What happened to Walbro Carburetors?

I've been repairing engines for quite awhile now. I've seen the older engines come and go and new designs take their place in the market.
Many Briggs and Stratton engines used to have Walbro carburetors on them. I like them because most of the were adjustable and they weren't nearly as finicky as the newer Nikki carburetor I see on them now.

In fact, my old lawn tractor has a 13 HP Briggs and Stratton I/C Quiet and it has a Walbro Carburetor on it. Never had any significant issues with it. They are simple to rebuild, and they just work.
I can't say the same with the newer Nikki carburetors. Ever since I have seen them, they seem to be having issues regarding the engine's performance. They seem to have a delayed throttle response compared to the walbro and just seem to act up now and then. Almost all the engines had Walbro Carburetors except for some of the Vangaurd engines back then. Now it seems like all the Briggs and Stratton engines have Nikki carburetors.

I worked on a 31 HP Vanguard on an Exmark Zero Turn Mower that had a Nikki carburetor on it. That thing would act up any time it got the chance, and it seemed to have a dead spot at part throttle where it would shutter, even when it was brand new. I use ethanol free fuel in everything I cannot believe it is fuel related.

On many of the Briggs opposed twins I've worked on, many of them had Walbro carburetors. A lot of the older Briggs Quantum engines had Walbro carbs.

But the real question is what happened to them and why were they eventually replaced by the Nikki?
Tell me about your experiences with Walbro or Nikki carbs.

Briggs doesn't tell us dealers why ....... All we can do is assume. I assume that certain engines had Nikki carbs on them and performed well.....

Then either Nikki approached Briggs with a lower price..... Or Briggs put it out for bids just like any other business would do and nikki got the lowest bid on most of the engines ..............

And don't go blaming the carbs, it is the EPA regulations that has made them non adjustable.
Other than that it is as Beu mentioned , a relentness race to the bottom quality wise in order to make them cheaper ever year because the population at large still believes in fairies.

bertsmobile1 said:

And don't go blaming the carbs, it is the EPA regulations that has made them non adjustable.
Other than that it is as Beu mentioned , a relentness race to the bottom quality wise in order to make them cheaper ever year because the population at large still believes in fairies.

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following your post - one of the fellows who needed a aluminum body fuel pump for a car got one and after about three weeks the aluminum cracked at the pushrod lever pin. He sent it back. The one he got yesterday as a replacement shattered into pieces in the mail. I suspect we are near the bottom of the well on the cheaper solution. The only game that will be left to the Chinese with the tariffs on them will be to sell a better product and ask more for it. I don't think they can do cheaper.

That makes sense from a business perspective. It is ashame that the carbs cannot be adjusted. It always made it easier when an engine is running a little quirky.
And since they are lawn mower engines, it wouldn't really be too ethical to put the top of the line carburetors unless you were buying a top of the line engine.
I just remember the Walbro carburetors behaving better than the newer Nikki, but it may be because of their lack of adjustability or something like that.
Some modern carburetors, including Nikki and whatever Honda uses on their GX series, still have adjustment screws on them. It is not quite as common to see them unless they are on a higher end engine.

And before long carbs will no longer exist, all NEW equipment, will have to be Fuel-Injected because Big-Bro will mandate it ! :thumbdown:

Same with most two stroke small engines. Used to have a decent Walbro carb on them, now about all have the crap ZAMA Chinese carbs. Even Stihl has gone to the dark side. Only good thing is the carbs are dirt cheap to replace when they foul up. And they will foul up no matter how picky you are with fuel quality.

Just ordered parts for a single cylinder 31 series yesterday with the Ruixin carb.

Boobala said:

And before long carbs will no longer exist, all NEW equipment, will have to be Fuel-Injected because Big-Bro will mandate it ! :thumbdown:

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Along with catalytic converters, EGR and all that wonderful stuff....

Won't matter thought with the new 'Never change the oil' engines. Run them 2 years and landill them.

tom3 said:

Same with most two stroke small engines. Used to have a decent Walbro carb on them, now about all have the crap ZAMA Chinese carbs. Even Stihl has gone to the dark side. Only good thing is the carbs are dirt cheap to replace when they foul up. And they will foul up no matter how picky you are with fuel quality.

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Zama is owned by Stihl or part owned by Stihl and has their main factory in Japan .
They are excellent carbs,no better or o worse than the equivalent Walbro.
Most modern hand helds have Ruixin carbs made in China not Zamas.
AFAIK Ruixin is 1/2 owned by Zama.
The Chinese are a lot smarter than the USA or Australia for that matter.
When foreign company wants to set up a factory it has to be a partnership with a local manufacturer.
By doing that the technology stays in China as does a portion of the profits.
It also stops the 1st world company raping & pillaging the local economy , paying no tax and leaving the land poisioned for 500 years as has happened with every other 3rd world country the 1st world "invests" in.