Ultima ZT2 surging

[RevB]

Same here! Mostly cash and a few checks here and there but I don't take plastic at all.
We are destroying this country but everyone using plastic. Now since covid and our new normal crap a huge majority of places are starting to add the surcharge onto the customer instead of eating the cost themselves or they incorporating into the fee and then reducing it if you pay cash.
We need to rebel against this and go back to cash only which is what I've been doing for decades.

Cash leaves you no recourse. Customer says, mechanic says. I do all my own work so the card only gets me parts for which I can challenge quality. It's leverage against bullshittery.

 

[closecut]

Is that something you recommend for a maintenance type use? Maybe a lesser amount of Dexron ATF?

I only know that it works for me.I had a generator that had been sitting for several years,and it would run with fresh gas when choke was on,but died when it was taken off.It could reach top speed with the choke on,so I add some ATF and started it up,let it rev to full rpm,then held my hand over the carb, totally blocking all air and killed the ignition.The idea was to pull a lot of vacuum on the carb.I did this about half a dozen times,and eventually,it cleared up and ran great without the choke.Did not have to pull the carb.Saved a lot of time and trouble.I estimated the amount of ATF,and did not precisely measure it,so the amount is not critical.A smaller amount may work well for general cleaning.If it starts to surge,try it first,otherwise,leave it alone.

 

[StarTech]

Cash leaves you no recourse. Customer says, mechanic says. I do all my own work so the card only gets me parts for which I can challenge quality. It's leverage against bullshittery.

What most don't understand is that you must deal with honest companies. Here I am cash and check only but I do stand by my work. Many shops around here don't even give the customer a workmanship warranty. I do for 30 days. If I miss something and additional parts are needed those get bill but most time the additional labor is on me.

I also don't advertise my business as I let my customers do it for me.

As for vendors several did go to a surcharge for using credit cards but also offered me ACH payments which I use. It saves me and the customer a 3% surcharge.

 

[TobyU]

Is that something you recommend for a maintenance type use? Maybe a lesser amount of Dexron ATF?

He may but I don't.
The anecdotal experience someone has told you that they have had good luck with once or twice or maybe even six times does not equate to what some of us have seen thousands and thousands of times over.
Marvel's mystery oil is far better to use in the fuel like that than ATF.
Seafoam is even better but if you want even far better than that, go with berryman's B12.
You want the liquid can which just like seafoam can.
In fact, there are about four different types of this stuff that come in a can that is dimensionally and cap wise the exact same.
Seafoam and berrymans have been doing it for decades but gum out has since joined the club, Walmart super tech has one also, and STP has one also.
These are only the ones I have seen.
Of all that I have tested, berryman's B12 is by far the strongest.

Regardless, preventive maintenance or trying to fix a slight partial restriction of a carburetor passenger jet may get you by with this but for the most part, when the machine is running lean, you're going to need to at least drop the bowl on the carb and clean out the hole in the jet.
That is typically in one of three places but all three of these are quite readily accessible once you remove the bowl of the carb.
Most people just take the whole carburetor off but of course that introduces a whole other possibility of problems like linkage, gasket damage and other intake leaks.

It's a little harder / tedious to do it with the carburetor still on the machine but it's actually a lot faster so this is why I do it this way 98% of the time.

Then, if you're talking about a snow blower or any of the Chinese carburetors like Huayi (which is one of my favorite carbs by the way) if you get any surging have to get it to run, you'll have to clean out the secondary jet which is often called a pilot jet or it's the remains of the old idle circuit which can also be done on the machine especially on the mowers.
BUT sometimes this is not enough because there are some air bleed holes that are drilled into the smooth bore of the carburetor throat at the back right at the throttle butterfly plate that also can get restricted.
You pretty much have to remove the carb to use a fine bent tipped wire to get to these and to blast them out with carb cleaner spray and compressed air.
Now while it technically could be done on the machine, it's a little over 2 inches away from you and the hole you're working in is smaller than 3/4 in diameter.
So unless you're a surgeon or want to hone your fine hand-eye coordination skills....it's just not worth doing without taking off the machine.
Luckily, approximately 97 -98% of the time, you don't need to do this on any of the Chinese carbs.
Just cleaning out the main jet and the pilot jet solves the problem.

