Florida Shooters Network

Two years ago when I discovered post-Irma that my generator would not start I took it to a repair shop and had the carburetor rebuilt. The repairman put a small amount of gasoline in it with a dose of Sta-bil to show me that it was running and would start easily. I did as he instructed and took it home, added another shot of Sta-bil and ran it until the tank ran dry. It has been in garden shed storage ever since.

This morning I pulled it out, put half a gallon of fresh gasoline in it, opened up the air cleaner cover and chased out the roaches. Fired up on the second half-choke pull after one choked pull. Ran for about a minute then quit. Now I can get it to fire up and run for a few seconds fully choked then it dies. I'm assuming that the carb float is stuck?

No time to get it to the shop now. Any advice on what to do? I have never opened up a carb on one of these motors (10 hp GenTec on 5600W Craftsman generator).

Use a heavy dose of seafoam with a small amount of ethanol free gas, or buy Mechanic In A Bottle at Walmart or an auto parts store.

Roaches inside the air cleaner? WTF? Never heard anything like that before.

I am no mechanic and I never have been able to successfully rebuild any carburetor.Carburetors IMHO require black magic to rebuild. I just replace them. But too late for that now. I'm big on using what is on hand. If you got any gumout, I would try that if you have it. Most people don't have that in the garage anymore unless you are a hotrodder.

The last thing I would try before I junk it would be to use a bit of automatic transmission fluid. It will smoke like a SOB while it runs.You will be quite popular with your neighbors! Used to do that in the old days when I did not have time to fix old carbs. Actually I would pour it down the throat straight out of the can with the engine running. ATF is the big part of Ed's Red that I use to clean firearms with. It acts like a detergent.

All that being said, if you used that Al-Gore-Ahole ethanol gas - you are probably screwed. Small engine like generators and lawn equipment seem to use the old style rubber parts that get eaten up by the ethanol crap. Nothing is going to fix it except rebuilding or replacing. Thanks you F8ck'en POS Gore.

Flame Red wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:36 am Roaches inside the air cleaner? WTF? Never heard anything like that before.

LOL not inside the air cleaner - just under the cover on the outside of the air cleaner.

Try a small shot of seafoam before taking anything apart. Those carbs are easy to work on, just hard to find gaskets for at this point.

If the float is stuck, you would notice a strong gas smell, since the engine is being flooded.

It's possible that, even though you ran the engine until it ran out of gas, some gas remained in the bottom of the fuel bowl and evaporated over time. This can leave a varnish build-up in the jet and passageway that moves fuel from the bowl to the venturi (i.e. where air passes into the carb).

The good news is that, if this theory is correct, the varnish isn't bad enough to prevent it from running at all.

Carb cleaner will help clear the passageway. Does your carb have a drain plug to drain the fuel bowl? If so, you might be able to pop it open and spray carb cleaner into the bowl.

You might need to disassemble the carb to fully clean out the passageway. Be aware if you do this, the gasket(s) might need replacing or you will have a fuel leak.

In theory, if you can get the thing to run, the varnish will go away on its own over time. In other words, the engine will run smoother as the varnish dissolves.

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.

When you finally get some free time, pull the carb. Take the float bowl off. That small hole in the middle going into the carb is the jet.

If you don't have a spare or can't find a replacement, soak it in carb cleaner for a few hour, flush it out and THEN actually get the crud out of the jet.

Sometimes you'll get lucky and the crud will come out with the carb cleaner. If it doesn't (usually) then physically scrape the low speed jet. Yes, it's very small and trying to find carb brushes in auto stores these days is impossible so, take stranded automotive wire, not solid, and pick about 3 or 4 strands to twist together. Use that to move through the low speed jet. You'll feel the crap in there come out and when it runs through nice and smooth, you'll be almost done.

Dunk it again for a half hour in the carb fluid. Take it out, flush it with gas or water, dry it and install. You'll be amazed how nice it runs.

I'm 12 for 12 on this. If you can get the carb off, you can do this job. It is not difficult. Probably easier to do than put a Mark II Ruger pistol back together.

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A tip cleaner for a cutting torch works great for cleaning those tiny damn holes. Currently the carb. off of my generator is sitting on the kitchen counter,have my marine mechanic coming over tomorrow to finish it.

Thanks for all the advice. Mowers, Inc. in Sarasota was actually willing to take it in this morning at 1030, and by 1630 they had it running like a champ. $50 for a carb cleaning while I was at work all day prepping to man the County Utilities Hurricane Operations Center.

Wow that's awesome they stepped up to help you out.