Carb cleaning....help!

[Mountain Heritage]

HA! You wouldn't be that lucky....your wife doesn't love ya that much. Your tractor....you have no pictures in your profile at all anymore.....I figured we would see a nice action shot of your new machine after getting it out of the shop.....gotta show off them 982's....I think there a lot of people out there looking at the red ones!:biggrin2.gif:

[Mountain Heritage]

Got an early start on things this morning while everyone was gone....peace and quiet! Started to get the carb off today to clean it before my new gaskets and other parts arrive next week. I would have to say I was VERY surprised at what all needed to be removed just to get the dog on carb off this 982!
Start out with this...
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Then...your down to...
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WOW!...all this to go through to clean a carb? I see why it isn't done very often or at least not until it needs to be.
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It is certainly worth the work.....but I am surprised by the stuff that is on these tractors. Guess I am just too used to seeing the junk they make now a days that is pumped off the assembly line quicker than they can supply crappy parts for?

Certainly need a now that its appart. Now comes the challenge of getting it cleaned properly before reassembly!

[Matt G.]

The same idiot that designed the carb on that Onan must have been buddies with the guy that designed the carb/intake on the horizontally-opposed twin briggs engine in the 582. I don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to design it so that you have to remove the intake manifold to remove the carb. This is why I prefer Kohler.

[Mountain Heritage]

Well the job is done! I got the carb all back together now and bolted back onto the tractor.....about $180.00 later in carb parts, air filter, oil filter, and gaskets, plugs, etc.

It works too!!!!!!!!!!!

:biggrin2.gif:

Got all the sheet metal back onto the engine, changed the oil and filter, rinsed out the gas tank, changed the fuel filter and the fuel lines, new plugs & wires. Putting the sheet metal back onto these engines are like doing a jig saw puzzel....air was a little blue at times, but I ended up winning.

Cranked it over a few times with almost full throttle and choke on to get the gas into the system and it fired up nicely. I was very pleased to say the least. The govenor seems to be working properly, it will rev up and down properly when I move the throttle (or at least seems normal to me?)

The real test comes tomorrow night when I get to take it out for a spin...need to move some junk outta the way first. Was lucky to get rid of the wife's summer tires from garage tonight...slowly making some room.

[Oak]

How is it running now MH. Did you take any pictures of the carb during the repair?

[Mountain Heritage]

Knock on wood it is running pretty good so far. Actually I forgot to take the pictures while repairing it. I was kinda surprised at how little there is to these carbs. I have worked on Klein & Mikuni carbs before a little - they are more delicate I found than this one.
Basically once I removed it from the intake manifold (shown in picture)...still a dumb design I think - oh well, I didn't have much to take appart. Removed the 4 screws that held the top of it to the fuel bowl, the gasket came off easy too. Loosened off the 1 screw that held the shaft for the float in place and that assembly came off easily and let it soak in some gas. Removed the two brass seats that just unscrewed inside the carb, washed them up good with some carb cleaner and a coarse paint brush (new one, not a crappy old one). After that once the body of the carb was washed up good inside and out, blew it out with air compressor and started putting it back together. I replaced the gasket in the middle of the carb (between the two halves) as well as the one between the carb and the manifold. In the bag with the middle gasket were the new washer gaskets for the two brass pieeces inside so they were changed too. Bolted it back onto the washed up intake manifold and started the reassembly of it all. Put on new intake manifold gaskets as well as muffler gaskets, wiped down the outside of engine and then started the jig saw puzzle for reassembling the tin work around the engine.

I was VERY nervous about doing this job...but I figured it was do or die, so I bit the bullet and did it. Besides...if the wife knew I paid someone to do the tune up she would likely lock me up! Still think she is mad that I bought the tractor - she says no, but I am still not convinced.

You ever had to do this for your carb Oak?

I noticed when I was cleaning the carb that the shaft for the govenor, the end of it is starting to wear a bit...so might have to replace that sometime in the future...perhaps that might create a problem??

[Mountain Heritage]

So, how do you know when your carb is set "too rich"?? I am wondering because I tend to smell the exhaust fumes while driving the tractor if the wind blows them back towards me....smells more like raw fuel than regular exhaust? Am I dreaming, or perhaps inhailing too many fumes? Wasn't sure if I should worry about it and accept the fact it burns a little rich and don't have to worry about burning up the inside of the engine by running it too lean??? Any comments would be good here! Thanks

[Amigatec]

To rich is as bad as to lean. I used to be able to smell the exhaust and tell. But if it soots up the muffler, that is a good indicator that it is to lean.

[Matt G.]

Let it warm up a bit, then idle it down. Slam the throttle to wide open. If it stumbles and/or you get black, sooty smoke, it's too rich. If it just stumbles and backfires with no smoke, it's probably a bit too lean.

[ol'George]

I’m sure everybody has their preferred way of setting the main jet.
I find what works well for me all these years, is to warm up the engine, with the air cleaner installed. Then open the throttle full open @ the governed rpm, usually somewhere around 3600 RPM and adjust the main jet screw in to lean it, till you hear the engine just start to slow down.
Then back it out about ½-3/4 turn richer. Doing this a couple times gets it just right.
It should rev up without hesitation from an idle. A ¼ turn rich is better than lean because it runs cooler and less chance of burning an exhaust valve on heavy loads.
Also I like to pull the spark plug after a heavy load like mowing and “read it’
It should look like nestles quick , a light brown,--- if whitish it is too lean and if darker brown or leaning to blackish it is too rich.
But with today’s unleaded gas it is harder to read than when we had good old tetraethyl lead in the gas.
It might be noted that more modern engines have un adjustable or fixed main jet that you can not adjust