Help locating parts for Pulsar mower

[bertsmobile1]

Bert, that's an excellent explanation of the whole picture. More and more manufacturers of all sorts of different products are following that "bottom line" plan for profiting from sales. That's why we are now living on a "throw away" society. Consumers have conformed and are perfectly happy with the whole, "buy cheap and if it breaks, throw it away and buy a new one" way of thinking. Sad, but very true.

That is the reason why Global Warming & environmental degregation have become a major problem right now.
The embedded pollution in a throw away product is around 90% of that in a long life product and the logistical costs of getting it to your door are identical if not higher.
Thus we are generating a massive amount of pollution and destroying the planet in order to create land fill, does not make sense to anyone other than an economist .
At one time B & S made parts for the automotive industry, the avaition industry & the defence industry.
Now days I don't think they make a single part of their engines.
I had a college mate who ran a press shop.
They geared up to make automative seat frame pressings
Their customer rejected the first 3 batches before he found out that the board had decided to source from China.
The reason was "in case the market thinks we have missed the China boat and our share price drops"
So naturally they got sued and they happily paid out the full value of the contract which was around $ 2,500,000 , just to keep the share price up.
They also got sued by the car company because the Chinese products regularly failed the QC tests.
My friends press shop closed because they had spent $ 3,500,000 for the new 5 stage press & tooling to do the job , rented the 2 adjoining buildings & employed 8 more staff .
While they had almost enough work to cover costs not enough to guarantee a profit long term and if they ran out or lost a single client ( which in hind sight they would have ) then they would be running at a big loss .
Their closure meant there was now 5 vacant factories in a 12 factory complex which became 6 when the lunch shop closed down as there were now 100 fewer working at the site . This snowballed and the landlord went to the wall , the new owners upped the rent for the remaining 6 units and they all either closed down as the press shop was their biggest customer or moved and eventually the site was bulldozed to become a block of low rent apartments in the middle of an industrial area.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes, shop efficiency. I believe I mentioned part of that. I think that's why they stopped rebuilding carbs or overhauling them and just started putting new ones on because it was more efficient. Quicker so they could get on to the next one. BIG SNIP

You are correct about the further we go in the present and future the parts are becoming more and more complete assemblies and not individual small parts.
Color over the past few years has really gotten bad about selling like a basic and then a more complete carburetor kit and often that's the only way you can get the part you need. So they're getting 15 to $30 when you really only want something that cost $3.50.

Honda would be an exception or at least different. Briggs will sell you afloat for five or $6 as well to come see. Honda you're right, you can buy a complete card ship to your door for under 20 bucks but try to buy just a float or a needle valve spring etc and you'll probably have 13 to 25 in it.
Kind of like those old Toro Suzuki engines. 15 years ago they wanted $17 for a needle valve!
Just like Kawasaki they think their parts are gold-plated. I mean, they are good.. but still.
I do think we always have to make the distinction whether this is a commercial shop operation with a line of work behind something charging a pretty high hourly rate for labor or if it's somebody fixing their own equipment.
Also, and many of these instances if it's your own equipment especially or if you work on a lot of them, you can maintain a good selection of used parts that will work just fine for what you need.

I think you missed what I was saying about logistics
No sense in selling you a $ 3.50 part if it costs them $ 20 to get it to the dealer who has to cover their own cost of sales & make a profit .
Low volume part have higher warehousing & logistical costs which is even higher if they are good quality and last a very long time.
And FWIW Suzuki used Mikuni carbs on most of their mowers which rarely required any service parts because they are 3 times higher quality than a Walbro or Nikki carb
You can not post a part coast to coast for $ 3.50 let alone invoice & truck it .
That is the same reason why when you go into a hardwear shop you have to buy a packet of screws and not just the number that you need.
And in case you have not noticed that pack size is getting larger every year because the cosy of sales increases every year
For the same reason carb kits come with all of the parts for the entire series to cut down the inventory.
Walbro is now making "one size fits all" diaphragm kits for their cube carbs for the same reason
Either a single diaphragm has to cos $ 30 or you have to buy a volume pack or complete assembly for $ 30 to cover the logistical costs .

