eBay Carbs for small engines?

A friend gave me an old Troy Bilt snowblower with a 5hp Tecumseh engine.

I drained the bowl, sprayed the carb with cleaner, cleaned the plastic gas tank and changed the fuel lines.I can get it to fire on starting fluid, so I know it's got compression and spark, but it won't stay running.

I figured that the carb needs to be rebuilt. I went on eBay to find a carb rebuild kit and they run $8.99, but I discovered that I can get a brand new carb for $13.99 shipped. I'm sure they're from China or someplace worse, but rebuilding doesn't make sense at this point.

Has anybody tried one of these? I know it's worth a shot, but I don't want to waste a week hoping that it will work, only to have my hopes dashed when it gets here.

The plan is to give it to my brother in law once it's running. He has no money and no mechanical aptitude, but he lives with my sister in law and I feel bad for him.

Like this carb

I bought one for a Honda, worked fine once I figured out the fuel shutoff worked backwards from the old one.

The TwinStar guys have had ok luck with them, because the CM200T runs the same carb as metric ton of other Hondas. I had one on a spare engine that I was going to canibalize for parts. The main jet was longer. Different enough that I reused the original. You could just strip the new one for parts if it isn't 100% kosher.

I've used them on briggs riding mower for a few years now. Been working fine

I recently rebuilt one of those carbs (assuming similar) on my 42yr old snowblower w/ an 8HP Tecumseh. I opted for rebuild because I have a power equipent supply house near me. I think I spent $15 for the rebuild kit. These carbs are notorious for clogging up the jets and pin-holes inside them from sitting w/ stale gas. Mine was a bit gummed up and the float bowl seal was deteriorated and leaking. After the re-build I managed to use it semi-successfully during the snow storm we got hit with last week, but it did keep dieing out on me under load (in gear into 10" of snow). I could've prob shoveled everything considering the amount of time I had spent re-starting and making adjustments but my back felt alot better the next morning by avoiding the shovel. I have to adjust the idle and air/fuel settings on it to get it 'just right'.

I would assume even w/ the rebuilt units you will have to play around and make adjustments once fitted but there's plenty of tutorials online to show you the basics. Good luck either way.

BrokenYugo wrote: I bought one for a Honda, worked fine once I figured out the fuel shutoff worked backwards from the old one.

The Honda ones for my mower are $100.

My old tiller originally had the old B&S Pulsa-Jet carb/fuel tank combo. I rescued it from a field by my Aunt & Uncle's place, where it had been left derelict for many years. Its carburetor, and cylinder (stopped on the intake stroke) had an ant colony in it when I rescued it. The tank was varnish and rust, and the carb was too far gone. Dingle berry hone cleaned up the cylinder pretty well.

I never liked those Pulsa-Jet carbs anyway, I put a Surplus Center fuel tank, and a knock-of Chinese Mikuni from eBay on it. Has worked great for a few years now.

Fresh paint, shortly after getting it running again. https://www.youtube.com/embed/oXl0ilZlpEU

I just replaced the needle and seat/float bowl gasket in mine. If you have fuel in the float bowl, check the jets and internal passages. As carbs go, this are very basic and easy to rebuild/clean/adjust.

I didn't even buy the rebuild kit for my Briggs. I just took it all apart, soaked/brushed stuff in mineral spirits, replaced the corroded fuel line, and fired it back up. I think it was mostly the fuel line that was bad. All the gaskets still looked fine.

I replaced the carb on my 40 year old Ariens running an 8hp Tecumseh with something similar from Amazon. Some of the reviews mentioned the float bowl gasket would leak and mine does, I have a fuel cutoff and just turn it off once I'm almost done and it runs the fuel down a bit so it is not a problem. I also had to transfer the old choke over to the new carb as the arms were different but that wasn't a problem. With the new carb and a new fuel filter the blower starts with one pull and there is no surging or other running problems once I had the tune and governer set (both are very simple to do).

