Woohoo free snowblower!

Joined
Sep 22, 2004
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1,983
Location
New Brunswick
Picked up a free older 26 inch Mastercraft 8hp snowblower earlier tonight. It was advertised as not running but as soon as I got it home I tried it and it will start and run for about 5 seconds then stall out. I'm guessing what happened since we had a mild winter this past season, the machine sat in someone's garage all year with E10 fuel and the carb just got gummed up. Would old-fashoined carb cleaner spray help? The machine will need some going over, the gear selector doesn't seem to want to pull back all the way and the muffler despite looking solid sounds like it's burned right out

If anyone is interested I can take pics of it tomorrow
 
Carb cleaning will help. I would try to drain out and old gas and put fresh gas in it with some fuel injector cleaner in it.

The gear selector probably needs some greasing. Check youtube for Donyboy's videos. He's got a lot of helpful information.
 
I have resurrected several older 4 stroke engines over the past decade (oldest was a B&S 3 hp from 1973) and all of them started after carb rebuild. Therefore, as JC1 said, start with carb cleaning and/or rebuild, or just buy an imported replacement carb if easier/cheaper. If it doesn't run well after the cleaning, then further work may be needed but at least this will be a starting point with little or no $ spent. Also, clean/reset the points if it has them.
 
A quick search suggests that most of those used Tecumseh HM80 engines.

I recently repaired a long-neglected chipper shredder with that engine, and have a bit of experience.

I wouldn't even bother checking out the carb. Just buy a new one from Amazon or FleaBay for $10-$12. It will take about 10 minutes to install.

A rebuild kit shipped from the U.S. is barely less expensive. If the float has a leak or the bowl is rusted, you'll end up paying far more.

I suggest getting a carb with a mixture adjustment screw on the bowl nut, rather than fixed mixture. I bought one with a fixed mixture and it's annoyingly rich.

I also bought a rebuild kit, planning to rebuild the original carb. It got a few rounds of ChemDip and lots of manual cleaning. But it had so many issues, including a snapped-off bowl nut and rusted in place float pin, that I had to concede defeat after a few hours.
 
Originally Posted by djb
I wouldn't even bother checking out the carb. Just buy a new one from Amazon or FleaBay for $10-$12. It will take about 10 minutes to install.



Great advice right here. I just did two of them last Fall (I have 4 snowblowers for my property), both with 8HPTecumseh engines, and it was plug and play.
 
I don't know what you know about snowblower carbs but they are different than mower carbs. Best to remove, disassemble, soak in Berryman Chem Dip 3-4 hours, then spray with carb cleaner, however you need to remove the side Welch plug. There are several small opening passageways that affect the smoothness and prevent surging. Buy a welding tip cleaner.

The Chinese carbs are good, they work well, but cheaply made, steel fuel bowls.
 
That Tecumseh snowking should have the plastic gas tank, so no worries of rust in there, but it still could have a tank full of crud.

Like the above, I'd put a mail-order replacement carb on it, but I always hang on to the OEM carb just in case.

If she's worth working on, check the friction disk and belts. Hopefully it's the single shaft tecumseh and not the dual counter rotating shafts.
 
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