OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines Powertorques - Carby Needle Issues

I'd be looking at doing a dimensioned sketch, or even a drawing, of the Victa needle. Sure, the tolerances may need to be guesstimated, but that isn't too difficult.

With that data, it should be possible to find a manufacturer who has a list of their needles with dimensions, as well as what they will fit.

Hi Gadge, I have spent buckets of hours searching through thousands of needles on ebay trying to find something that is close that I could make fit and that is also cost effective. No point in getting a needle that costs more than the mower is worth. Might as well go and buy a Chonda and forget this needle stress

Has anybody tried to remove the brass seat from these primer caps?

No I have reamed it out a little to help the needle seat a little better but found that it let too much petrol through.

Hi tiger, I got it out, I was attempting to drill it out but it was just spinning, then I was able to get it out. I turned up a Briggs needle that arrived this morning, that was fairly easy, and it worked well with starting and running but wouldn't seat fully because the needle has a brass tip. So now I'm in the process of fitting the Briggs seat in the primer cap so I should have an answer on that shortly if it works ok but I'm optomistic. At least the brass needle is heavy enough to drop down

I could draw up the needle on SolidWorks but I only have aftermarket needles on hand. Would that do?

Nice one Norm, here's hoping.

All perfect, works exactly as it should, absolutely stoked, been one of the biggest bugbears with these carbs after the cam modifications. With this solved I think these carbs could go on forever, nothing to wear out or fail now. Big problem is I only ordered one needle and seat to try so now I have to wait another month for a supply to arrive. Now I have it sussed out it is fairly simple to do for me. I have at least 20 useless Victa needles here if anybody wants them :D, I will never be bothering with them again. Such a good feeling to be able to turn the tap on, give it a prime and just pull it and not constantly fear the needle was going to either flood or stick. I worked out how to remove the seat so no problem there, thats easy, run the drill down through where the seat was and push in the new Briggs seat, probably a couple of minutes,and turning the needle down is no big deal. Super super happy

Nice one Norm, have you got a photo of the fix? All up what has it cost you to make this fix, not including time.

$1.35 Tiger for a needle and seat, nothing to see, just looks like the standard needle sticking out of the cap except it is brass. I have another 20 sets on their way, maybe I should get more

Oh crikey, a revolution is at hand! Bravo Norm the great!

Should do, I'd say.

There are two needle lengths available, under one Victa P/No - CR03404A. These are black, 10.34mm long; and yellow, 10.78mm in length. But overall length is the only critical dimensional difference between them.

Norm, I'm not generally a fan of them, but would an Ezy-Out type screw extractor work, for this task?

Hi Gadge, easy fix there, I have a small square tapered file, put it in, turn to the left and pull it out,I can remove the seat and drill the primer cap and fit the new seat in a couple of minutes. Turning the needle down takes a bit longer but I will get better at it now I know how I can do it. I have brand new primer caps that I paid a bucket for because the answer was you need to fit a new cap and needle (people speak so much crap about these carbs) and I will be ripping the seats straight out of them because they are a waste of time and money. This is the final step in the modification of these carbs and it makes them 100% bulletproof, in my opinion the best carby I have ever worked on. They had a lot of built in problems but there are an easy fix.

Norm, do you have a Briggs/OEM part number for those needle/seat sets you're using?

Hi Gadge, the part number I have is 398183 and I think I paid a bit much for them at $1.35 delivered because I have found cheaper ones so I might get another 20 of those as well. Then I will have 40 so that should keep me going for a while

Well Norm,

It does seem to me, that you have come up with a very important innovation here, for the Victa restoration/repair community.

To the point where it might well be worth making enquiries about getting custom made needles mass produced from China, to be paired with the Briggs Viton seat, which shouldn't be any problem to source in the aftermarket segment.

Hi Gadge, in reality I don't think anybody really cares that much, just a few of us on here and the odd one that come past with a problem. The reality is very few people would realize the needle was the problem, just the mower won't start and the mower gets thrown out. No mower shop is going to modify the carby, just bin it

Hi Gadge, the thing is with the carby mods I do to the cam, all that does is to allow the cam to rotate smoothly(getting rid of the lumps and bumps on it) this then takes away the strain that is put on the cable trying to force the lifter up and down over these bumps. The second part of the mod is to lift the cam so it shuts the poppet completely. This will stop the motor when the throttle is closed. The next part of the mod is to fit the screw in the cap so that you can screw it in to open the poppet to a point the motor will idle, that is all this does, it does not improve the starting.What it does is give it throttle control. The thing that controls the starting is the float needle, if it leaks and floods, no hope, if it doesn't allow fuel to flow no hope. I have also found that with this needle mod I can leave the fuel on and it doesn't leak or flood. This is often a problem with the Victa taps in that the don't shut off 100% or if you turn the tap a bit far when you turn it off they can pass and you end up with a flooded motor

Norm, this is quite a development. The issue with the shut off and eventual flooding has always been a bugbear with Victa 2 strokes. By the way I googled the part number you gave in a previous post but nothing came up.