Adam

adam525i wrote: I replaced the carb on my 40 year old Ariens running an 8hp Tecumseh with something similar from Amazon. Some of the reviews mentioned the float bowl gasket would leak and mine does, I have a fuel cutoff and just turn it off once I'm almost done and it runs the fuel down a bit so it is not a problem. I also had to transfer the old choke over to the new carb as the arms were different but that wasn't a problem. With the new carb and a new fuel filter the blower starts with one pull and there is no surging or other running problems once I had the tune and governer set (both are very simple to do). Adam

Deja-Vu, just did the same thing with an even older Airens and a 6hp Tecumseh. Same deal that I had to swap over my old choke arm. But otherwise it's a huge improvement once I got the mixture dialed in.

For $15 shipped I really can't see much difference from the original factory carb in quality. Considering a rebuild kit would be around $10, plus carb cleaner, and at least two hours work .... the $15 was very well spent.

I bought one for my Honda snowblower and combined parts of it with the corroded old OEM carb, ending up with a perfectly nice carburetor that works great.

It was branded "Kaihan" with a knock-off Keihin logo cast in. Which got a pretty hearty chuckle out of me.

I went all out and sprung for this one at $16.59 because it comes with a new primer assembly, and I had an Amazon gift card.

My Tecumseh engine is an HS50.

What can be in a rebuild kit? Bowl gasket and needle and seat ?

On most there are two jets. Main and low speed. remove both, clean with carb cleaner, then clean the passages with carb cleaner, blow with compressed air. Make sure the float is free of gas.

Older models, like mine have adjustable jets. one an a half turns on the main, one turn on the low speed.

QED

No need for a rebuild kit. There aren't really any parts that it needs. The bowl is sealed with an O-ring, and that's really the only part. Unless you have a sunken float (but then you'd have too much fuel) you don't really need parts.

THey are so dirt simple. Pull the bowl. Clean it out. Run a fine copper wire up through the jet (chances are you'll get white crusty stuff out) and spray brake cleaner through the jet. Re assemble, starts on the first pull.

In all the small engines I repaired (probably nearly 1000), I probably used 20 bowl gaskets. I could do one of those in 5 minutes on the engine and have it running immediately.

My carb has never been off the engine. I do like Curtis 73 said. Often just using spray carburetor cleaner and the straw works well.

This machine sat unused for a few years, with fuel in it, and was resistant to the carb cleaner.

Back in the day when we rebuilt/cleaned automobile carburetors we used a designated soak. Cleaned out everything that wasn't supposed to be there. Just don't get it on your hands.

iceracer wrote: Back in the day when we rebuilt/cleaned automobile carburetors we used a designated soak. Cleaned out everything that wasn't supposed to be there. Just don't get it on your hands.

OR IN YOUR EYES !!!

That stuff was brutal but really cleaned carbs.

I'm with Curtis on this one. Now and then I have to pull the carb of my mower, clean out the gunk with carb cleaner, then just put it back together again. I'd try that before spending money.

The carb on the Briggs in my mower is a cheap import from eBay. I blew the original apart, soaked it in carb dip, ran it through the ultrasonic cleaner, blew through every orifice and jet and it still was hard starting and ran poorly. The $10 eBay carb fixed everything.

I found a Mowett Mustang riding mower (circa 60s-70s) in the woods. It was part of the eco system w/brush growing around and through it. Brought it home, no spark/cleaned/adjusted ignition and disassembled/cleaned carb. Added gas and was surprised when it started on 2nd pull.

I bought my kids a go kart with a 6 horse Tecumseh. The original carb had some nasty smelling gas in it, I bought a new carb and that wouldn't run. I ended up combining the two, and it runs great. In hind sight, I could have just cleaned the old one and saved about 15 dollars.

Woody wrote: This machine sat unused for a few years, with fuel in it, and was resistant to the carb cleaner.

the ethanol pits them like crazy. I've bought amazon carbs for atv's and never had a problem

Update:

The eBay carb has arrived. Outside appearance is about 90% similar to the original, but all the important stuff seems to be in the right place.

The kit included the carb, a fuel filter, a gasket, a new primer bulb and a new hose to go from the primer bulb to the carb. The only issue was that the new hose was too big for the fitting on the bulb that came with it (WTF China?) but a trip to Car Quest and 80 cents later, I was in business. I also needed to transfer the old choke bracket to the new carb.

There was no room to use the fuel filter. The machine never had one, but with a plastic tank, it should be okay.

It started on the third pull, and I now have a running snowblower for less than 20 bucks.