How to Repair Small Engines: Cleaning the Carburetor

Don't Google "small engine repair well-nigh me" the adjacent time your lawnmower sputters. Learn how to practice it yourself. Modest engine repair is all virtually a clean carburetor.

Time

A full day

Complication

Intermediate

Cost

$51–100

Introduction

Solve almost lawnmower or other pocket-size engine starting problems with a simple diagnosis and a carburetor cleaning or rebuilding. Information technology will just take a few hours, and you'll avoid the minimum $70-plus-parts repair neb.

Tools Required

Materials Required

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

If yous can't get a small engine started, it takes too many pulls to get it going, or information technology runs poorly, ask yourself this: Did it sit for a long time with gas in it? Like over the wintertime? If so, your trouble is nearly likely a corroded or gummed-upwards carburetor. Pocket-sized engine repair shops earn about 50 percent of their revenue by cleaning or replacing carburetors sidelined by old gas. Look at your lawnmower carburetor next time you sharpen the blades or complete a lawn mower tune-upwards.

Before you kickoff taking things apart, have a minute to ostend the carburetor is the problem. Nosotros'll show you how to do that, also as how to clean, rebuild or replace a lawnmower carburetor. Either way, you'll save about an hr of shop labor (about $lxx). You tin can consummate the carburetor rebuild project in a unmarried morning, including the time scouting for parts.

Project pace-by-stride (7)

Footstep 1

Start Your Engine (At Least Attempt)

  • Confirm that the fuel valve is on, in that location's gas in the tank and the spark plug is in practiced shape.
  • Shoot a ane-second outburst of droplets lubricant or carburetor cleaner down the pharynx of the carburetor.
  • Yank the cord.
    • Note: If the engine runs (fifty-fifty just sputters) and dies, you take a fuel problem. If at that place'due south no life after a few tries, it'due south something more serious and you need to haul the engine to your garage for some detective work.

Step 2

Test for Gas at the Carburetor

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

small engine repairs

Footstep 3

Remove the Carburetor

  • Use a socket or nut driver to remove the 2 bolts that hold the carburetor to the engine.
  • Unhook the throttle cable from the carburetor linkage.
  • Identify the carburetor in a container (to catch the gas).

small engine repairs

Step four

Cheque for Corrosion

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

Rebuild or Replace?

If at that place's no corrosion in the carburetor, you can cull to rebuild it rather than supplant it. Just rebuilding isn't e'er cheaper, and it might not fifty-fifty do the trick. Sometimes you tin can buy 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 just supervene upon bad carburetors rather than rebuild them.

If y'all opt to rebuild, follow the steps beneath:

Step v

Dissect the Carburetor on Your Workbench

  • Start the disassembly from the bottom (bowl, float, needle, seat, etc.) and keep all the parts together.
    • Pro tip: Shoot digital photos for help during reassembly.
  • Lucifer 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 any parts from the kit y'all don't need.

Step six

Clean the Parts

  • Wire all the larger parts together and drib them into a saucepan of carburetor cleaner.
  • Wrap the pocket-size parts in a piece of aluminum screen or use a fine-mesh handbasket, and driblet them in the saucepan equally well.
    • Annotation: New/replacement parts don't need to be cleaned.
  • Allow the parts soak for one hour.

small engine repairs

Step 7

Reassemble the Carburetor

  • Rinse all the parts with water and blow them dry with compressed air.
  • Reassemble the old and new carburetor parts and mountain it 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 Find Carburetor Parts and Prices

Whether you buy parts from a local small engine repair shop or online, you may need all this data:

  • Motorcar brand (Toro, Snapper, Honda, etc.), model and serial number.
  • Engine brand and serial number (Tecumseh, Briggs & Stratton, Honda, etc.). The engine model and serial number are ordinarily located on a plate above the spark plug.
  • Y'all may also need numbers from the former carburetor itself, usually stamped onto the carb torso or its mounting flange.
  • You can purchase locally, or try smallenginepartswarehouse.com or psep.biz.