Florida Shooters Network

I spent two full days (a few weeks ago, thankfully) trying to run mine. Between spraying a full can of carb cleaner in it (spray, crank, run, die, spray, crank, run, die, et al) and beating the shit out of the side of the carb with a plastic faced mallet, I finally got it running. Now it cranks on the first pull and whenever I mow the lawn I pull it out and run it for a few minutes.

ab4ka wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:32 pm I spent two full days (a few weeks ago, thankfully) trying to run mine. Between spraying a full can of carb cleaner in it (spray, crank, run, die, spray, crank, run, die, et al) and beating the shit out of the side of the carb with a plastic faced mallet, I finally got it running. Now it cranks on the first pull and whenever I mow the lawn I pull it out and run it for a few minutes.

This is exactly what I went through in the days after Irma, except for the getting it running part. And, the part about running it on a regular basis after I got it fixed. Lesson learned - I hope I don't need to use it this time around.

BTW - the mower shop recommended K-100 as their preferred fuel treatment. An 8-oz bottle to treat 16 gallons of gas cost $10.

Glad you got it running. I only run Rec 90 fuel on my small engines.
One should always have a spare plug, a quart or 2 of 30W oil, spare air and gas filter and carb cleaner for your genny.

An overlooked item is the plug.
Have an extra on hand that's gapped correctly and ready to go.
All the BS about plugs being pre gapped is a crap shoot.
During shipping and handling things get dropped etc. so recheck gap.

I have 2 Honda eu2000 generators I tie together, last hurricane they ran 24/7 for 2.5 days using only 7-8 gal of gas. I let them sit a while prior, and had to clean the carbs. The easiest carbs I have ever cleaned. Remove bowl, then float, then the jet. Spray out everything with carb cleaner and install. They ran great after. Might have taken 20-30 minutes for both.

Gunnyhiway wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2019 11:48 am An overlooked item is the plug.
Have an extra on hand that's gapped correctly and ready to go.

+1 The Home Depot near me had a lot of them in-stock, so there's no excuse not to have a spare.

ADulay wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2019 5:10 pm Small 4 stroke engines.

The bane of home users (and fisherman) everywhere.

I can pretty much guarantee that your problem is a clogged or really dirty LOW SPEED jet.

It's ALWAYS the low speed jet.

After "fixing" 6 generators and 6 small boat engines (6HP or less) the problem is ALWAYS the low speed jet.

AD

As an update I just did ANOTHER Honda generator (5000EX) last night.

The main jet (low speed jet) was clogged up pretty good. Scraped it out, a quick flush and it was up and running nicely.

The original symptoms? It would run but needed full choke to keep running and would die at slow speed.

#13 is in the books!

AD

From mowers, pressure washers and generators, it’s always been a clogged low speed jet like mentioned. I’ve personally always used the wire from twist ties (bread, dry cleaning, etc) with the paper or plastic pulled off and carb cleaner. Also check on the float valve and make sure it is cleaned out as well.

ss1 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 2:08 pm From mowers, pressure washers and generators, it’s always been a clogged low speed jet like mentioned. I’ve personally always used the wire from twist ties (bread, dry cleaning, etc) with the paper or plastic pulled off and carb cleaner. Also check on the float valve and make sure it is cleaned out as well.

All small engines are the same. When they give you a hard time just take the spark plugs and check them. Unplug all the fuel lines and blow them out and take the carb out and disassemble it. The lower jet is most likely clogged. Clean it all out and reverse. Put in some fresh gas and turn on. When i put it away u try and leave bare minimum in tank and turn the petcock off and let it turn off on its own. That will keep lines and bowl dry.

My mower started acting up last week, would only run about 50%, its a B&S. I didn't realize the jet was what held the bowl on. Turned the tank valve off and removed the bowl, turn the valve on and fuel flowed out with the float down. Blew the jet out and reinstalled the bowl and jet.
Ran like a top, but I didn't know it has a low speed jet.