9n carb leaking after rebuilding the carb

The tractor sat all winter because the carb was leaking. It looked like it was leaking where it connects to the air intake(rubber boot). I don't have a shop so I waited until spring to fix it. I just rebuilt the carb yesterday. Also replaced the sediment bowl and fuel tank as well. It has an inline fuel filter (new) just before the carb. The rebuild kit had literally everything in it and I also put in a new float, which i adjusted to 1/4 inch, so all the internals are new. The only thing that wasn't replaced was the air horn packing. I was trying to tune the carb yesterday but it wasn't working and it felt like the engine had about 1/2 the power it used to. I went out today to try again and saw it was leaking again. There are drips from the air horn drain, the drain bolt, and the rubber boot from the air intake. The top and bottom halves of the carb look wet. About an 1/8th inch on both sides of the seam . It seems like gas is coming out of everywhere. I've looked at my shop manual but I'm at a loss. Does anyone have any idea what the deal is with this? Also the fuel line looks wet because I took it off just before I took the pictures. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello shelltrac welcome to YT! It only takes the
smallest piece of foreign matter in the fuel stream to
get in between the float needle and seat to keep it
from sealing. Just pulling the hose on and off before
the gas goes in the carb can dislodge something that
could cause this. Here is a quick something you can
try. Shut off the gas to the carb and run it until it stops running
all the gas out of the carb. Then open the gas up. The
faster flowing gas going past the needle seal tip may
flush the crud out and let it seal again.

Edit for minor correction.

This post was edited by used red MN on 04/16/2023 at 05:59 pm.

I've had the best luck on MS carbs setting the float to 5/16 inch instead of the 1/4 inch spec called for. The 1/4 spec seems to allow gas to run out the air inlet more
often, the 5/16 spec stops it.

You have gotten good advice already, so may
I add that you need a shut off at the
carburetor. Life is too short to stink
yourself up with gas every other time you
want to use your tractor. I have put a 1/8
nptf x 1/8 npt male ball shut off on every
gas tractor I have. Life is so much better.

(quoted from post at 13:39:36 04/16/23) You have gotten good advice already, so may
I add that you need a shut off at the
carburetor. Life is too short to stink
yourself up with gas every other time you
want to use your tractor. I have put a 1/8
nptf x 1/8 npt male ball shut off on every
gas tractor I have. Life is so much better.

Click to expand...

That is a great idea! I'm definitely going to do that

I will give that a shot thank you.

I tried that today. We will see tomorrow if it worked. Thank you.

While I was out messing with the tractor today I was able to tune the carb fairly well. However I realized that my governor has gone bad. It's bound up inside and doesn't move the rod that connects to the carb until about 1/2 throttle is applied. Maybe that has something to do with excessive fuel in the carb? Also the rod (carb to governor) is slightly bent. I ordered a new governor and rod.