I have a carby off a Honda ATV that is giving me problems,it starts easily and idles fine but breaks down as the revs come up. I have had the fuel bowl off and pulled the visible jets and cleaned them but it is still giving problems. I will pull it off again and put it in my ultrasonic (hopefully it will fit because it is quite small) I have tried it once before on a Briggs carby with dishwashing liquid in it but it didn't seem to do very much. Anybody have any thoughts on what I should give a try in it?
Dawn dishwashing liquid works great in my ultrasonic cleaner. Here's a tip; place the parts, especially small parts, in a Ziplock bag, add the soap and water, seal and place in the ultrasonic cleaner filled with water. The plastic bag is acoustically invisible to the ultrasound of the machine. You use much less cleaning solution and the clean-up after is a breeze; just remove the parts from the bag and rinse for a few minutes in the clean water of the ultrasound cleaner.
Not sure how difficult it is to get Dawn Norm but Amazon sell it.
I've also heard Simple green from Bunnings works but some say it will etch the alloy and Dawn works just as well but won't eat into the alloy.
Possibly with Simple green you need to clean afterwards as that's what they recommend ,there is a Simple green wheel and tyre cleaner that would be better on the alloy.
Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation. Simple Green has also developed break-through water based cleaners that are safe for use on metals, plastics, rubber and high tech alloys.
Yes I buy a few American products here as I don't know of other products that are as good or if anyone else makes some of them.
It's surprising how many USA shops are here .
Apple Athlete's Foot Bose Bridgestone Calvin Klein Carl's Jr. Coach Costco Crabtree & Evelyn Crocs Domino’s Famous Footwear Florsheim Foot Locker Forever 21 Fossil Gap GNC Guess Hooters Hungry Jack's (Burger King) Hush Puppies KFC (YUM! Brands) Kate Spade Kmart Krispy Kreme Levi's MAC Cosmetics McDonald’s Michael Kors Microsoft Mrs. Fields New Balance Nike Nine West North Face Oakley Payless Shoes Pizza Hut (YUM! Brands) Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids Ralph Lauren Skechers Staples Starbucks Subway Taco Bell (YUM! Brands) Target TGI Fridays Tiffany Tom Ford Tumi Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt VANS Victoria's Secret West Elm Williams-Sonoma
I used Rustoleum spray can paint for the first time recently. It's the best I've ever used. Definitely worth the extra. I pity they only offer a limited range of colours (or should that be colors?) in Australia. I caught a glimpse of their range in a store in a YouTube video in Uncle Sam land and it leaves the range in your local Bunnings for absolute dead.
Last edited by Mowerfreak; 11/07/2301:45 PM. Reason: stupid predictive text again.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
That's the problem Mf you don't have a large range of colours and the VHT high temp engine enamel is the same price but has a lot more colours ,sometimes I'll use a brake caliper paint if I want a slightly different colour.
Hi Max, I put a carby off a GCV135 Honda motor through the ultrasonic, I couldn't undo the main jet beforehand but it came out easily after being through the bath. I cleaned the tube holes after the bath because they hadn't cleaned properly and everything looks ok but when I put it back on the motor, it runs smoothly but only with full choke. The gaskets look ok so I don't think it is sucking air anywhere. The carby off the ATV worked fine after going through the bath. I also tried a whipper snipper one in the bath but that didn't seem to fix that one either. Any thoughts?
If the carby only works with the choke on it means the choke is providing enough extra fuel to enter the engine to overcome the lack of fuel when the choke is off.
I usually poke some fuse wire down all the carby orifices and blow compressed air through them and check the flow of fuel from the tank with the float needle removed ,also make sure the fuel bowl vent is clear as some are at the back of the carby.
Make sure someone hasn't put the wrong float or float needle into the carby making the fuel level too low.
When running the motor you can remove the fuel cap to make sure the breather on the cap isn't stopping air getting into the fuel tank otherwise the carby can run lean.
The last one I had that hunted was a fuel cap that wasn't letting enough air into the tank.
I'd get the motor running well at full revs without the choke on then if it's hunting down low and everything else is clean and adjusted correctly then sometimes you can open up the low speed jet a little to make the motor run smooth down low.
I've also heard 50 percent distilled white vinegar with 50 percent distilled water works good to clean a carby in a Ultrasonic cleaner.
Yes it's a good idea to try a new carby to see if the problem is the carby. Sometimes I clean and check and adjust a carby so I think there can't be a carby problem then when the motor is still running rough I bolt the cleaned carby to a motor I know doesn't have a problem and the carby works fine , this saves time then you don't spend any more time on the carby.
As we know the Honda has a pilot screw adjuster and a pilot jet that needs checking / cleaning.1 and 2 in the pic below just need to pull the screw out above the pilot jet to clean the jet.
I'd try cleaning again with fuse wire ,then compressed air ,adjust the pilot screw if that doesn't work you could check the pilot jet size in the new carby and open the old carby pilot jet up to the new jet size if it's different ,someone may have fitted a carby from another motor.
I've used oxy tip cleaners to open up jet sizes and to check the jet size.
We've all cleaned out lots of these mower carbies but they can be difficult to clean after water and old fuel gets into them.
One thing that takes a few minutes when the carbs are really blocked up is to linish the main jet / emulsion tube on fuse wire while twisting and using WD40 ,when the wire clears a blockage it's still tight sometimes but after a while the jet / emulsion tube is polished back to original size also the idle and intermediate holes near the butterfly must be clear ,I usually would blow compressed air though all the tiny fuel paths / air bleeds etc.
I've never had to buy a new carby like this design ,I've had a few that were too corroded inside to use but had another second hand carby, a lot of the time after linishing the main jet/emulsion tube they run smooth on full revs then by using 98 fuel to cut the grass it will clean out the idle and intermediate side of the carby but sometimes I rev the motor out for a few seconds at a time by the governor arm and that's enough to remove a small blockage.
Just a thought when you cant remove the main jet ,I have heard of people cleaning carbs on a stove top in a pot of 50/50 water and vinegar and boiling the carby ,you would think this would clean and get the carby hot enough that the main jet would undo easily.Sometimes on engines when I can't undo a bolt because it feels like it will break I run the motor until hot and the bolt comes undone without a problem (works well for head bolts on Briggs etc). I guess it would help if you don't have an Ultrasonic cleaner or if your cleaner is only 60 degrees.
When I saw your card of fuse wire for $1.55 I thought "you'd have to pay a fortune for that now" But Bunnings have it for $2.45 and Australian made too!
Hi Max, If I have a motor that runs fine and a new $15/20 carby will fix it and I can set it up on a mower and sell it for $80/100 then it is worth the cost/effort to me
I see some people on eBay trying to sell the same items from Bunnings for 4 times the Bunnings price.
Mowers are good as a Hobby Norm and if you can sell a few ,it's just they sell too slow here and I can collect 10 times what I can sell in a year so it's not worth collecting them for me ,I've still got a few vintage mowers to work on though.
Hi Max, Yes it feels good when you can bring a mower back from the dead and have it running nicely, just a bit of self satisfaction. You wouldn't do it for the money
Yes it works out good for me that the mowers aren't selling well these days as can get to the older mowers that I want to keep and get some more running without collecting newer models.
There is one 1956 mower here with a Villiers motor and I haven't run the motor since 1986.
