[Cheeva316]

I have a craftsman rider 17hp and was told I would better better of replacing my Nikki carb with a walbro, i been searching online but cant find a cross reference tool for the actual carb just the kits.

My engine stamp is: 31c707-0603-b1

My current carb I believe is #794572

My engine code after the above stamped numbers are :081204ZE

Please if anyone can help would be deeply appreciated.
I didnt want to call a local shop as they would prob figure out im just trying to use them to get the info an not use them an chance getting the wrong info.

Thanks


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[Cheeva316]

Help!


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[Cheeva316]

Desperate someone please help!


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[38racing]

go to briggsandstratton.com . Get IPL for that model. It will give walbro carb number. Normally the walbro is indicated as a replacement for the nikki. They will not likely show a nikki number , just it's service parts.

update: well that's a switch. Looked it up and they don't give the walbro number but give the nikki ones. Normally they say the service replacement for Nikki is the walbro.???

 

[Cheeva316]

I called a local repair shop an he says their isnt a replacement walbro carb for my engine, only Nikki


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[tomw0]

Nikki is a decent product, but it seems parts are expensive. Similar Walbro parts are about 1/4 the Nikki. IOW, a $10 Walbro kit will be $40-50 for a Nikki. Other than that....
If you can find a Walbro that will fit, and the governor linkage will match up, then I see no reason for not using it. Maybe walk through a local graveyard and look for a similar engine and then check its carb. Might have to be friends with the proprietor, or they might give you a lead on a cross match.
tom

 

[38racing]

Nikki is a decent product, but it seems parts are expensive. Similar Walbro parts are about 1/4 the Nikki. IOW, a $10 Walbro kit will be $40-50 for a Nikki. Other than that....
If you can find a Walbro that will fit, and the governor linkage will match up, then I see no reason for not using it. Maybe walk through a local graveyard and look for a similar engine and then check its carb. Might have to be friends with the proprietor, or they might give you a lead on a cross match.
tom

Get the lmt number from the walbro and look for one.try ebay for it.

 

[tomw0]

38 said:Get the lmt number from the walbro and look for one.try ebay for it.

I don't understand. I have a Nikki, he has a Nikki, and his parts list does not specify a walbro replacement. Where to look? What is 'lmt'?
I have a Walbro on a Kohler 14, a Nikki on a Kohler 15. I have not looked at the linkage, but it seems the Nikki has two throttle plates. The one set by the hand throttle linkage, and one a bit closer to the engine that is operated by the governor link. I did not look closely, as I just wanted the dang thing to run. It had sat for X years, complete with mouse nest under the shroud. Carb was gunked. I thought I saw an O-ring seat fly out when I blew air through the passages, looked for the seat, empty spot. Spent 4 hours cleaning the garage and found nada. Came to find there was no rubber seat, viton(?) was on the tip of the needle. The blowup picture of carb in every parts list showed separate needle AND seat. Totally unavailable in every parts list I could find. E.g, item 5&6 would be skipped in the parts list when they were the needle & seat in the pic. So I figured there was a seat missing, and had to find a kit.
Any way, I'd look for a similar engine in a yard, complete with Walbro, or just bite the bullet and buy a kit for the Nikki. I have noticed that the Nikki, cutting 42", uses a LOT less fuel than the Kohler 14 on a 33" snapper. But, it is persnickety about there being any water in the fuel, and causes the engine to have intermittent misses. The Walbro on the Kohler will happily eat fuel the Nikki does not like. I even tried to dilute the older fuel to no avail, and finally got tired of emptying the under-seat tank to put only fresh fuel in. Learned my lesson. I figure the Federal standards pushed for the more sophisticated {Read: expensive} Nikki to be specified in the 5 year newer model, so it has smaller, more precise metering that stumbles when water content {a guess} is a bit higher than normal. The tank had a lot of water in it when I got it home, and the fuel I put in had been in the gas can for a couple months. Sealed tight, but older. The fuel cutoff solenoid was gummed {replacement ~$80 !!!} and I had to remove & clean it several times before it ran well.
In retrospect, maybe I should have considered looking to see if there was a Walbro replacement specified. Might have been less expensive. I sure got good at removing the cutoff and dropping the float bowl. Next thing to go was the fuel pump. No kit available, just new replacement. Cost more than ANY auto fuel pump I've ever purchased except electric.
tom

 

[lawndon2]

is there a replacement carb from the nikki to any brand that fits

 

[rhenning]

No. Roger

 

[TobyU]

You can get a whole aftermarket carb on ebay for less than 40.

