Cleaning a carburetor ?

I’m cleaning the carb on my inverter/generator right now and so far on every carb I’ve taken apart before has had a brass nozzle underneath the main jet that falls out once the main jet is removed, just tip the carb over and out it comes.

I took the main jet out of this one and the brass nozzle didn’t come out. In both pics I’m holding the main jet, but in the second pic is that the brass nozzle still down the “tube”?
It doesn’t want to come out.

My question is, is it possible that it’s not meant to come out on this carb or is it just stuck?

Or is that not the brass nozzle at all and it’s just another piece that’s normally underneath the brass nozzle?

should come out its probably a little stuck,you can put a screwdriver through the mouth of the carb and lightly pry it down. then just work it a little ad some lube or carb spray,it'll come out

Ok, so the little piece of brass that’s poking out above is that nozzle? You can’t see the part sticking out in the pic, but I seen it while cleaning the carb.

yep,sometimes a little tapping of the carb on a hard surface will drop the tube too

The dang thing still doesn’t want to come out. I did pry it down with a screw driver, but that’s as far as it went.

It does move up and down freely now, but won’t move more than about 1/4”.

Is it ok to spray WD-40 in the carb?

you have a stuck one,every once in a while i get one like that,i end up soaking them overnight in a carb cleaner bath,wd40 might work too, just have to soak it play with it,it is supposed to come out,probably gunked up.the problem with prying it down is you can only get it so far with a screwdriver,then it can be a bugger.

You could also spray carb cleaner through it, then a torch cleaner or wire followed by compressed air. Put carb back together and see how she goes. I'd do that before much more prying or forcing. JMO, I've had some bad luck forcing stuff in small carbs.

Yeah exactly, can only push the nozzle till it’s flush with the housing and that’s about all it moves. I’ll keep trying!




I tried that a few times already. Pushed a very small Allen key through it, a wire fishing leader, and sprayed a lot of carb cleaner in there. Jiggled it around and turned it, put the carb all back together and generator still won’t run.


Engine will run when I spray carb cleaner through carb, for only a second though.

I’m going to try a heat gun soon, but son of a gun it’s windy and the rain is coming!

are you getting fuel into the carb bowl?in that brass tube theres one bigger hole through the middle,BUT theres also very small holes in the sides of that tube,looking at your pictures that carb looked pretty clean,maybe that was after you cleaned it

Can you push a small peice of Wire through it like off a wire brush then blow it out basically cleaning it in place?

How about vacuum leaks around the carb boot, or gasket?

Yes I’m getting fuel into the carb bowl. I’ve taken the carb off and on about 5 times now. Still won’t run.
I’m expecting those holes on the sides will be plugged, I just can’t get that piece out.

The carb is very clean! It wasn’t dirty at all. I’m thinking that nozzle has something gummed up in it though.
I did expect it to run though after spraying carb cleaner and blowing it out with the air compressor, even a rough run.

Yup, I did that about 5 times. Still won’t run.

Not that I could tell. The o ring in the bowl is good and the two gaskets around the carb are mint! The generator is 1 year old and has about 50 hours on it.

Websites that sell parts for old John Deere tractors offer a specific tool for removing those nozzles. It screws into the end of the nozzle (gently) and has a sliding weight on the end of shaft which slams down.
They work extremely well without damaging brass nozzle. I have removed many from Old JD carbs. Saturate with Wd-40 first.

Removing is only way to clean properly.

I need a picture of the top of that carb please.

YouTube Terryl fixes all. "Fire it up, fire it up, fire it up."

I got the Generator running!

I drained the old gas out and put fresh gas in. Started first pull!


For the record, in September it stopped running so I assumed it ran out of gas. Went to the gas station to fill it up and realized I had half tank still. Filled it up anyways and it never started again.
Let it sit till now and knew I needed to clean the carb. I think cleaning the carb fixed what ever made it stop working last year, but the old gas wouldn’t let it run.

I don’t know 100% for sure but that’s what I’m going with! Never had a machine not run off 7 month old gas. Thought a clean carb would be good enough. Lesson learned!

