Working on rough running WD... [Update]

So working on my WD today. Drained the gas tank. Took the sediment bowl assembly off and opened it. The sediment bowl had some fine grained sand looking stuff in it, but not a whole lot. The bottom of the tank seemed fine, nothing out of the ordinary, and she drained strongly (though it took forever since I drained it from the tap near the carb). However, I did discover a tear in the mesh in the sediment bowl (previous owner may have reinstalled incorrectly or something, I suppose). Which may explain why I had all sorts of sand looking particles inside the carb when I opened it up.

Already getting new mesh for the sediment bowl. But it looks like I am back to needing to boil out the carb (need some good weather so I can do it outside -- no way I'm doing that in the house). Since it definitely got some nasty crap sucked into it, and I am assuming that may be a good deal of my problem. I also want to make sure the float is in good shape.

The only other thing I noticed is that my Nelson muffler has rusted through on her. Would this create any backpressure problems or other running issues? I assume not, other than maybe some excess noise?



Any thoughts of things for me to check? I'm almost positive I've got carb issues now, after seeing the sand in the sediment bowl with the torn mesh screen and the sandy dirt in the bottom of the carb body.

I doubt the muffler is having any effect on the engine running poorly. You could have gotten better info by draining the gas out thru the carb.
SDE

If you got it in your sediment bowl it's in your tank too. I think there are filters available that will fit inside the bowl to keep the sand from getting to the carb once you get it clean. The final fix, once you get the carb clean and it's running good is to get your tank cleaned and plastic lined. I've had to do that with all of my tractors and if done right you won't mess with it again.

An easy fix for sediment is to cut a short piece of plastic tubing that fits snugly into the top of the sediment bowl assembly, so it sticks up about an inch into the tank. Other option is a mesh screen curled and inserted there.

IF you can find a New Nelson muffler reasonably priced, let us know..!!

That carb has only one passage running to the Main (Power) fuel adjustment..

Take that screw out and let some fuel flow out, to flush that passage. If you get any sediment, use a soft thin wire to agitate in there to get more out.

The only other passage is the Idle circuit..assuming the WD carb is the same design..

There is not much else to it.

What are the symptoms..?

My experience with my WD-45 (working it hard all day) is that just ONE drop of water laying in the sediment bowl will cause an intermittent miss.!

Never use any "in-line fuel filter", the sediment bowl works fine, but the screen is Mandatory, to keep sediment from getting to the Carburetor..

Are you sure there are no vacuum leaks.?

Ron.

I had a couple of misses over maybe a 45 minute period the day prior, but didn't think much of it at the time. Then out plowing with her the next day, she was running good, until she missed. Then she started running rough (at least what I perceive to be rough). And when you put it in gear and try to move forward, it starts to peter out (feels like it starts to die) before it finally picks up and moves. But it sputters some as you open it up. Adjusting the carb main jet didn't do much either. It had a lot of sandy dirt junk like what was in the sediment bowl in the bottom of the carb, but cleaning it out obviously didn't get it all. And when you go to start her up, you have to take a few goes at it (she used to pop right off), like she can't get enough gas for a little bit.

Though I hadn't thought of checking for a vacuum leak. Any good way to check for that?

(quoted from post at 23:55:11 05/04/14) An easy fix for sediment is to cut a short piece of plastic tubing that fits snugly into the top of the sediment bowl assembly, so it sticks up about an inch into the tank. Other option is a mesh screen curled and inserted there.

Click to expand...

My other tractor has a mesh screen up in the tank, so I plan to do that. Pretty easy to do and install.