Is this indications of a bad float or needle?

[deeter16317]

FIL gave us an older Jacobson hydrostatic rider...14HP Kohler. I'm going to guess its probably a 70-ish model?

He used it a couple years ago, and its sat for about three years (since I last got it running). About a year ago, it "leaked" gas and caused a stink in their garage, then obviously the gas dried up. He wants it gone, and we just bought a house with about 2.5 acres of grass.

Obviously the battery is toast, as is the solenoid or the switch (or both). I got it to turn over by jumpering across the starter. I did pull the bowl off to find "gas"...it was more varnish than gas, but it was at least still wet. It has a brass float. I dumped that and put fresh gas in the tank. After about 5 minutes, gas started dripping from the carb, out the air horn (for lack of a better term). It appears as though the carb is filling up with gas, then dripping out the carb into the air cleaner.

I did not get it to fire, although I didn't really work at it very long. Any ideas on the carb leak? Needle went bad? Float bad?

I'm not hurting for a lawn mower, this one will just make life a little easier for the wife to mow...still have my Commercial 10A to chase around until we get this rider fixed.

 

[AuthorEditor]

Sounds like the float is sticking or is not floating. Shake the float to see if it has fuel inside. My bet is on sticking seeing that the carb is all gummed up with varnish. You'll have to clean it anyway, so you might as well just take it apart and start soaking in carb cleaner.

 

[eljefino]

My bet is on the float, but that's just a wild guess. Sometimes when their leaks are small enough, and especially if you rig a shutoff and run it out of gas when done, they seem to almost work right and trick you into thinking they're fixed. They slowly load up with use then trickle back out when parked.

Get thyself some nitrile gloves and hold the float up with your finger with the gas on, if it doesn't leak that's a pretty good sign the needle/seat is good and float bad.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Same thing happened to me on a pressure washer my FIL gave me permanently. Clean up that float and bowl really well and it should be fine after that.

 

[deeter16317]

Unfortunately, the way the carb is positioned I will need to pull the carb off to completely remove the bowl. If I do that, it might be worthwhile to rebuild/regasket?\

Don't get me wrong, the bowl was full of "fluid", and what I can see of the float looks clean...it just smelled like varnish.

 

[bepperb]

One or the other. Obviously cleaning things is the cheapest way to start. If it's a lot of work to get it off, I would also rebuild/regasket it.

 

[OilNerd]

I recently ordered a carb rebuild kit for a friend's K301 off of eBay. With shipping, it was only $15.

Kohler had the service manual available for free download.

 

[dwendt44]

Inlet valve or the float.
Put a filter in the gas line before going to much farther.
I had a float once that had a leak; gas got inside and you could
hear/feel it sloshing around inside.

 

[deeter16317]

Well, carb turned out to be all gummed up...the bowl gaskets actually got gooey. The main needle/jet is plugged solid with varnish...everything else looked fine.

Any idea about getting that needle deal cleaned up? Its hollow and has REALLY fine holes.

 

[gd9704]

Overnite soak in carb cleaner, then a single strand from a wire brush?

 

[BigCahuna]

I've seen a single speck of dirt stuck under a float needle, cause a carb to flood over. Looks like taking it apart again and checking it out is in order.,

 

[meep]

x2 inline filter.... there will be mung and goo and cräp upstream...

 

[meep]

ha! fooled the censors!

 

[deeter16317]

Well, I purchased a carb kit from Stens. Bought several cans of carb cleaner (couldn't find the gallon paint can like I've seen before) including one can of Berryman's B-12. The jet wasn't as bad as I first thought, and after I soaked it a little bit; it came clean.

The only screw up on my part was I forgot to reset the float to the new needle valve...sometimes I wonder about myself.

I did install an inline filter since it never had one...now for the other issues.

 

[boraticus]

Was the float needle dimensionally different from the old one? If not, what's the worry? I've learned from experience that messing with the float bowl unnecessarily can lead to hours of frustration. If it was set correctly for the old float needle and the replacement is the same, I'd say leave it as is.

 

[deeter16317]

Different style needle...same outcome. As soon as the fuel is turn on, it runs out the air cleaner.

At least now I can look to see if the float is bad since I now have clean fuel in the bowl.