Glad to hear you got it running JP.

Today's gasoline is crap. It breaks down very quickly than years ago. Anything 3 months old is suspect for issues. Anything 6 months old is highly likely. Year old gasoline is almost always going to cause a problem.

Adding a gasoline preservative beforehand like Startron or Stabil, will definitely help but not a 100% fix for poor gasoline. The current formulation of gasoline breaks down quickly.

Everybody , think about it like this , if you take say $5-$10 of gasoline out of a small engine with the potential loss of the cost of that gasoline , it is still way cheaper than fixing the machine. Plus , if you just put the suspected bad gasoline to the side in a spare container and test with fresh gas , you may be able to use the 'bad' gasoline if it passes muster.

You don't use Sea Foam or a stabilizer in small engines???

Thanks! Yeah I read a lot about gas today. 20 years ago when I was a kid I would dig through the mess in the garage and get the lawn mower out. Always had gas in it from the year before and it would start. I clean carbs every $&@!@&$ Spring now.

I buy Sea Foam off and on. It’s so expensive now. But I’ll start using it more regular. Snowmobile gets Sea Foam every tank of gas. Generator will get it more often now for sure!

Great idea and save a lot of frustration and time. I always run things dry if not using for several months. Most engines now have an off or shut off gas option then just let engine run till it dies. At least that carb is not sitting with fuel in it. I have 9 small gas engines to contend with, so I am very careful to keep them in great running order. From gens to pumps and everything in between at the ranch.

Glad you got it going nothing worse irritating when things don't run.

I got all kinds of small engine machines at least two of everything.
I never use any gas additives,and leave the old gas in them.
I start them all up every couple months in the off season except the lawnmowers,I dont start them in the winter,but my chainsaws generators,snowmachines 4 wheelers and snowblowers get started up every couple months when in storage.I fill the tank on everything when in storage.
Never had a problem starting any.

Lol you got that right! Was not fun working in the high winds and cold rain today lol.




Are you using premium gas? Lucky you!

No,I use the ethanol gas so they dont freeze up in winter.

The gas additives only work for about 5 months then the gas will start gelling. Taryl fixes all on Youtube did a several year experiment on nearly all additives. Check it out. I've been using regular Sta-Bil for decades and it works fine, no problem starting my mower or tractor in spring.

That piece you couldn't get out is the emulsion tube. It has holes all around it you have to make sure are all clear. 9 out of 10 times cleaning that jet will fix your problem though.

A gallon of sea foam is 60 dollars, regular price

Sea foam is what I use. For my generater I turn the gas off and let it run till it dies. Usually sits for a long while between uses. So it gets the gas drained and replaced, oil changed, before i start it. Lawn mowers boat motors, gas used enough the sea foam prevents issues.

You should have seen the equipment we used on the railroad-lots of small machines-railsaws drills chainsaws,boltmachines,etc.
They were the roughest handled tools I ever seen,put whatever gas you had in them,water in gas all the time if no premix oil put 10-30 for mix,when hauling rails with the old motor cars,the rads would boil dry,go down to the ditch get a bucket of swampwater and fill up the rad,etc etc.
Everything started and ran every time unless totally crushed by a rail or something.
The old motor cars had a 5HP hand crank engine,with two flywheels,and a wide belt for a transmission,They would pull massive loads on the lorry-6-8 rails at a time,a couple of the older patrol cars had estimated over a million miles on them.
I found out long ago you dont need to baby most machinery,just keep it maintained,and USE IT.

Lawn mower gas, boat motor gas, 4wheeler gas, anything that may sit for several months, along with sea foam in the gas, I buy ethanol free gas. Ethanol stores forever. Its corrosive though. It will eventually corrode most anything but glass. Vehicles sold today have gaskets fuel lines etc designed to last with ethanol gas. SOME boat motors etc do too now. I don't want to chance it though.

best advise for gas in small engines(NON OXY) ethonal gas is crap.slingblade,lol, i love that movie