quirky Honda 5.5 gcv160

[OTWLAWNMOWERMAN]

Hello people of Lawnmowerforums! I need help with an old yard pro self propelled mower. The symptoms are: hard starts after sitting for an hour, only starts back on full choke, many pulls of the pull cord to start it most of the time, and surging (bad). I have cleaned the carb two times now as the first time I only took the bowl off. There are no adjustments on it besides idle. The carb is spotless now. I found this thing in a shed on a property that my great aunt acquired. It had heavily varisized gas all in the carb but no residual gas (that almost looked like rust). It appears that there might have been some water in it. Also the gasket for the base of the air cleaner is trash, so it prob. has an air leak. (most likely the surging). It need that gasket for sure. Do you think a carb kit will handle things, or do I need to buy a new carb? the num is 16100-Z0L-853. Its only $15 for the carb, but im cheap. I need it to be reliable because I will be cutting the grass at the property with it.

 

[ILENGINE]

For $15 it is not worth screwing with the carb, just replace it, along with the bad gasket.

 

[bwdbrn1]

You can clean the carb if you feel the need, but for the price of a new one, the time it would take would hardly be worth it. New carb and all new gaskets, and you should be good to go.

 

[OTWLAWNMOWERMAN]

Thanks for the advice. I have ordered the carb, and hope this fixes my problems.