 

[TobyU]

I think you missed what I was saying about logistics
No sense in selling you a $ 3.50 part if it costs them $ 20 to get it to the dealer who has to cover their own cost of sales & make a profit .
Low volume part have higher warehousing & logistical costs which is even higher if they are good quality and last a very long time.
And FWIW Suzuki used Mikuni carbs on most of their mowers which rarely required any service parts because they are 3 times higher quality than a Walbro or Nikki carb
You can not post a part coast to coast for $ 3.50 let alone invoice & truck it .
That is the same reason why when you go into a hardwear shop you have to buy a packet of screws and not just the number that you need.
And in case you have not noticed that pack size is getting larger every year because the cosy of sales increases every year
For the same reason carb kits come with all of the parts for the entire series to cut down the inventory.
Walbro is now making "one size fits all" diaphragm kits for their cube carbs for the same reason
Either a single diaphragm has to cos $ 30 or you have to buy a volume pack or complete assembly for $ 30 to cover the logistical costs .

I was just talking about the fact that you can go in to any dealer and buy a Briggs & Stratton needle or Briggs & Stratton seat in the individual little bags for five or six bucks a piece.
I've always appreciated that about briggs. As I said Kohler used to be better than they are now now it's a little bag for 15 or $18 at minimum.
Tecumseh does the same thing with their basic needle valve and gasket kit.
I think it's number 63201. Then they have a more complete kit that has needle valve seals and additional gaskets and welch plugs.
The basic one is under 6 bucks pretty much anywhere and that's for the brand name one. You can get aftermarkets for under $4 but you have to be careful with most of the ones floating around on eBay and Amazon because the top bull gasket is way too skinny and won't seal it all.
The needle valve is actually too Short too but that can all be adjusted.
It's a shame because I thought the Chinese were much better at copying and reproducing parts but they did a very poor job on these.
So I'm not sure about all the logistics you're talking about and stuff and I don't really know that it matters. I've been buying individually bagged Briggs & Stratton small internal carb parts for decades and they're still pretty cheap.
My original complaint was that you can't buy that for most of the newer cheap carburetors.

 

[bertsmobile1]

The Chinese Tecumseh rebuild kits fit the Chinese aftermarket Tecumseh carburettors
The Chinese manufacturers do not "copy" anything they manufacture to order, often to the sample provided by the US businessman .
If dealers would tow the line and order the needles in wholesale quantities of say 20 to 50 at a time then they would just sell you the jet for a reasonable price.
However only fools like Star & myself carry a large inventory
I have just taken delivery of 50 Nikki rebuild kits , 10 intek head gaskets ,10 Wabro twin rebuild kits etc etc etc $ 2,000 all up
The local dealers do not stock any of these parts ( so I found out the hard way ) and just order them in as required ( minimum inventory thus minimum capital ).
Because they are run by accountants not techs
When DC spares were happening I used to put a $ 1000 order on them for cube carb & victa carb parts every year .
B & S made the mistake of having no minimum order value and free overnight delivery so naturally it got abused

 

[TobyU]

The Chinese Tecumseh rebuild kits fit the Chinese aftermarket Tecumseh carburettors
The Chinese manufacturers do not "copy" anything they manufacture to order, often to the sample provided by the US businessman .
If dealers would tow the line and order the needles in wholesale quantities of say 20 to 50 at a time then they would just sell you the jet for a reasonable price.
However only fools like Star & myself carry a large inventory
I have just taken delivery of 50 Nikki rebuild kits , 10 intek head gaskets ,10 Wabro twin rebuild kits etc etc etc $ 2,000 all up
The local dealers do not stock any of these parts ( so I found out the hard way ) and just order them in as required ( minimum inventory thus minimum capital ).
Because they are run by accountants not techs
When DC spares were happening I used to put a $ 1000 order on them for cube carb & victa carb parts every year .
B & S made the mistake of having no minimum order value and free overnight delivery so naturally it got abused

