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List,

I am attempting to restore a nice little 8401 I recently found. It is the Commercial that has the steel carb.

My problem is that I cannot stop the carb bowl from leaking. Taking it off (again) and placing it on a straight edge I can see that the plastic bowl itself is warped.

Does anyone have one or two (for a spare) good used plastic 4-screw carb bowl(s) he/she would be willing to sell? I believe the old part # was 610416. It is the bowl pictured here: Parts and Diagrams for Lawn Boy 8401, Lawnmower, 1980 (SN 000000001-099999999)

Please let me know. Email me at: fal_shooter@yahoo.com

Thanks!

p.s. Does anybody know where to get a BRASS float pin? I have ordered two from different LB parts places and they are both steel.

rgito said:

List,
Does anybody know where to get a BRASS float pin? I have ordered two from different LB parts places and they are both steel.

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I checked our stock and the seats are brass but the float pins are steel that痴 going to be hard to find.

What is wrong with a steel float pin? I am sure if you are restoring the mower and want it original you will be the only person to know it is steel. I don't understand where the carburetor is leaking? Is it leaking around the top edge where it meets the carburetor body. If this is so you had better make sure that your float level is not too high.

My plastic carb bowl is warped on the edge that seals against the carb. As a result the gasket (I have even tried two of them in there) will not seal completely. The gas then leaks from between the bowl and the carb.

The original float pins were brass. Being a softer material these would wear instead of the float arms that were cast into the steel carb. I worked on many of these in my younger days, and if the pins were substituted with steel ones, these would wallow out the casting. In other words the brass protected the carb body from wear. Much cheaper to replace the brass pin than the carb body!

I didn't know about the wear problem and never ran across it before. Maybe a brass nail cut off , brass rod, or copper electrical wire just need to find the right size. If you can't find a float bowl how about JB weld on the low spot and smooth it off with sandpaper and a flat board? Have restored some old tractors before and when when we couldn't find parts we had to make do with whet we had or could make. Just read the forum WD-40, duct tape, and big hammer and you will get a lot of good ideas.

reynoldston said:

I didn't know about the wear problem and never ran across it before. Maybe a brass nail cut off , brass rod, or copper electrical wire just need to find the right size. If you can't find a float bowl how about JB weld on the low spot and smooth it off with sandpaper and a flat board? Have restored some old tractors before and when when we couldn't find parts we had to make do with whet we had or could make. Just read the forum WD-40, duct tape, and big hammer and you will get a lot of good ideas.

Click to expand...

I was thinking along the same lines but instead of JB weld, I'd use a product like "Form-a-Gasket" (there are more than a few brands of gasket material that comes in a tube). You can buy it at an auto parts store.

The problem with form a gasket it wouldn't get hard I really don't know of a form a gasket that work well with gas. Gas just breaks it down. The JB weld will get hard and gas won't bother it. Once the JB well gets hard you will have to reform the carburetor bowl. Once you check with the auto parts store they may have something else that repairs gas tanks. I know I have always had good luck with a product called seal-all which comes in a yellow tube and is like a glue.