These are the kinds of stories that made Car Talk so much fun. It was so much more than just hearing about mechanics repairing cars. It was the fact that the situations were so odd and unusual that the stories were interesting. It was also fun hearing how these mechanics had been around so long and seen so many of these unusual situations that they became normal to them. It didn't hurt that they were good story tellers
these days it's "just buy a new carburetor" - i remember rebuilding a few like 20 years ago - on small engines, but now a rebuild kit is, say, $12 and a new carburetor is $20. For an extra $8 you only have to remove two bolts and fasten the new one in, rather than take a carburetor apart and replace gaskets and floats (or whatever, it's been 20 years).
word to the wise - never use the shutoff switch on anything with a carburetor - use the fuel shutoff valve. This prevents gasoline from varnishing your carburetor bowl.
I probably won't use that word again for a year, now, heavens.
I acquired a generator from a family member, and unknown to me when I needed it to power the house the thing wouldn't run unless the choke was held closed with a wire tie. You can imagine how well that ran...
So, that sounds like a carb rebuild, right? Come to find out that for about $17 shipped a seller on eBay with something like 200K feedback will sell me a brand new carb. Fitted that, it starts on first pull. There's absolutely no reason to mess around with a rebuild on something like that.
As a small engine mechanic, you you lucky. Usually those cheap carburetors will do the job, and usually the engine won't run quite as smooth. The rest of the times it's so erratic you have to buy an OEM one.
I will always clean/rebuild carburetors before replacing. And usually when replacing I will explain to the customer and get permission to spend their money on an OEM one.
Thanks, that's good to know. This is a basic, older Generac GP5500 and I couldn't figure out how to get the carb apart, it really seemed pressed together. Maybe that generator already had it's replaced, as the replacement I got looked identical.
Looks like the OEM part is only $50-some, so worst case I'll get one of those down the line, but the generator was running at a friend's house for three days straight a few weeks back and no issue, so hopefully it'll keep being good.
The emulsion tube might be pressed in on that carburetor. 99% of the time there's some deposits built up from old gas and that's why it doesn't run / doesn't run well. Use thin wire or a carb cleaner kit or a torch tip cleaner kit to poke the junk out of all the parts you can remove/access, and use a can of carb cleaner to spray through all the channels you can't otherwise access.
