(drill engine roaring)
hey guys welcome back to my small engine repair channel today i've got a lawn tractor in the shop
it's almost brand new it runs for a bit then after a while it starts to sputter
and it dies so what i'll be doing is starting up the machine and i'll be going through the
diagnostic process with you guys so you can see exactly what to do if you get the same problem
so what i mean by surging is that the engine is revving up and down
now some of the things you might want to check first is to make sure that your gas cap is venting
which can do is loosen the cap run it with a cap loose so the tank vents properly then you'll know
if that's a problem or not you can also change the air filter make sure you've got good gas make
sure your fuel filter is clean that you've got a good spark plug although the spark plug usually
does not make an engine surge if it's not good and the other thing you should check as well is
the carburetor solenoid at the bottom here i did check it it does work if you want to quickly see
if it works or not just turn the ignition key and listen for clicking noise i'll do that right now
so i can hear it clicking so basically all the things i just mentioned here i've
already checked all that what i'm going to do now is start up the engine when it warms up
it starts to surge it runs perfectly well when it's cold it does not surge at all and then
i'll bring it back in the shop and i'll take the carburetor off all right let's start it up here
i'll let it run for a while and as i mentioned you will see that it does not surge when it's cold
and she died
let's try to start it up again
now this machine is auto choke or something like that side there's no choke for me to put on
now the first thing i'm going to do even though i don't think it's a spark issue i will check
for spark because the machine's warm just plug your tester on the plug the other lead inside the
spark plug boot now let's turn it over and what you want to do is check for the light to come on
so i've got great spark i didn't think it was a spark issue you could try another spark plug but
most of the time when your engine surges it is not a spark related issue now another thing you can
check while it's warm is to see if that solenoid still works and basically i'm doing this before
i take the carb apart so if you're at home working on your tractor this will be easy for you to check
now i want to check all these things here before i actually take the carb apart so if you're doing
this from home these are all easy things you can do yourself even if you're not a mechanic so let's
listen in for that solenoid to click and she's clicking good okay so what i'm going to do now is
take that carb off and i'm going to show you how to do that step by step if you have a fuel shutoff
valve turn it off if you don't have one you can install one if you don't have access to getting
a fuel valve right away you might want to get a container so when you remove the fuel line you can
pour the gas into that so i'll start by removing the air filter cover you just untwist these
hold the air filter out now i'm going to remove that phillips screw right down here
and the 10 millimeter bolt right here
and there's a spacer like this that goes between this part here and the engine now there's two
10 millimeter nuts one here and one on the other side this one's easier to get at here
for the other one here i'll use an extension
you can disconnect this hose over here it's just a breather hose from the fuel tank
get your fuel line out of here
now i forgot there's another 10 mil bolt under here you could push the cover and
get it off but i'm just going to remove the whole cowling here so there's three nuts here
and you also need to remove this bolt here because it's holding the front of the cowling
and again it's all 10 millimeters
now you can lift the cowling it's going to be a lot easier to access that bolt
now this carb should come off a lot easier and i'll disconnect this breather tube right here
now to disconnect the oak arm you need to move this little white
retaining clip here just away from the linkage
and then you can just pop it up now there's a gasket that goes here just remember that
now i'm going to disconnect that solenoid and you can do that by unplugging the two wires here
and don't worry because they only go in one way you cannot mix them up after
now you might have to peel the tabs a little bit here so it comes off there we go now it's
the first time i get one of these tractors with this engine in the shop to do carb work so the
best way actually to remove this carb is to just remove the two 10 mil bolts right here this will
allow you to get the linkage off properly without damaging it and also this bolt here
i'm just going to put the bolts back on just so i don't mix them up later on
now the fuel line can be removed first you have to undo this clip
and then undo the linkage just by twisting the carb like i did
and now the entire carb is off the tractor now since this carburetor came out of an mtd made
product and you guys have seen my previous video on how there was a small screen between the
connector and the carb this is the first thing that i'm itching to check on this carburetor
now once you get the carb off you can remove this and the choke linkage it'll
make it easier to work on it and i'm just going to hold it put the vice grips on
and guess what guys there is a screen just like on the mtd slow blowers with the powermore engines
it's totally plugged in there now you can remove the screen with the pick if you want
what i'm going to do today is basically just take the bowl off and clean it from the inside
and to do that i'll remove the 14 mil bowl nut over here now when you take your carb off there
will be a bit of fuel left in it so you can put it on a rag and you also want to take note of
the location or how the bowl is positioned so that you put it back on the same way
so there's quite a bit of fuel left in there so i'm just going to unscrew that
and i'll bet you that the inside of that carburetor is clean that's what i expected
so if you take a carb apart like this and it's clean and you don't know about the little screen
it can really stump you now you'll need to remove the float and the needle valve