Normally you do not need a new one.

Just a good manual cleaning and often replace needle and seat (walbro) and needle amd gasket and/or o-ring (nikki)

You can go to parts store and look at several nikki needle valve and match yours up. It is usually the gray plastic one with viton tip and spring loaded bottom plunger.

Just cleaned on out on a generator last week.

You can put about any carb from any of the OHV singles 15-20.5 and they will work.

 

[TobyU]

Your engine code is VERY common. The parts list IPL comes right up if you google
" 31c707-0603-b1 parts"
They all show both carbs and the nikki needle is 105A.

The whole carb is on ebay for $16-$24 some with lots of extras.

They are also selling genuine walbro for over $125. Have to be NUTS to pay that.

While I ALWAYS keep original an clean out if possible...I have had ZERO aftermarket carb problems. Put them on and they start right up and run perfectly.

Nikki are actually easier to fix a leaky needle and seat as you do not have to pull and seat and drive in a new one. People don't LIKE nikkis because they are more complicated and have the large plastic body assembly inside the bowl.
I like Walbros better too, but no reason to have one over the other.
I have often had to pull and drive new seat on walbros and never even had to replace the plastic assembly in a nikki. Just a couple of needle valves.

 

[TobyU]

38 said:Get the lmt number from the walbro and look for one.try ebay for it.

I don't understand. I have a Nikki, he has a Nikki, and his parts list does not specify a walbro replacement. Where to look? What is 'lmt'?
I have a Walbro on a Kohler 14, a Nikki on a Kohler 15. I have not looked at the linkage, but it seems the Nikki has two throttle plates. The one set by the hand throttle linkage, and one a bit closer to the engine that is operated by the governor link. I did not look closely, as I just wanted the dang thing to run. It had sat for X years, complete with mouse nest under the shroud. Carb was gunked. I thought I saw an O-ring seat fly out when I blew air through the passages, looked for the seat, empty spot. Spent 4 hours cleaning the garage and found nada. Came to find there was no rubber seat, viton(?) was on the tip of the needle. The blowup picture of carb in every parts list showed separate needle AND seat. Totally unavailable in every parts list I could find. E.g, item 5&6 would be skipped in the parts list when they were the needle & seat in the pic. So I figured there was a seat missing, and had to find a kit.
Any way, I'd look for a similar engine in a yard, complete with Walbro, or just bite the bullet and buy a kit for the Nikki. I have noticed that the Nikki, cutting 42", uses a LOT less fuel than the Kohler 14 on a 33" snapper. But, it is persnickety about there being any water in the fuel, and causes the engine to have intermittent misses. The Walbro on the Kohler will happily eat fuel the Nikki does not like. I even tried to dilute the older fuel to no avail, and finally got tired of emptying the under-seat tank to put only fresh fuel in. Learned my lesson. I figure the Federal standards pushed for the more sophisticated {Read: expensive} Nikki to be specified in the 5 year newer model, so it has smaller, more precise metering that stumbles when water content {a guess} is a bit higher than normal. The tank had a lot of water in it when I got it home, and the fuel I put in had been in the gas can for a couple months. Sealed tight, but older. The fuel cutoff solenoid was gummed {replacement ~$80 !!!} and I had to remove & clean it several times before it ran well.
In retrospect, maybe I should have considered looking to see if there was a Walbro replacement specified. Might have been less expensive. I sure got good at removing the cutoff and dropping the float bowl. Next thing to go was the fuel pump. No kit available, just new replacement. Cost more than ANY auto fuel pump I've ever purchased except electric.
tom

It seems you may be in the early stages of messing with an learning about nikki and walbro carbs.
They run the same if they are clean.
There are not two throttle plates. There is a throttle and a choke. The choke is the one you are referring to that is set by hand.
Both are the same in that respect.

The outer one is choke and the inner one closest to intake is throttle.

Quick way to tell apart is that in factory form..a nikki has the long skinny ABS (anti backfire solenoid) also called after-run solenoid or just carb solenoid...and the walbro has the short fat one.

Of course some older ones do not have the solenoid and it a moot point device that doesn't even do what it was put on there to do but OFTEN causes no start and running issues.

Nikkis have more parts going on inside but still easy.

