selling

Ethanol sucks.

Ethanol sucks:it's an alcohol, and alcohol absorbs moisture.  You don't want moisture in your fuel, it wrecks shit.  This is a carb from a Briggs and Stratton Vanguard Twin engine thats in a piece of equipment at work.  It had old fuel in it, and sat around for awhile without any stabilzer in it.  The fuel that sat in the carb bowl jelled up.  Jellied fuel doesn't burn, it clogs up the jets in your carb.  This is most likely why your lawnmower won't start, or is a whore to start in the spring if you didn't put ethanol specific fuel stabilizer in the tank back in the fall.

Thrashed Echo cut off saw

This saw belongs to a mason, it was covered in concrete dust, and all i was told was it wouldnt start.  It's an Echo, a brand I have little experience with, especilally their cut off saws, and first impressions didn't win me over.  Compared to a Stihl its apples to oranges, the quality just isn't the same, very plastic-y.  Anyway, checked all the basics, could tell it wasn't pulling in fuel, and it wouldn't pop or fire off with mix in the sparkplug hole.  Pulled it over a few times and it felt weak, like the compression wasn't there.  Threw the compression gauge on it, and it had a whopping 30 PSI.  Removed the cylinder head and found the problem.

 Large portion of the piston is scored really deeply on the exhaust side. I'm thinking it was run lean, with not enough 2 cycle mix in the fuel, or maybe none at all?  Either way it's toasted.  Not sure if the owner is going to want to repair it, or scrap it.  At this point I don't think it's worth repairing, just cut your losses and move on...to a Stihl.

Another Stihl MS 310 issue...

This saw came in and I was told it quit running after using it for a few hours.  Okay, no big deal I thought, i'll check the basics and go from there.  I pulled the plug, didn't look too bad, hooked up an in line spark tester and had good spark.  Tried cranking it over a few times and got nothing.  Put a teaspoon or so of fresh mix into the sparkplug hole, re-installed the plug, and tried again.  Nothing.  Hmm.  I guess this saw is gonna make me work for it. I pulled the carb off and inspected all the fuel lines and tank vent line, seemed good.  Took the plug back out and shined a flashlight into the intake port while slowly pulling on the starter rope.  I could see the piston moving and could see the cylinder and piston was soaked in fuel, and each time i pulled the rope I could see drops of mix spitting out the crankcase vent line.  Okay, it's flooded.  I pulled the carb apart thinking the needle valve was stuck open, letting fuel pour into the motor.  Nope, looked fine, and the metering lever was still at the correct height.  I took the fuel pump side of the carb off, and came across this mess.

It appears these Walbro HD series carbs have two very small holes on the underside of the fuel pump diaphragm end of the carb, which I'm assuming act as an atmospheric vent.  You can see them on the bottom part of the photo at the 3 and 6 o'clock position.  These were pretty well plugged up, and I'm assuming that the sawdust gunk you can see made it's way through those holes over time, building up enough to impede the vents and not allow the fuel pump diaphragm to function properly, hence the flooding issue.  Now it was only a matter of spraying this out and cleaning it up good with carb cleaner, and re-assemble.  I've usually had bad luck not damaging the diaphragms and gaskets when tearing down carbs like these, they usually are pretty stubborn about coming apart cleanly, but this particular carb was cooperative, no need to replace them.  After I got everything put back together the saw fired up and ran beautifully.  It's funny, you would think a carb so gunked up like that would cause no fuel to be getting to the motor, not the opposite problem of flooding.  If it's plugged up in the right place though, it will indeed flood the motor.  One thing that sort of threw me off was the fact that the plug was dry and looked good when I pulled it, but I'm contributing that to the fact that I let the saw sit just long enough for the plug to dry off while I took a lunch break.  Oops.

Stihl 026 meets mini excavator. Excavator wins.

Muffler, brake lever, and handle are history.  She still fires up, mainly cosmetic damage.  Going to get a parts saw on Ebay to save this one.  And no, I didn't do it. 

Craftsman hose clamping pliers...

Another tool that, up until today, I had never realized just how often I use.  Perfect for clamping off fuel lines on small engines while changing out inline fuel filters, or removing carburetors, especially if they don't have a petcock or fuel shut off valve between the tank and carb inlet.  Squeezing the pliers clamps down on the hose, obviously the harder you squeeze the tighter they get, but the jaws are smooth and wide enough as to not damage the hose, unlike the jaws of a pair of Vice Grips which can tear and damage the line.  They are self locking, and simply release by pulling the handles apart.  I find myself using these pliers all the time, especially when working on the GX series Honda small engines, which only have a fuel shut off on the carb itself.  Anytime you remove the carb, you will find after removing the fuel line from the carb inlet, there is no valve to keep the fuel from gravity draining out of the tank.  These pliers solve that.  Sure, you could jam an appropiate size bolt into the hose to plug it temporarily, but these just make the job a bit neater and easier.  These are made in the USA, but from the current trend of Craftsman, they may soon enough be made in China like many of their line of hand tools are becoming, but that's a subject for a blog post another time...

Mike Muir for President.