dry between uses and had no issues. Couple years ago had puddle of gas under carb when friend who owns small engine
shop told me not to run it dry and leave fuel on between uses.????? Tore it down, brass float had gas in it. Replaced float. Good a couple more years.
This year, puddle of gas. OK. Decided to just buy a new Tecumseh 632334A. Put it on, ran a couple minutes to set mixture. Left in shed with fuel on, all dry.
2 weeks later, started it up to move to garage. Sat about a week, then strong odor of gas in garage. Small puddle under carb. This was a brand new Tecumseh OEM carb. Not a slamazon chinese knockoff. Talked with seller, he said no warranty unless I'd replaced fuel line at same time due to machine being nearly 40 years old. Can't say I'm happy, but think it's a reasonable condition. Anyway, runs perfectly throws snow without hesitation, idles fine, high speed under load no issues. Think shutting off fuel and not worrying about returning is best solution. Next summer if I get bored, will replace fuel line and tear carb apart to check needle and seat for debris and float level if it still bugs me.
Just wondering what others here would do.

Click to expand...

The solution is pretty simple. Put on some good clothes, layer up and go out and fix your snowblower. I work in the cold everyday . Takes a while for my wood stove to start putting out any real heat. Replace fuel line, install fuel shut off valve (if it doesn’t have one now), take carburetor apart, clean, test needle/seat for sealing properly, reinstall and run it.
Merry Christmas

. Yeah. Seems quality is something only geezers remember. Guess no matter what the final word is if you want it done right, do it yourself. The new fuel line was the gotcha for me. That's already purchased and in the garage. Rivets suggestion about new needle and seat will be done in the machine's original carb, and most likely the brand new one currently residing on the intake in the future.
My grandfather was an IH farmer. No green allowed. He's gotta be watching from above rolling on the floor laughing with me having "green" troubles. Merry Christmas