Now on a Honda brand carb, you have to remove the air filter housing anyways which disturbs the bolts or nuts that hold the carburetor onto the machine to get the Phillips head screw out to then run a fine wire down that hole which is the pilot or secondary circuit on that one.
This is also annoyingly difficult to do on the machine so with Hondas it's probably best just to remove the carburetor then you can do all the holes including those air bleed holes that are drilled through the smooth bore of the throat also.

 

[TobyU]

I only know that it works for me.I had a generator that had been sitting for several years,and it would run with fresh gas when choke was on,but died when it was taken off.It could reach top speed with the choke on,so I add some ATF and started it up,let it rev to full rpm,then held my hand over the carb, totally blocking all air and killed the ignition.The idea was to pull a lot of vacuum on the carb.I did this about half a dozen times,and eventually,it cleared up and ran great without the choke.Did not have to pull the carb.Saved a lot of time and trouble.I estimated the amount of ATF,and did not precisely measure it,so the amount is not critical.A smaller amount may work well for general cleaning.If it starts to surge,try it first,otherwise,leave it alone.

Yes, this does work well but technically, just choking it out with your hand makes it draw so much harder on the Jets that this alone and also having some fresh gas in the tank did far more than the atf, or any cleaner was going to do.
There are times when one Ron's but surges are needs a little choke to keep going where you can give it a decent strong dose of atf, seafoam, bearings B12 etc and continue to run it and it will clean up the jet passages a little over time but it doesn't do this quickly.
Choking them out and making it suck a lot harder on the jet drawing the fuel up is what does it.

If I'm looking for a cleaner, I want the strongest I can get because I can regulate the dosage myself.

If you ever want to test them, it's very telling, get you some little clear glass or white glass condiment bowls etc
And get some things that are really nasty of course to have a controlled test you would need parts of carburetors or whatever with the same exact varnish or gummed up coating on them.
Regardless, pour an ounce of sea foam in one, berryman's B12 and the other, Chevron with proguard and the other, spray some gum out carb cleaner spray in the next, put some marbles mysterol in the next and then ATF in the last.
Then suck your sample pieces in each one for the same amount of time and see which one has the best effect.

This would be a somewhat regulated scientific test to see which one actually had the best cleaning ability.
Regardless, for preventative maintenance adding any of these products at a slight ratio to each tank of fuel or even adding some two-stroke oil or even two stroke gas mix every now and then would only help them gum up less quickly.

 

[TobyU]

Cash leaves you no recourse. Customer says, mechanic says. I do all my own work so the card only gets me parts for which I can challenge quality. It's leverage against bullshittery.

True, but this depends on the situation and also which side of the fence you're on.
I have three separate companies and one of them I contract to an organization and that's all paid by check so I'm fine with that.
None of them have ever bounced. Lol
In one of my other businesses I'm probably at 98-99% cash but I will take checks from people.
These checks are never over $60 so I don't have that much to lose but I've never had one get returned in over 11 years.

Now on the consumer side, I understand what you're saying and there's some things you should probably never pay cash for because then you would have to take the place to small claims court!
This does work well by the way.
I went to support and even testified during a case where a friend of mine sued a local gym club for not wanting to honor a free year membership they had given him in an exchange for a trade-off for services from his company.
Apparently this health club manager or owner likes to do this because he didn't want to spend money and you know it didn't cost him anything to give somebody a membership in reality.

The judge quickly decided that my friend's favor and told them to honor the membership or give him the full face value of it.
The funniest part was I personally had two of these same signed free memberships which was a entire contract paper with the name left blank because I had also traded them with my company.
That's where this all started but I hadn't cashed mine in yet.
So soon as the judge told him to honor that one I pulled my two out and told the health club manager to remember these two also because I had two more. Lol
Garages way too often are unscrupulous unethical jerks so I agree with you on that point.

