Your last generator Maintenance Run

[grsthegreat]

If your in the bay area…..soon you may not have gas stations.

 

[grsthegreat]

Since switching to ethanol free gas on all my equipment except for vehicles, i used to say ive never had any more issues with small equipment.

i cant say that any longer. One of my 10 yo stihl string trimmers has bit the dust. Its something in the carb. Its a simple device which i tried removing and cleaning, but to no avail. It fires right up first pull, than slowly dies. The other trimmer fires first pull and works like a charm. I checked everything, was running great the day before on fresh fuel. Fuel filter spotless.

but ill set this carb aside and try one of the chinese knock off carbs when it arrives next week. Thry want $70 for oem replacement, carb only.

for $18 i got a knockoff that comes with fuel lines, fuel bulb, oil filter, air filter and prefilter. So creap its worth the try. I put one of these in my old mantis thinking it would get me thru the growing season until i could rebuild the old unit. That was 5-6 years ago and still working great.

i guess those technology thieves know a thing or 2 about reverse engineering…..

 

[ultrarunner]

Since switching to ethanol free gas on all my equipment except for vehicles, i used to say ive never had any more issues with small equipment.

i cant say that any longer. One of my 10 yo stihl string trimmers has bit the dust. Its something in the carb. Its a simple device which i tried removing and cleaning, but to no avail. It fires right up first pull, than slowly dies. The other trimmer fires first pull and works like a charm. I checked everything, was running great the day before on fresh fuel. Fuel filter spotless.

but ill set this carb aside and try one of the chinese knock off carbs when it arrives next week. Thry want $70 for oem replacement, carb only.

for $18 i got a knockoff that comes with fuel lines, fuel bulb, oil filter, air filter and prefilter. So creap its worth the try. I put one of these in my old mantis thinking it would get me thru the growing season until i could rebuild the old unit. That was 5-6 years ago and still working great.

i guess those technology thieves know a thing or 2 about reverse engineering…..

Brother bought several cheap carbs and so far did the trick.

He bought a like new Craftsman riding mower at a garage sale for $75.

Wouldn’t start so not selling.

Cheap carb and a battery and done.

He said the blades looked like new and he could rotate the crank and oil looked good.

 

[ultrarunner]

I think building a new gas station is no longer allowed here.

Many street corners I remember having stations are empty lots now.

I would not be surprised if only a third of the stations from growing up around here still exist…

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

I've put quite a few of the $18-30 carbs on the Stihl equipment over the past few years and they are cheap, generally work well at first but don't last more than a season or two but around here the dealer wants $100 and up for a carb. There's a multitude of (sometimes comical) brand names but it seems like there are just two or three different manufacturers. Some or the slightly more expensive carbs have been better than others but the soft parts like the fuel bulb, fuel hose etc all seem to fail very fast, it appears due to ethanol compatibility. The cheapest versions seem to have priming bulbs so stiff you can barely pump them.

They usually provide several of the green fuel hoses with each carb and they don't seem to make it through a single season. I am likely going to bite the bullet and buy the OEM for the next replacement and see how that lasts... the original lasted about 4 years it seems to me.

 

[3930dave]

Farmers are certainly NOT getting rich off of ethanol enriched fuels.

What I have found interesting over many years is that two stroke engines running on 50-1 oils seem to have less carb problems with old gas then any 4 stroke engines with any combination of witches brew in the fuel. Fortunately I can get ethanol free gas from many stations around here it is expensive close to a buck a gallon higher and it is supposed to be high octane. I use very little 2 storke fuel so it's not a killer to fill up a can with the non ethanol gas a couple of times a year. I do dump at least one of those tiny bottles of 50 - 1 bottles of oil in a five gallon can of gas regardless of what it's going to be used in.
My least started engine the last couple of years has been my sanders Brigs and Stratton which only got started once last season and that was just a check run as I never had to sand the driveway last winter. It started right up with the fuel that had been in it since the winter before.

Thanks for the correction. Farm relatives (mine) are either retired, or dead, so I appear to be out of touch with the economics.... not that I (ever) viewed farming as an easy way to get rich. Leaves the question - why grow corn then, if at a loss ? - but likely best left for another thread/site.....

Agreed - just used my Dad's old MCullough (sp?) made in California (!) chainsaw for the first time in a long time, started 2nd pull.

Volatility in general seems to be way down in fuel here in the last 2 years (war on VOC), based on thermal expansion of plastic cans... < anecdotal, but similar comments have cropped up here (old gas won't even flash on a burn pile, etc).

Petrochem is not my strong science, but I think what the 2stroke oil is doing is replacing some of the heavier hydrocarbon components that have been forced out of gasoline. High ethanol tends to cause mechanical wear (pumps etc), so some people use 2C oil or other solutions to combat the mech issues. Along the way, getting those heavier components back into the fuel may help stability ....

Rgds, D.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

Interesting you mention that about volatility. I bought an old forklift last winter and it had a full tank of gas in it about 4 years old.. Carb was plugged with white corrosion bloom and the mechanical fuel pump was solid. I got the carb cleaned out and the thing actually ran quite well (well, idled... I have no idea the % power output) but I put a little of that gas on the concrete and tossed a match on it and it wouldn't even burn.

 

[3930dave]

I think building a new gas station is no longer allowed here.

Many street corners I remember having stations are empty lots now.

I would not be surprised if only a third of the stations from growing up around here still exist…

Vancouver proper has no gas-stations left, if I'm recalling a news item correctly. It's been a lot of years since I was in Van, but there weren't many then.

Real-estate value is one factor.... the old big-lot gas station properties often get condos dropped on them.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Interesting you mention that about volatility. I bought an old forklift last winter and it had a full tank of gas in it about 4 years old.. Carb was plugged with white corrosion bloom and the mechanical fuel pump was solid. I got the carb cleaned out and the thing actually ran quite well (well, idled... I have no idea the % power output) but I put a little of that gas on the concrete and tossed a match on it and it wouldn't even burn.

That white-bloom is a common problem.

I remember talking to a retired CAT mechanic, in a parts store about 6 years ago here. He was helping a neighbour - snowblower carb plugged over the FIRST season it sat idle. Can't remember the name of the part - it's a cylindrical tube with small holes in the body (vapour tube?) - had it in his hand, plugged solid. He said it was more work to get all the plastic shrouds off the blower, than to get the carb apart..... Progress ?

The prevalence of these problems is moving me towards buying high$ race-fuel, for random light-use IC products that I want to keep running.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

They usually provide several of the green fuel hoses with each carb and they don't seem to make it through a single season. I am likely going to bite the bullet and buy the OEM for the next replacement and see how that lasts... the original lasted about 4 years it seems to me.

It's the soft-parts they often cut corners on. Talking with an old college buddy about 10 years back, he had been researching PRC made tractors etc.... first recommendation was to throw away all the O-rings that came on them, and replace with good quality ones.

Rgds, D.