I'm sure this is all true in some instances but not always. Generalizations always tend to end up that way.
I was kind of making a joke as to the old days for Japan did the same thing like taking a us-made Zippo lighter and then copying it and then selling their cheap copy at a third of the price. China started doing that decades later but it just became more widespread.
I'm sure that in today's age if you send somebody the cad file for something they can give you a price on making it.
Then it gets into all those logistics that you mentioned but that's not really of concern to me and nor should it be to you or anyone else.
I don't think we can change the way the world's working now and we're left to just gripe about it and then to be proactive and once we find parts that work for us to buy large quantities so we will always have them like you just did.
I also do the same. I buy little gaskets sometimes 50 and 100 at a time but almost always 10 to 30 at a time. I bought a dozen head gaskets the last time I bought them.
So whoever's fault it is, I don't know, but they need to get with the program because those Chinese Tecumseh carb gaskets aren't even close to the original.
I could measure with my $6 set of harbor freight dial calipers that aren't even digital because they're real dial calipers and could give a better dimension than they ended up with.
Another weird thing that's kind of frustrating is who decides what the Chinese companies start Mass producing and export and whatever so it becomes available to us??
Just like a few years ago when there were no Kawasaki small push mower engine carburetors available but Kawasaki brands.
Then all of a sudden they pop on eBay and Amazon for $36.
No, they're not nearly as good as the Kawasaki carb but I have 100% success rate so far with installing them and pulling the rope usually only one time and they're firing right up and running perfectly.
For 36 versus 136 plus I'll gladly take those all day long.
But my point is for a number of years I wanted them but they weren't available.
I understand mostly it goes by once there becomes a big demand for things.
For instance the 31xxxx head gaskets were only available from Briggs for a long time and then all of a sudden here they were on eBay not just one but two and other gaskets with it for super cheap compared to just the one Briggs gasket.
Same way with the camshafts but when the new brakes came out the new plastic camshaft that little blue one with the little metal top hats on it because they were just mostly stupid but they did realize that they couldn't just stick the plastic end into the engine cases but it still a piece of junk...those weren't available from anywhere but Briggs and maybe the last I checked a couple months ago it was still this way.
But we all know that soon enough there will be aftermarket replacements. Possibly by oregon, stands or rotary which are the big three that make fairly quality stuff but they will also be no name ones just like those camshafts all over eBay and Amazon flooding the market for a third the price.
Now, I gave up on those camshafts because even though the factory ones are pretty bad, the aftermarkets were even worse and after having one only last 4 months and about 8 mows I can no longer spend even the small little $37 to buy one because the time involved to fix.
Now with the plastic Briggs camshaft and the smaller ones, the factory one is such junk that a Chinese built generic could actually be an improvement!
But my point was how do we get a direct line to these people to build what we want? Actually I guess it's the other way around like you mentioned at first you have to have some us companies or businessmen contact them and contract them to build it for you.
That's the big mess and only works when they know they have a market to sell lots of them from the mass production required to buy them anyways. Can we say Alibaba? Yes, I would like to order 10,000 units of this part that I need one of.

 

[bertsmobile1]

You need to brush up on your commercial history
Post WWII Japanese factories did doe the copy & dump bit and there was a massive back lash
They also built under license and bought developement rights.
Mikuni bought the developement rights to the Amal concentric carburettor for their first post WW II new carb .
In most cases as they were setting up a new production line it was vastly superiour, higher volume & more automated than Zippo's old factory that had been making lighters for 50 years using the same machines which was inefficient thus making the lighters expensive.
I recall videos of the BSA & Triumph factories from the 60's, machines all over the place with operators taking parts out of stillages doing what machine did them tossing them in another stillage.
Footage from the Lilac factory in Japan showed machines arranged in direct lines with the operators on one machine passing it to the neighbouring operator, far more efficient which let to transfer arms which led to direct feed from one machine to the next thus they made bikes based on the BMW boxers for 1/4 of the BMW price .

China on the other hand is in the situation where their currency is kept artifically low against other world currencies.
Thus they pay more for raw materials and get paid less for what they make.
This means the manufacture & dump method would not work so Chinese factories are very much demand controlled , ie they only manufacture to order so 100% of what is made is sold at a predetermined price .
What we see being sold really cheap is the overproduction to cover factory defects or more often the factory defects themselves .
So it is LCT ( Tecumseh sucessors ) who went to China & asked for the carbs ( and complete engines ) to be made.
Same thing with Harbour Freight, Lowes, Walmart & even B & S
Now B & S have 3 factories in China, Kohler have 2 , Nikki have 2, Toyota have 5 etc etc .
All of these factories have suppliers and these suppliers have overproduction & factory defects all of which end up as on line sales .
But not a one of them decided to make chap copies of any part & flood the USA with them.
We always like to find some one else to blame
Be they a different country, different race , different religion or different political ideology to us because nothing is ever "our" fault .