Most of them probably aren't adding a surcharge yet but I'm sure they'll start..
They've been charging extrapolated rip-off prices for so long they've been making plenty to cover that 3% they're losing. Lol
You know the industry actually publishes a markup sheet that they send out to all repair places etc.
Hit list the items by category and then name and tells what percentage you're supposed to mark them up and even gives an example for those who aren't great with percentages.

I was astounded to see some things were over 140% markup.
I think some were higher than that.
I remember seeing an example of an alternator and if you paid $100 for it you were supposed to charge $240 for it.
This is so they could show that nice 95-110 per hour labor that I guess it's supposed to sound -fair?

But yes, recourse. I see your point but if you're on the other side of it as a business, there are times where you don't want to risk having chargebacks.

The credit card companies only go to bat for the consumer and it's like pulling teeth trying to get money back if someone does a chargeback and you probably never will.
No I don't mean for these jerks are at people off but legitimate small owner operated businesses who have great reviews and do a great job for most all their customers.
There are some people out there you cannot make happy and some people go into things with the intentional idea of pulling all I can.

I know it's a cliche but I literally know someone who in his early twenties would literally pull a hair off his arm or his head and stick it in his food so he could tell the server trying to get his meal for free or at least something discounted.
He's just one of those cheap skates and also felt like he was pulling a fast one and winning when he did this.

I'm an ultimate cheapskate but I do the work myself to find ways to save money like never overpaying for something etc. I don't lie and cheat to save money.
I will use a coupon a hundred times though if I can pull it off.

So in these cases, as a merchant, I'd rather have cash because that means I've got the money and I'm keeping it unless I decide to get part of it back.

So it's all a matter of perspective and which side you're on but I agree you have to cover your butt and watch out for some things that if something happens you wish you would have done it a different way.

 

[davis2]

He may but I don't.
The anecdotal experience someone has told you that they have had good luck with once or twice or maybe even six times does not equate to what some of us have seen thousands and thousands of times over.
Marvel's mystery oil is far better to use in the fuel like that than ATF.
Seafoam is even better but if you want even far better than that, go with berryman's B12.
You want the liquid can which just like seafoam can.
In fact, there are about four different types of this stuff that come in a can that is dimensionally and cap wise the exact same.
Seafoam and berrymans have been doing it for decades but gum out has since joined the club, Walmart super tech has one also, and STP has one also.
These are only the ones I have seen.
Of all that I have tested, berryman's B12 is by far the strongest.

Regardless, preventive maintenance or trying to fix a slight partial restriction of a carburetor passenger jet may get you by with this but for the most part, when the machine is running lean, you're going to need to at least drop the bowl on the carb and clean out the hole in the jet.
That is typically in one of three places but all three of these are quite readily accessible once you remove the bowl of the carb.
Most people just take the whole carburetor off but of course that introduces a whole other possibility of problems like linkage, gasket damage and other intake leaks.

It's a little harder / tedious to do it with the carburetor still on the machine but it's actually a lot faster so this is why I do it this way 98% of the time.

Then, if you're talking about a snow blower or any of the Chinese carburetors like Huayi (which is one of my favorite carbs by the way) if you get any surging have to get it to run, you'll have to clean out the secondary jet which is often called a pilot jet or it's the remains of the old idle circuit which can also be done on the machine especially on the mowers.
BUT sometimes this is not enough because there are some air bleed holes that are drilled into the smooth bore of the carburetor throat at the back right at the throttle butterfly plate that also can get restricted.
You pretty much have to remove the carb to use a fine bent tipped wire to get to these and to blast them out with carb cleaner spray and compressed air.
Now while it technically could be done on the machine, it's a little over 2 inches away from you and the hole you're working in is smaller than 3/4 in diameter.
So unless you're a surgeon or want to hone your fine hand-eye coordination skills....it's just not worth doing without taking off the machine.
Luckily, approximately 97 -98% of the time, you don't need to do this on any of the Chinese carbs.
Just cleaning out the main jet and the pilot jet solves the problem.

