Gotta love the Chinese for a <$10 replacement carburetor

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Apr 27, 2010
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Suburban Washington DC
I have a 10+ year old 3500 watt Pep Boys Chinese generator that I use once every few months. Lately it's been harder and harder to start and keep running, to the point it only runs on starting fluid. I removed the carb and threw it in the ultrasonic cleaner with no change. Then I saw this on Ebay, https://www.ebay.com/itm/Carburetor...DX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Looked identical. Got it. Looks and feels like a quality piece. Installed it. Thing runs like new again. Lot of people are down on Chinese parts, but if this lasts a year or two, I got my monies worth.
 
Yep, and Amazon.com and Amazon.ca ( for Canadians) are also a good source.
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They are very competitively priced, and it makes it really easy to theow a carb at it to rule out a problem, however i have had my fair share of quality issues with them. One had the bowl full of metal grit, and another had the idle screw slammed so hard into the body it broke trying the back it out. However, the guarantee covered it.
 
I've had really good luck with the Chinese carbs. Although the one on my Echo blower is possibly getting a little glitchy after a year. For the $7 that I paid, I really can't complain.

I've purchased a number of them and they always run well.
 
I have an older( like 25+years) 18hp generator that the carb is bad about gumming up. I clean it thoroughly and it will still have the needle seat stick and be hard to start, or it will stick open and flood the engine oil. I wonder if a replacement carb would act the same.

I do keep my fuel with stabil and tcw 3. Even if i keep it dry the needle sticks closed.

I may try a replacement.
 
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The worst luck I have had are for the 3 or 3.5 HP Tecumseh carbs (Troy-Bilt Bronco roto-tiller)

They run just OK, but not great. Always fiddling with the mixture screw.
 
I bought a carb for my old snowblower of ebay for $12.35. That included shipping from china. Works like a charm and looks exactly like the original one it replaced. Don't know how they can do it with free shipping from china.,,,
 
Yep, put one on a Briggs V-twin and the wife's Honda 125 dirt bike. Ran fine. The one for the Briggs had an issue, leaking at the inlet after a year or so. Pulled it out with some wiggling-it is pressed in and the machining was poor on the carb body. JB weld fixed it for a year so far!
 
Really don't have much choice these days. I'm just a home owner but I have several acres to take care of so I have Stihl equipment. I've had a good bit of it for a few years now and never used non-ethanol fuel , but at the beginning of last season my 600 backpack blower started acting up. Although the original carb has "Stihl" stamped on it, it is a zuma(maybe didn't get that name correct) China carb. So, I bought a new one on amazon for something like 13 bones, stihl dealer wanted 50. The china carb fit fine but the blower it was leaning out up top and wasn't as powerful...so I bought the carb adjusting tool and richened it up top, then it ran great. End of this year it started acting up again, I didn't use non-ethanol in the blower because it drinks gas. Next year I'm gonna get 5 gallons of non-ethanol from the marina and start using it in everything that has those tiny carbs.
 
I'm probably jinxing myself, the carb on my '77 Stihl 041 FarmBoss is original. I don't think I've had to mess with it in 20 yrs of occasional use.. Zama is/was a Japanese clone of a Walbro carb. Clones of the Zama clones are what is being sold for
 
Originally Posted by BigCahuna
I bought a carb for my old snowblower of ebay for $12.35. That included shipping from china. Works like a charm and looks exactly like the original one it replaced. Don't know how they can do it with free shipping from china.,,,


Shipping from China to the US is dirt cheap. There's some postal discount for developing countries and China is one of them. It's so much cheaper than just sending mail from one zip code to another in the US. Basically puts out anyone in the US out of business selling the same part so you can only get it that cheap if you wait a few weeks for shipping from China. Enjoy it while it lasts, changes coming July 2020.

https://time.com/5428295/1-ebay-yoga-pants-china-postal-treaty/

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/ind...awal-universal-postal-union#.XhDCZ0dKiUk

https://redstagfulfillment.com/universal-postal-union-treaty/
 
To me it's more about gambling to save 15 minutes.

I can usually get a rebuilt kit for less than the cost of the replacement carb, then spend the time to do that to keep the higher quality major brand carb, OR I can gamble that the specimen of generic carb I receive, doesn't have any defects which make it perform worse or are show stoppers.

If you get a defective one, sure you can maybe get it replaced with extra hassle and time spent, but the process may take longer than that initial 2 days shipping with amazon prime, when usually you find out your carb is bad because you went to use the equipment and may have needed it running sooner rather than later.

That can work, say you are a contractor and you have a couple extra carbs on the truck so if there is an issue you can swap the carb in a couple minutes, but if you have enough of the same equipment then after the first carb swap you can use rebuild kits to rebuild the original carbs in the downtime and have those as spares. If you are a home gamer, you know you're going to need a carb rebuild eventually, so you can just buy the rebuild kit ahead of time so you have it when you need it.
 
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Originally Posted by Dave9
To me it's more about gambling to save 15 minutes.

I can usually get a rebuilt kit for less than the cost of the replacement carb, then spend the time to do that to keep the higher quality major brand carb, OR I can gamble that the specimen of generic carb I receive, doesn't have any defects which make it perform worse or are show stoppers.

If you get a defective one, sure you can maybe get it replaced with extra hassle and time spent, but the process may take longer than that initial 2 days shipping with amazon prime, when usually you find out your carb is bad because you went to use the equipment and may have needed it running sooner rather than later.

That can work, say you are a contractor and you have a couple extra carbs on the truck so if there is an issue you can swap the carb in a couple minutes, but if you have enough of the same equipment then after the first carb swap you can use rebuild kits to rebuild the original carbs in the downtime and have those as spares. If you are a home gamer, you know you're going to need a carb rebuild eventually, so you can just buy the rebuild kit ahead of time so you have it when you need it.
If you don't like fixing carbs, then the Chinese ones are worth it in labour alone. As to the old one being better quality, sure but a brand new carb probably won't have possible leaky floats, or a possible cracked/porous casting that will be hard to detect like an old carb. Rebuild kits aren't much cheaper when you factor in shipping.
 
I've had some duds, but a few of those were shipping damage.

I always hang on to the OEM carbs just in case I want to rebuild them.
 
Originally Posted by andyd
I only buy Chinese parts that are already stateside.
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Same here! It's worth a couple of extra $ to buy the Chinese OPE carbs from a vendor that stocks them in the US. I've only had one Chinese replacement carb that wasn't running correctly and I called the vendor and got a replacement within a few days, which worked great. I don't think a direct Chinese shipped carb will be replaced if it doesn't work right out of the box, you're on your own
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Whimsey
 
Originally Posted by Whimsey
I don't think a direct Chinese shipped carb will be replaced if it doesn't work right out of the box, you're on your own
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Whimsey


It will when bought on Ebay.
 
I have bought many Chinese trimmer carbs and almost all have not worked. what I do is remove the gaskets and diaphrams and re use them when rebuilding other carbs. have had good luck with the lawnmower carbs . all have worked
 
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