 

[TobyU]

You need to brush up on your commercial history
Post WWII Japanese factories did doe the copy & dump bit and there was a massive back lash
They also built under license and bought developement rights.
Mikuni bought the developement rights to the Amal concentric carburettor for their first post WW II new carb .
In most cases as they were setting up a new production line it was vastly superiour, higher volume & more automated than Zippo's old factory that had been making lighters for 50 years using the same machines which was inefficient thus making the lighters expensive.
I recall videos of the BSA & Triumph factories from the 60's, machines all over the place with operators taking parts out of stillages doing what machine did them tossing them in another stillage.
Footage from the Lilac factory in Japan showed machines arranged in direct lines with the operators on one machine passing it to the neighbouring operator, far more efficient which let to transfer arms which led to direct feed from one machine to the next thus they made bikes based on the BMW boxers for 1/4 of the BMW price .

China on the other hand is in the situation where their currency is kept artifically low against other world currencies.
Thus they pay more for raw materials and get paid less for what they make.
This means the manufacture & dump method would not work so Chinese factories are very much demand controlled , ie they only manufacture to order so 100% of what is made is sold at a predetermined price .
What we see being sold really cheap is the overproduction to cover factory defects or more often the factory defects themselves .
So it is LCT ( Tecumseh sucessors ) who went to China & asked for the carbs ( and complete engines ) to be made.
Same thing with Harbour Freight, Lowes, Walmart & even B & S
Now B & S have 3 factories in China, Kohler have 2 , Nikki have 2, Toyota have 5 etc etc .
All of these factories have suppliers and these suppliers have overproduction & factory defects all of which end up as on line sales .
But not a one of them decided to make chap copies of any part & flood the USA with them.
We always like to find some one else to blame
Be they a different country, different race , different religion or different political ideology to us because nothing is ever "our" fault .

Well, actually, none of that really makes any difference because the facts of what has occurred in the past really doesn't mean what will happen now or in the future as the further we go in in the present and the future things do seem to change and often quite bizarre from what would make sense or the way we think things should be done.
I'm not claiming that the Zippo thing I mentioned were the exact specific facts of the situation. It's more like an urban legend that I have heard three or four times over the years.
Of course Japan did not just copy everything and provide cheaper substitutes for them regardless of quality. Many of the things that came out of Japan around the same time or slightly thereafter was of the utmost best quality.
Cameras, other electronics were top of the line and set the world standard at least for quite a while and in quite a few areas.
The wise and how's are fairly unimportant to me but I do know that certainly happened.
Sony, and Hitachi made some of the best TVs out there.
I don't know who invented the TV and I don't care. I think zenith was the number one manufacturer at one time or at least in the US but by this time they couldn't hold a candle to picture quality or durability of some of the other brands let me not forget Toshiba also.
I don't think I was blaming anyone particular people about the Tecumseh clear little plastic baggies of car parts.
I might have in my very first post by calling them cheap Chinese copies and then you said they only made them to the specs they were given so then I said whoever ordered them would be at fault.
My point, like in my last post was why didn't whoever did this measure the gasket properly and even possibly the needle valve because this is something I could do with a measuring tape and get it closer than they did.
So who do I blame for these gaskets being too thin?
The newly produced ones in the Tecumseh branded bags are just perfect. Of course those cost more and this is only because that company can charge more because they are correct.
I just want the lower quality rubber ones from China but I need them made a little bit thicker. Lol
See, I have loved the fact that over the past 20 plus years we have been able to get tons of cheap stuff manufactured in China mostly because they weren't trying to maximize the profit on each one or charge what they thought they could get. They were simply making their money off of volume.
I loved it.
Cell phone car chargers for 3.99 shipped vs a brand name from phone store for 29.99.
Sure it was better quality but not enough to make a difference. Maybe he to replace it sooner due to cable cracking and no connection but I had one in every car and 2 extras so each one got used fewer times so use was spread among several. More convenience and still smaller cash outlay.
I can buy Huayi rubber carb bowl gaskets 5 or more at a time for .65-.85 cents but a Honda looking flat fiber/paper one is at least 4.00 usually at least $5+.
Doesn't make sense other than poor choices or the right need for a part getting to the right person who says make it.
No harder or more expensive to make one than the other and you could put it on the same cargo barge the other ones come on.
So I don't care the reason..I want it fixed.
Instead of telling me why or what happened in the past, please tell me how I can get this changed now. Lol

Note I am mostly being facetious.

