Yet Another Evening Of Small Engine Repair

For fifteen weeks, Monday night has became small engine repair night. I feel like I have learned a lot but knowledge is sometimes difficult to quantify. When it comes to fixing a small engine, one thing I have learned is that knowledge will only take you so far. Experience has a lot to do with it as well. The teacher has a _lot_ of experience. He certainly knows this stuff.

Tonight's challenge was repairing my pressure washer. The thing has never run well, at least until now.

This evening I removed the carb and cleaned it - basically the carb needed the varnish removed from the bowl and the main jet cleaned out. After that I replaced the spark plug and then adjusted the idle. Vrooom! Better than new.

Previously the engine would 'hunt' while running and it would only run with the choke on and the throttle wide open. The hunting was caused by the clogged jet. Running it wide open with the throttle mostly closed (aka running rich) caused the plug to build up a lot of black sooty carbon.

During the carb cleaning, I determined the way to keep this particular engine running well will be to remove the carb bowl after each us and drain it completely. This would certainly be overkill for some engines but not this one. A pain for sure, but it only takes a couple of minutes and it will keep the carb from needing to be cleaned again.

What can I learn about next?

Small Engine Repair

Tonight was the second week of small engine repair. I have learned a lot so far but it has not gone as expected. What did I expect? I guess I expected a little bit of lecture time with a few pictures on a white board or overhead projector followed by some bench time. What it has turned out to be is pretty much all bench time.

The way it works is you show up with something you have that is not working and attempt to fix it. The instructor will answer any questions you have and guide you when your lost. This style of learning works well for some but it is not my optimal method. Regardless, I have learned a lot so far and even taken lots of notes in my spiral notepad. (I will type the notes up later so that I can re-read it later when my memory is failing me - next week.)

To get the most out of this class, I just need to arrive each week with a list of questions. The instructor does a great job of answering questions, but first someone has to ask them. Sign me up to ask the stupid questions and maybe even a couple of not so stupid ones.

While in the class this evening, I helped a man remove the carb from his edger, the type with a vertical bladed mounted to a motor with a horizontal axle. The engine on the edge was a Briggs and Stratton. It turns out this motor and its carb were identical or nearly identical to the roto-tiller I worked on this summer. That was an interesting surprise. And then later in the evening while looking at a tiller which happened to be an MTD, 5 HP, I noticed it also had the same Briggs and Stratton motor along with the same carb. What are the odds? Apparently pretty high which is a good thing because I have a pretty good understanding of how this carb works, including the funky little fuel pump.

Learning can be so much fun when it is something you are interested in knowing about.

Monday Night: Small Engine Repair

Brian, Danny and I attended our first class Monday. I learned several things during the first class. They probably did as well.

#1 Ninety percent of problems with small engines is simply bad gas.
#2 Of the other 10% of problems, 90% percent of those can be fixed by rebuilding the carburetor.

I also now know what is wrong with my pressure washer. Based on the instructors experience, its pilot jet is clogged. A carb rebuild should resolve the problem.

Tuesday Night: Wood Working

Tuesday evening's WW session consisted mostly of sanding. The boxes are nearing completion. The hinges need to be installed, a little touch up sanding, and then applying the finish. Total hours to complete: maybe 3. Total weeks until completion: maybe 12.