How to Repair Small Engines: Cleaning the Carburetor

Don't Google "small engine repair most me" the adjacent time your lawnmower sputters. Learn how to do it yourself. Modest engine repair is all about a clean carburetor.

Fourth dimension

A full twenty-four hour period

Complexity

Intermediate

Cost

$51–100

Introduction

Solve most lawnmower or other modest engine starting problems with a simple diagnosis and a carburetor cleaning or rebuilding. It will only take a few hours, and you'll avoid the minimum $70-plus-parts repair nib.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Carburetor cleaner
  • Carburetor rebuild kit
  • Plastic gloves
  • Stiff wire

If you can't become a small engine started, it takes likewise many pulls to go information technology going, or it runs poorly, ask yourself this: Did it sit down for a long time with gas in information technology? Like over the winter? If and then, your problem is most likely a corroded or gummed-up carburetor. Small engine repair shops earn almost 50 per centum of their revenue by cleaning or replacing carburetors sidelined past former gas. Look at your lawnmower carburetor next time you sharpen the blades or complete a lawn mower tune-up.

Before you commencement taking things apart, accept a infinitesimal to ostend the carburetor is the problem. We'll show you how to practice that, every bit well as how to clean, rebuild or supplant a lawnmower carburetor. Either way, you'll save about an hour of shop labor (nearly $lxx). Yous can complete the carburetor rebuild project in a single forenoon, including the time scouting for parts.

Project step-by-step (7)

Step 1

Start Your Engine (At Least Attempt)

  • Ostend that the fuel valve is on, there's gas in the tank and the spark plug is in good shape.
  • Shoot a one-2d burst of aerosol lubricant or carburetor cleaner down the throat of the carburetor.
  • Yank the cord.
    • Note: If the engine runs (even just sputters) and dies, you have a fuel problem. If at that place'south no life after a few tries, it's something more than serious and you need to booty the engine to your garage for some detective work.

Step 2

Test for Gas at the Carburetor

  • Clamp off the fuel line.
  • Shrink the jump clamp and slide it backward on the fuel line.
  • Pull the tubing off the carburetor nipple and catch the gas in a small basin.
    • Note: If no gas comes out of the fuel line, you've got a plugged fuel line or fuel filter.

small engine repairs

Step 3

Remove the Carburetor

  • Use a socket or nut driver to remove the two bolts that hold the carburetor to the engine.
  • Unhook the throttle cable from the carburetor linkage.
  • Place the carburetor in a container (to grab the gas).

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Footstep iv

Check for Corrosion

  •  Open the carburetor bowl to check for corrosion.
    • Notation: If the inside of the carburetor is corroded, it needs to exist replaced. Even afterwards cleaning, the corrosion will clog the jets and tiny orifices and restrict the catamenia of gas.

Rebuild or Replace?

If there's no corrosion in the carburetor, you lot tin choose to rebuild it rather than replace information technology. Simply rebuilding isn't always cheaper, and it might non fifty-fifty do the play a trick on. Sometimes y'all tin purchase a new carburetor for less than (or pretty darn close to) the cost of the rebuilding kit plus the cost of the chemicals. Nosotros always but replace bad carburetors rather than rebuild them.

If you lot opt to rebuild, follow the steps below:

Pace 5

Dissect the Carburetor on Your Workbench

  • Outset the disassembly from the bottom (bowl, bladder, needle, seat, etc.) and keep all the parts together.
    • Pro tip: Shoot digital photos for aid during reassembly.
  • Friction match the new gaskets and O-rings in the carburetor repair kit to the old ones.
  • Set aside the used gaskets and O-rings y'all'll discard, and whatever parts from the kit y'all don't demand.

Step 6

Make clean the Parts

  • Wire all the larger parts together and drib them into a bucket of carburetor cleaner.
  • Wrap the pocket-sized parts in a piece of aluminum screen or use a fine-mesh handbasket, and drop them in the bucket likewise.
    • Annotation: New/replacement parts don't need to exist cleaned.
  • Let the parts soak for one hour.

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Step seven

Reassemble the Carburetor

  • Rinse all the parts with h2o and blow them dry with compressed air.
  • Reassemble the old and new carburetor parts and mountain information technology on the engine.
  • Follow the instructions in the kit for adjusting the idle speed and mixture.
  • Fire up your engine and listen to it purr!

How to Notice Carburetor Parts and Prices

Whether you purchase parts from a local minor engine repair store or online, you lot may demand all this information:

  • Automobile brand (Toro, Snapper, Honda, etc.), model and serial number.
  • Engine make and serial number (Tecumseh, Briggs & Stratton, Honda, etc.). The engine model and series number are usually located on a plate above the spark plug.
  • You may also demand numbers from the old carburetor itself, usually stamped onto the carb body or its mounting flange.
  • You tin can buy locally, or endeavor smallenginepartswarehouse.com or psep.biz.

Originally Published: Nov 27, 2020