I think I'll just make me two sharp tubes to cut my own Honda gaskets from sheet material. That should make them about .08 each. Then I'll save the largest middle part to make carb bolt gaskets etc because I'm that cheap.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Way back when I was a freshly minted metallurgist I went to my very first international conference feeling very adult.
The first speaker was from the government and told the delegates that Australia was the perfect place to set up manufacturing industries.
We had a moderate climate so heating & cooling costs were low, we had abundant supplies of energy ( still do ) and abundant supplies of raw materials & minerals plus a well educated &very capeable work force.
The second speaker was from industry and he told the delegates that Australia was a horrid place to set up a manufacturing plant as we were too far from major markets , had militant unions with high union membership plus our workers were paid far too much for too little production. However he agreed with the first speaker that our work force was highly educated so well suited to do their research & developement for production in places with cheap labour that was not capeable of the highly skilled design work like Japan.
Remember we were on the winning side of WWII so naturally those on the loosing side were all hopeless idiots .

Since that day I have heard almost the same identical speech and the only thing that has changed is the identity of the country that was too stupid to design a sheet of toilet paper from Japan , to Singapore, to The Phillipines to , to Korea , to Indonesia and then China with a hint of India .
all this proves is the senior management here is just as racists & elitist as they were back in the 50's and still presenting the same myths in order to hide their own inadequicies .
The truth of the matter is everyone has to make a buck.
The current unrest in the USA is largely due to mass underemployment which the statistics carefully circumvent so the citizens of the USA can walk around with their heads in the clouds, till they get sacked .
We would be in exactly the same position if it was not for the dumb luck that we have the cleanest coal , iron ore & nickel on the planet combined with a small population .
Ever since WWII the hard right capitalist have been pushing the myth that we can have it all and we can get it for next to nothing without paying the real price .
And now all this is biting us on the bum as 1/2 of the USA is freezing to death while the rest are drowning apart from those on the Colarodo river who are dying of thirst as the river slowly vanishes in the middle of the longest drought in Arazona's history.

All of this was predicted way back in the 60's but it did not suit the millionirs so the poo pooed it , used the same tactics as the tobacco industry till now when it is too late.

I am expecting to hear of Civil war breaking out in the USA at any moment and this is exactly what China has created , using the unfetted greed of Americans to destroy the country from within.
Much more efficient that sending in the troops and no need for post war reperations .

So China keeps on supplying the USA with very cheap goods so Wall street makes a motza while factories close down and lay off millions who either have to get social security or turn to crime because there are fewer & fewer blue collar jobs The establishment does not care because their kids go to university and get high paid white collar jobs while politicans like President Trump fan this fire .
The USA has a smaller population than China but a bigger jail population than China ( if you believe the Chinese figures )
The life expectency of US citizens has dropped by 3 years where as in every other country it has gone up and the USA has dropped way down on the quality of life tables ( if you believe them ) from No 3 post WWII to number 47 in 2020

 

[TobyU]

Way back when I was a freshly minted metallurgist I went to my very first international conference feeling very adult.
The first speaker was from the government and told the delegates that Australia was the perfect place to set up manufacturing industries.
We had a moderate climate so heating & cooling costs were low, we had abundant supplies of energy ( still do ) and abundant supplies of raw materials & minerals plus a well educated &very capeable work force.
The second speaker was from industry and he told the delegates that Australia was a horrid place to set up a manufacturing plant as we were too far from major markets , had militant unions with high union membership plus our workers were paid far too much for too little production. However he agreed with the first speaker that our work force was highly educated so well suited to do their research & developement for production in places with cheap labour that was not capeable of the highly skilled design work like Japan.
Remember we were on the winning side of WWII so naturally those on the loosing side were all hopeless idiots .

