hmm,
sounds like its"i.u.d."is a little clogged lmao

 

I would definitely pull the carb and take a closer look at it inside. Clean it up with some carb spray and see what happens.

Does it start chugging when your actually moving large quantities of snow? Mine did this for years till I blocked off a couple of the vents in the hood that restrict some of the air intake because powdery snow would enter my carb and freeze in the throat causing the same symptoms your having.

Just a thought.

 

I had a briggs do that...it had just enough rust and crap in the bottom of the tank to where the fuel pickup tube would slowly get blocked off by the particles....then after it sat a bit, the particles would fall off the pickup and the engine would run fine....until the cycle started all over again...dump the gas and rinse the tank....or I could be entirely off track....

 

Thanks for the input guys. Unfortunately the tank is plastic and the air cleaner is covered by a shield so it doesn't get much blow from the snow. I will pull the ancient carb and get a diaphragm kit for rebuild. I hope they stil lmake the kits....anyone ever changed a carb to a newer style?

 

Sounds like you may have the 'pulsa-jet' carb which need soft, flexible pump diaphrams to pull fuel properly. A very easy carb to service, and run well when tuned properly. How bout some pics of the set up?.

 

Well its a float carb Tecumseh once I got the entire engine shroud off...looked like a old briggs to me..what do I know:duh: ..I kinda liked it...reminded me of a D lawn boy carb a little. So I rebuilt it adjusted float, gave it a few shocks with my electro-parts cleaner :00000033: , new seals and gaskets-wired and blew out all passages. Put it on, did the fuel filter and fuel cut off valve, clean plug added a little Seafoam to the gas, oil change and it fired right up. Ran clean for 15 seconds, cleaned the bowl and died.

Then I went to work adjusting the high speed needle. Seems the turn and a half out wasn't enough fuel for the Indian. It wanted more- so I ended up getting a clean low and high speed RPM at almost 2.5 turns out. Now it runs better than ever.

Went to work on my LONG driveway blew that out and started up towards the walkway and I engaged the impeller ..BANG goes the chain...:duh:

Now I am parts searching for an impeller chain. It was old, I lubed them all
(5 chains) but this one was stretched and tired and I was hoping it was just my cricitcal eye and it would hold...no such thing. Going to go ahead and get a new drive chain for the tranny as well. That one looks about the same.

pics coming.....!

 

Sounds good! I just went over an old Ariens for a buddy that was his grandma's. Went through the carb, and rebuilt the auger gearbox, new drive belts, and tire chains. He put a few hundred $$ into it, but I've never seen such a sweet running and easy starting machine of that vintage! He's quite pleased with it. The older stuff if worth rebuilding/fixing and putting some $ into to make it function as designed IMO. The quality of yesteryear will never be matched again.....:sad_02:

 

I agree she's a keeper. A tank...but a keeper.

 

Well we had a snow storm last night and the Craftsman wouldn't start...it ran fine a couple weeks ago and it seems that the Tecumseh carb is flooding. Despite my rebuild I sense something off with the bowl sealing and it'll run for about 2-3 seconds sputter and die-yet the bowl is full of fuel. I am 1.5-2.5 turns out on the main jet I am stumped.

I was thinking of getting a new bowl-there's a dent in it an it may not be sealing properly even though I replaced the gaskets etc.

Any thoughts.....too much snow not to have this going.

 

Yeah, you guys are getting some weather out there. We just broke a record for the longest continuous 5" snow cover--and the current depth as of a few days ago was 10"! That record got smashed flat! Glad I'm getting out of here for a while.

I am not a great carburetor man, always been afraid of 'em, but I'm jumping in and trying to learn something new here in the last few months. Here is my opinion, and it's worth about the same as the piece of paper it's written on.

I really don't think a bowl seal would keep the engine from running properly. You might get gas peeing everywhere, but I think it would still run. If it seems like you're flooding out, I would look at the needle valve and its seat. I'm guessing you replaced these as part of your rebuild. Now, you could be on to something with that dented bowl, if it's interfering with the travel of the float, causing it to stick.

The thing that's just a little bit frustrating about carb work, or really, any internal engine work, is that you're dealing with something that's really dirty on the outside, but you must be fastidious about keeping the thing clean on the inside, or it won't work right. I don't know how many times I've had carbs pee gas on my mower deck, and upon dis-assembly, I can't see anything wrong. So I blast it with carb cleaner and compressed air, and mysteriously, it's fine when put back together.

So in my unprofessional opinion, you've got a little piece of dirt or something that's preventing the needle from seating properly, making your snowstorm much worse than it needs to be.

 

Ok..redux round 2. I took the carb off again and noted that the "crease" in the bowl of the tecumseh carb looked a bit.....shall we say...off. Sure enough. I check the float position and it seems that the Previous owner realized it had a sticky float-and decided to unstick it with something used for force...like a wrench or big screw driver.

I switched carb bowls....realigned everything, cleaned needle and seat, wire brushed and main jet again...and lo.....it runs like new 3000rpms steady-starts on the first pull no chugging, coughing or stallling.

Word of advice on previously owned machines.....never under estimate the POWER of "cheap" ...do it yourself engineering...! :banghead3

 

glad you were able to locate the problem. There is really no match for the quality built into the older machines. Many of them were single stage blowers but I would put the older machines up against many of these new ones that they could throw snow just as far.

 

Agreed..far from pretty. Very heavy...but it was free and compression was 130psi...!! I replaced a few chains, lubed it up, replaced carb and greased some fittings and it runs great now !!

Here is a picture of it on the right next to the craftsman compressor. They are both craftsman and have been together for 30+ years !!:thThumbsU

 

OOOO i shouldnt have looked at this pic, its almost identical to my craftsman that nibbled at my finger last saturday. But hope you get it running good, they are heck of machines but mine took a bit too much of a part of me

 

Yikes....:Stop: Duly noted. I'll watch my appendages for sure.

 

Sorry! but it is a heck of a machine with the dual auger chains really make it a good machine

 

AND considering it 's now got all NEW chains....it should be around for awhile.

 

That's a nice blower........looks like the little brother to mine....same era, 22"craftsman 2 stage......