buying oem carburetor instead of aftermarket

[kjm3232]

hi, we bought a kawasaki 1996 bayou 300 4x4 from my wife's cousin last year. it wasnt ran or used for several years. we brought it to the kawasaki dealer and had the carburetor overhauled in may and the machine looked at to see if any other issues. it ran fine up until several weeks ago, when i left the fuel petcock on the next day my wife noticed fuel out of the drain hose. researched the problem and found out that possible the needle valve was sticking, so, i have the carburetor out and wife is bringing it down tomorrow to the dealer to rebuild and will pick it up saturday. i asked the dealer how much for a new oem carburetor and he said $483 so when this happens again i can swap out the carb and have the other one rebuilt at my time. i asked him why i shouldn't buy a carburetor off of amazon for less than a$100 that says it's a exact fit. he said they are "junk" and will cause more problems down the road. my ? is he right or can i buy a new one off of amazon at a lot less cost and have it do the same job and performance. any advice is appreciated. thanks in advance

 

[Snobdds]

hi, we bought a kawasaki 1996 bayou 300 4x4 from my wife's cousin last year. it wasnt ran or used for several years. we brought it to the kawasaki dealer and had the carburetor overhauled in may and the machine looked at to see if any other issues. it ran fine up until several weeks ago, when i left the fuel petcock on the next day my wife noticed fuel out of the drain hose. researched the problem and found out that possible the needle valve was sticking, so, i have the carburetor out and wife is bringing it down tomorrow to the dealer to rebuild and will pick it up saturday. i asked the dealer how much for a new oem carburetor and he said $483 so when this happens again i can swap out the carb and have the other one rebuilt at my time. i asked him why i shouldn't buy a carburetor off of amazon for less than a$100 that says it's a exact fit. he said they are "junk" and will cause more problems down the road. my ? is he right or can i buy a new one off of amazon at a lot less cost and have it do the same job and performance. any advice is appreciated. thanks in advance

I went through this recently. I have an old Briggs generator that needed a new carb. Got one through amazon. Well the studs on the new carb were the wrong pitch, the gasket between the float and the bowel leaked and I could not get it to run AT ALL. I learned that sometimes, it's too expensive to be cheap. I went and got a B&S rebuild kit and redid the thing. It started on the first pull and has been fine since.

Live and Learn...

 

[Hill Billy Bob]

$483 for a carburetor ???? You'd have to be crazy to pay that. Check this link...

Kawasaki KLF3 Bayou 3 Carburetor/Carb 1996-24 NEW | eBay

I would suggest that you start using ethanol free gas....you can add a little bit of Marvel Mystery Oil, or some other brand, to keep things clean, and your carb problems are over.

This is what I do with my carburetored equipment. The Chinese scooter is 6 years old with 13,400 miles on it. The Cub Cadet mower is coming up on 13 years old, and has 1,340 hours of run time. Both sit idle 5 to 6 months a year.....no carb problems with either.

 

[nybirdman]

For $40 I would try the aftermarket carb.I have an old Kawasaki also and have rebuilt the carb;the needle can be replaced but the seat is pressed in and not replaceable.Good advice on running non-ethanol gas.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I just recently purchased a no name carb for my kids ATV for $37 from Amazon, it was an exact fit, bolted on like a champ, and the engine starts and runs like new. It even had an automatic 12V choke that I dropped a wire to and that works perfectly. It's been about 6 months now and the carb works great. I fought with having the original carb ultrasonically cleaned and then rebuilt and it did not work. Tried a second time doing the ultrasonic cleaner first and then torn down and cleaned... still nothing. I was paying money to try to save that old carb, and spent less on Amazon to buy the new one. I would buy the china copy again.

 

[JRobyn]

I've bought and successfully used several "Chinese carb copies". Just look carefully at the linkages before you buy to verify they're the same. I'll bet that the OEM one is made in China too.

 

[CAVEMANN]

I have used Amazon carbs on 2 of my ATV's and my EARTHQUAKE auger, had to do a little tinkering on the carb for my Yamaha, but it runs great now. In fact one of hem had a manufacturer name that had been milled off, it was in the same spot as the original, so I'm guessing that they removed the "branding".

 

[prichard]

I went looking for a rebuilt kit for a Honda gx200 and for hardly any more I saw the clone carbs and got on. Exact fit, fired on first pull. I can probably replace it 5 times fur the cost of a Honda branded one.

 

[timswi]

I had the same needle valve issue with a Yamaha Big Bear. The machine wasn't run much before I bought it and the needle valve would stuck causing the fuel leak you described.

I cleaned the gas tank out which removed the misc stuff that can cause valve sticking. I also pulled the fuel line at the carb and blew gumout in and that usually cleared the valve.

I wanted to put a fuel filter on it but there was no space for one.

 

[dfkrug]

i asked him why i shouldn't buy a carburetor off of amazon for less than a$100 that says it's a exact fit. he said they are "junk" and will cause more problems down the road. my ? is he right or can i buy a new one off of amazon at a lot less cost and have it do the same job and performance.

Those ATV OEM carbs are KeiHin or Mikuni, and they are way way better than the Chinese replacements. They
pretty much all cost at least $400 new, and all name-brand quads use them, even Kymco.

Conversely, the small engine carb replacements for Honda, B & S, chainsaws, and even < 200cc quads are
generally fine. I have bought many.

For large quads I have bought many Chinese carbs when the original is ruined by corrosion, and sometimes it takes
a LOT of work to get them running right. I am very leery of buying used OEM carbs on eBay as they may
be corroded inside, and they can cost as much as $200 as-is.

I also have a Bayou 300, an '86, which I have completely refurbed. I am using a Chinese carb, which I
bought years ago for $80 new. They are under $40 now. To get it to work right, I had to richen up the
mid and main jets, plus modify the enrichener cable connection. A lot of work, and not a project
for everyone.