Since that day I have heard almost the same identical speech and the only thing that has changed is the identity of the country that was too stupid to design a sheet of toilet paper from Japan , to Singapore, to The Phillipines to , to Korea , to Indonesia and then China with a hint of India .
all this proves is the senior management here is just as racists & elitist as they were back in the 50's and still presenting the same myths in order to hide their own inadequicies .
The truth of the matter is everyone has to make a buck.
The current unrest in the USA is largely due to mass underemployment which the statistics carefully circumvent so the citizens of the USA can walk around with their heads in the clouds, till they get sacked .
We would be in exactly the same position if it was not for the dumb luck that we have the cleanest coal , iron ore & nickel on the planet combined with a small population .
Ever since WWII the hard right capitalist have been pushing the myth that we can have it all and we can get it for next to nothing without paying the real price .
And now all this is biting us on the bum as 1/2 of the USA is freezing to death while the rest are drowning apart from those on the Colarodo river who are dying of thirst as the river slowly vanishes in the middle of the longest drought in Arazona's history.

All of this was predicted way back in the 60's but it did not suit the millionirs so the poo pooed it , used the same tactics as the tobacco industry till now when it is too late.

I am expecting to hear of Civil war breaking out in the USA at any moment and this is exactly what China has created , using the unfetted greed of Americans to destroy the country from within.
Much more efficient that sending in the troops and no need for post war reperations .

So China keeps on supplying the USA with very cheap goods so Wall street makes a motza while factories close down and lay off millions who either have to get social security or turn to crime because there are fewer & fewer blue collar jobs The establishment does not care because their kids go to university and get high paid white collar jobs while politicans like President Trump fan this fire .
The USA has a smaller population than China but a bigger jail population than China ( if you believe the Chinese figures )
The life expectency of US citizens has dropped by 3 years where as in every other country it has gone up and the USA has dropped way down on the quality of life tables ( if you believe them ) from No 3 post WWII to number 47 in 2020

No doubt the US has done a lot of stupid things and the future is not looking nearly as good as it was or as it should. MOST of these bad decisions and problems have been due to the lousy mentality of more recent generations or younger people.
Those heads in the clouds you mentioned or sand as I say.... is certainly part of what they do.
They figure on the I've thing they want or we've to do or fix BUT they are oblivious and don't seem to care what that will do in the future. They deny and rationalize or won't even address it.

 

[smhardesty]

Just for an official FYI, the Pulsar is a complete and total loss and waste of time. I tried a compression test today and couldn't get the needle to budge, regardless of how many times I pulled the starter cord. I was already 99.9% sure the engine was toast, but before I kicked it to the curb I thought I'd try a compression test. There was still oil coming out of the exhaust as I did the compression testing.

I then decided to try setting that Briggs 4.5 HP Quantum on the Pulsar deck. WaaHaaaHaaaa!!! What a joke! There is no way to even get the Briggs set in the hole. The drain plug on the Briggs caused the engine to have to set back too far. I though maybe I could drill new holes to mount it on there. CAN'T be done. Period. It's not even close. The last thing I tried to salvage was the gas cap. I have another Briggs engine that I'll be refurbishing sometime soon that is missing the gas cap. It's just a plastic tank and so was the one on the Pulsar. No way that would work either. Not even close.

The bottom line? I salvaged ZERO from this Pulsar. I also will NEVER again take a Pulsar in, not even to service it for somebody else. There is nothing interchangeable between Pulsar and Briggs or any other mower manufacturer. Nothing at all. And you can;t get parts without contacting the home office. Nope, no more Pulsar crap for me.

I did manage to actually get some work done today. I built a couple of 2"x6" engine stands for engines I have pulled off junk decks. I cleaned a whole bunch of stuff out of the shop and made a little room. I then got a couple of string trimmers diagnosed and also a chainsaw. I need to order just a few parts and all three of those pieces will be ready to go. I'm slowly getting back in the saddle. The more junk I tear apart and either fix or label as junk, the more I'm settling into the old routine. It's amazing how out of touch I got in a few, short years.

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