Now on a Honda brand carb, you have to remove the air filter housing anyways which disturbs the bolts or nuts that hold the carburetor onto the machine to get the Phillips head screw out to then run a fine wire down that hole which is the pilot or secondary circuit on that one.
This is also annoyingly difficult to do on the machine so with Hondas it's probably best just to remove the carburetor then you can do all the holes including those air bleed holes that are drilled through the smooth bore of the throat also.

I am familiar with seafoam and berrymans. Haven't used berrymans, but will try it. I am always looking for things to use if they are effective at fixing a problem, that's why I asked if it was a maintenance type thing or not. I do use mmo in my fuel for all my small engines except for 2 stroke fuel.

 

[TobyU]

I am familiar with seafoam and berrymans. Haven't used berrymans, but will try it. I am always looking for things to use if they are effective at fixing a problem, that's why I asked if it was a maintenance type thing or not. I do use mmo in my fuel for all my small engines except for 2 stroke fuel.

You could even use MMO in your 2-stroke fuel also as long as you still put the correct amount of oil in it..
It's not going to hurt anything and the ratios that these additives are recommended to be used at is so low it's barely a maintenance dose.

If you test berryman's B12 liquid four can formula against the others you will find it to be much stronger.
I also run it at much stronger concentrations than they recommend but that's because I'm actually trying to accomplish something quickly.

You do have to be careful though because you can't over do it. It's slightly reminiscent of that old Gunk solder seal carburetor and parts cleaner dip that would bubble all the paint off and mere minutes and swell up every rubber o-ring or rubber part in existence to unusable levels.

The bearman's B12 will swell up rubber and if the concentration is too high, the inlet needle seat or the rubber tip on the inlet needle will swell up and can prevent it from actually moving up and down allowing the fuel to flow or the little rubber inlet seal will swell it's hole shut.
So I use it stronger concentrations than they recommend but in a typical push mower gas tank which doesn't hold that many ounces of fuel, I never put over 3 oz.
Then I shake it and run it to get it into the carburetor and usually let it sit a little while but not typically overnight. Then I will top off the fuel with fresh gas as to dilute the baremans and then run it until that gas gets into the carburetor.

 

[davis2]

You could even use MMO in your 2-stroke fuel also as long as you still put the correct amount of oil in it..
It's not going to hurt anything and the ratios that these additives are recommended to be used at is so low it's barely a maintenance dose.

If you test berryman's B12 liquid four can formula against the others you will find it to be much stronger.
I also run it at much stronger concentrations than they recommend but that's because I'm actually trying to accomplish something quickly.

You do have to be careful though because you can't over do it. It's slightly reminiscent of that old Gunk solder seal carburetor and parts cleaner dip that would bubble all the paint off and mere minutes and swell up every rubber o-ring or rubber part in existence to unusable levels.

The bearman's B12 will swell up rubber and if the concentration is too high, the inlet needle seat or the rubber tip on the inlet needle will swell up and can prevent it from actually moving up and down allowing the fuel to flow or the little rubber inlet seal will swell it's hole shut.
So I use it stronger concentrations than they recommend but in a typical push mower gas tank which doesn't hold that many ounces of fuel, I never put over 3 oz.
Then I shake it and run it to get it into the carburetor and usually let it sit a little while but not typically overnight. Then I will top off the fuel with fresh gas as to dilute the baremans and then run it until that gas gets into the carburetor.

Funny, but my cub 782 started running rough about 3/4 of the way through mowing today. So I tried some berrymans, but at the levels they specified on the label. We'll see what happens.

 

[GearHead36]

I have an old motorcycle that I don't ride often enough. Every few years, I find myself cleaning carbs. I've tried a variety of solvents, but Berrymans, at 100%, works better than anything else I've tried. I only use it at 100% on metal parts like jets.