Lawn boy carburetor woes

[Burt]

I have retired and decided to mow my lawn at least part of the year, so I set about to get the old mid-80's lawn boy (model 4600) back into service. First I took the carburetor apart and cleaned it out. I replaced the needle and jet with new. Put it back together and won't start due to no gas in the carb. Seemed like the problem was the float would let gas in. So I bent the tab and tore the 30 year old cork from the metal tab. Glued it back together and repeated this process a few times until I got the mower working but it leaked gas while it ran and I could only keep it running by pinching the fuel cut off valve.

So I broke down and bought a new float, installed it and I am back to square one. No gas in carb. Float is installed right side up per the diagram below and flipping it upside down only makes it worse. I am gun shy about bending it and it seems that I shouldn't have to bend a new one. I compared all replacement parts to confirm that they seemed identical.

Any tips, words of encouragement etc.? It seems like there is a tight tolerance between needle closing and being fully open due to the fin that is in the bowl of the carb.


http://www.partstree.com/parts/lawn-boy/...25-8241-8241ae/

 

[crazyoildude]

May sound goofy but is there a gas shut off valve? Also are there any blockages in the gas line leading to the carb? Also look for very small passages that may be gummed up.

 

[Burt]

I unplugged the gas line from the carb and it does flow. I even loosened the screws on the carb bowl and the bowl fills up. I am thinking grinding out the fin inside the bowl.

 

[old1]

If the bowl fills up with the screws loose, I would look for a plugged bowl vent.

 

[Burt]

Post mortem. I measured the distance from the bottom of the upper half of the carb and the distance from the fin in the carb bowl to the top of bowl and found that there was at most 1/16th of an inch of movement. So I did bend the metal tab and it works now.

 

[ragtoplvr]

those vintage lawnboy floats and plastic carburetors are NOT compatible with ethanol in the fuel. The plastic will swell until the metal jets unscrew. Then you have to melt the plastic into the screwdriver slot. Ethanol will also ruin the primer bulb. Jacks small engine has them for now.

Rod