The main jet is in the bottom on the center plastic tube and it has a small o-ring around it. THIS is what gets slogged up to where they will not run.
It SHOULD be installed from the op and dropped down into the tub and then centered and pressed all the way flush ans seated with the back end of a drill bit or the like. BUT MANY times they are stuck in at the bottom which will work as long as it does not fall off before you get the bowl on. SO put it in from top.

There are two gaskets for nikkis...at least two common ones I know of
One is "connected" on the one side and the other has a "gap".
That's how I describe them. The gap on has a extra separate o-ring that goes around the little protruding ring that goes up into the aluminum top.

The parts numbers are 695426 697978 for connected one and 698781 for separate one that need the extra small o-ring.
I just bought 10 of each last week.

Harder to get the top gasket in correct place that walbro and that's why many don't like them.

 

[jgayman]

I have a B&S 31R-series that had a Nikki carb and I was constantly having issues with it. It eventually started flooding my crankcase with fuel. I wasted money on a so-called "rebuild kit" in which half the parts didn't fit properly. I ended up replacing it with a Ruixing carb which bolted right on and the engine started right up and now runs like a swiss watch.

 

[TobyU]

I have a B&S 31R-series that had a Nikki carb and I was constantly having issues with it. It eventually started flooding my crankcase with fuel. I wasted money on a so-called "rebuild kit" in which half the parts didn't fit properly. I ended up replacing it with a Ruixing carb which bolted right on and the engine started right up and now runs like a swiss watch.

The easiest, cheapest fix for most people now is to just order an aftermarket carb off of eBay. Pretty much any of the carbs from the 15 to the 20. 5 horsepower single Briggs OHV are so close to the same they will pretty much all work. But when you're buying off eBay you just get one for your model engine and you'll be good to go.
It's common for Nikki's and for walbros to flood out the crankcase and get gas in the oil. It happens on all engines. The fuel is such low quality today that the rubber degrades or gets hard and or the seat gets pits in it. I don't see any more instances of leaking Nikki's than licking walbros. They all can leak.
One is not better than the other but people often have a harder time putting Nikki's back together properly. If you don't get the gasket on perfectly or it gets pantsed you will get a massive leaking flooding out fuel running out of the carburetor issue. On a walbro all you have is the top bowl gasket like any float Bowl.
I do personally prefer a walbro to a Nikki but it's not like Nikki's don't work just fine and can be maintained and repaired with a simple gasket in a needle valve. They don't have a seat that pits because it's plastic and all you have to do is clean out the hole with carb cleaner and a Q-tip and make sure there is no lint, debris,or fuzz in there. Then with a new needle with a nice fresh rubber tip on it it won't leak.

 

[TriumphMan]

I've seen new Nikki's and Walbro's on Amazon from $20 to more, but if yours has the fuel shut off solenoid, then they're of course more.

Find your Nikki carb # on side and use it as a base to find, then if you want a Walbro, there should be cross-over carbs that will also pop up that should work, along with carb rebuild kits.

I have a Nikki on my ONAN and compared to my newer B&S ELS engine, that Nikki is so simple and nice to work on. I was surprised Amazon has same carb I have on my P220 ONAN and only around $50 or so.

I've worked on small Walbro carbs before, but not from a mower engine, so I don't know how they compare to Nikki to work with.

EDIT:

Looked on Amazon and found a Walbro that fit a B&S. #LMT5-4993. Don't know if it will work, but there's also a few more Walbro's listed that go under different manufacturer's selling name(Chinese of course), so you might find one that could fit your needs.

 

[38racing]

I've seen new Nikki's and Walbro's on Amazon from $20 to more, but if yours has the fuel shut off solenoid, then they're of course more.

Find your Nikki carb # on side and use it as a base to find, then if you want a Walbro, there should be cross-over carbs that will also pop up that should work, along with carb rebuild kits.

I have a Nikki on my ONAN and compared to my newer B&S ELS engine, that Nikki is so simple and nice to work on. I was surprised Amazon has same carb I have on my P220 ONAN and only around $50 or so.

I've worked on small Walbro carbs before, but not from a mower engine, so I don't know how they compare to Nikki to work with.

EDIT:

Looked on Amazon and found a Walbro that fit a B&S. #LMT5-4993. Don't know if it will work, but there's also a few more Walbro's listed that go under different manufacturer's selling name(Chinese of course), so you might find one that could fit your needs.

The 4993 on that carb is not a part number. It's a casting number. The same on a bunch of carbs with different part numbers. Lmt5 might be correct walbro model number. Briggs will have a separate part number for it.