so what i'm going to do now is blow a bit of air through the needle valve hole
it is connected to where the screen is or the fuel inlet and you hardly need any pressure
to clear out the dirt from the screen and by the way guys you don't need that screen in there you
can completely remove it if you want and just add an extra fuel filter and just make sure you wear
your safety glasses when you do this and here we go so just keep an eye on this side of the carb
you're going to see that dirt go flying and i'm going to add very little air pressure here we go
and you can actually see the small screen in there it's pretty clean
and i've actually blown it out and you know what guys
i'm leaving it that way i'm not putting it back on with the screen now if you did want a little
screen back in there you can get one from a two-stroke carburetor kit like a k-10 want
by the way i looked on the parts list and they do not show the small screen so you can't buy it from
mtd then what you would do is just put it right here and insert it right in there with a drill bit
and it's also a good idea to clean the fuel inlet as well just do the same thing
and now to install the inlet just use the vise grips again i like to put some
loctite 680 on there it's not necessary but i just like to do it as a precaution
make sure you don't get the sealant inside the inlet here
and i'm going to reinstall it in the same position that it was
if you don't take note of that the connector won't line up with your fuel line
now i'm going to put all the parts back on now the needle valve is stuck
on the float which is good just line it back in here
now just line that all up push that pin in now this is the position that the ball was in
just slap it on and you want to check the bottom bowl nut and jet here to make sure that it's clean
and then just tighten it up don't go too tight
and now the carbs completely back together
okay so at this point here i'm just going to insert this back on the carb here
and you can also put the choke cleaver on now if you want this is how it goes
now the very first thing i'm going to do for the reinstallation is reinstall the throttle
linkage you want to insert the bent part of the linkage right into the carb here and then just
move the carb straight up and then you want to reconnect that little spring to the tiny hole here
now you can put your choke linkage in here right now if you want
and turn the white tab to lock it in
and i'll get these bolts in
and now just tighten them up by hand i don't have the torque specs guys
it's not brain surgery just use common sense so you want them fairly tight here guys
now these single cylinder engines do vibrate a lot so just keep that in mind
and a double check here and i'm just going to reconnect these wires here
and again they only go in one way so you cannot mix them up
just tuck them behind here and now you want to get the fuel line reconnected
and now what you want to do is just squeeze that clip and push it back you want it over
the connector and there it is down here i'll just have another quick look to make
sure everything's on properly before i put the air filter bracket or holder here check
the auto choke linkage this is the throttle linkage the wires are on the fuel line's on
now there's a gasket that goes here this is exactly how it goes on
the crankcase vent tube and now what you want to do is get it on the studs
and you can start these two ten millimeter nuts
and the other one goes right on the other side here and there's a bolt that goes right here
and don't forget to tighten up the phillips screw here
and now basically just go around finishing up the tightening of all these
bolts
now reconnect the fuel tank vent line right here and you can reinstall the air filter
okay let's stick the shroud back on
just line everything up here and stick these three nuts back on
and just tighten them on fairly tight
and don't forget the bolt at the front here either
and last but not least don't forget the air filter cover
now here's a dilemma that i have guys there is no screen in the tank to stop the dirt on
lawn tractors it only has this fuel filter here and then these carbs had a screen like
you saw that i removed obviously if there's getting in there it means that this filter is
not stopping all the dirt my dilemma is that this little fuel filter here has a screen inside of it
it's mostly recommended for lawn tractors without a fuel pump this one does not have a fuel pump
however these filters here which have like a cardboard cartridge they filter out way more dirt
than these little red filters here however they're designed for lawn tractors with a fuel pump
but what i'm going to do in this case even though it's a filter for tractor with the fuel pump i
will put it on this tractor these are awesome filters they're oregon part number 07103 i've
had really good luck with these filters even on tractors without a fuel pump so i normally don't
do this but i will do it in this case because there's so much dirt getting caught right at the
carb so it's really easy replacing a fuel filter all you have to do is get the clamps off here
now there is an arrow for the fuel flow on this filter there it is the
arrow is there to show you to install it where the fuel comes in and out this side
and just do the same on this side
now when i turn the fuel valve on you should see the filter fill up
and that's good
so now i'm going to take the tractor outside i'm going to let it run for a
good five to ten minutes approximately what it used to take for it to start surging
and there's no way that this engine will be surging now okay let's start this baby up
all right guys so that did the trick
that engine runs smoothly i did let it run for about 15 to 20 minutes outside here total and
the engine did not even surge one bit anyway just goes to show a simple screen like that will cause
so many problems and like i said earlier that little screen does not even come up on the parts
list now so far i've only seen those screens on mtd products on the powermore engines i have not
seen them on briggs and other engines that i work on here in the shot so i would only worry about
it if you have a powermore engine on your lawn tractor so if my video has helped you today guys
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