STOP! A surging engine is not the governor, when will people learn?

[Auto Doc's]

I see this issue on a daily basis and read about it on the forums. "My engine surges up and down"....

So, you are standing there watching the engine run and surging up and down.

The governor arm is rocking back and forth working the throttle, so it must be the governor, right?

WRONG!

The governor has only 1 simple job and that is to keep the engine from running wide open and blowing itself apart. NEVER MESS WITH A GOVERNOR ADJUSTMENT.

So, what is happening?

People need to understand that the carburetor is not allowing proper air bleed has the fuel is being used by the engine. The governor is ONLY reacting because of engine RPM dropouts, so it opens the throttle to compensate.

For some carburetors, this can be corrected by simple cleaning of all passages and parts, but some carburetors may require replacement. Most common problem is the bleed air jet gets dust debris stuck in it, and it needs cleaning. Carburetors come in a variety of designs, so you will need to study up on what carburetor you are dealing with.

I do not recommend going cheap for a carburetor. Amazon and Ebay are inviting for price shoppers, but buyer beware. It may take a couple of tries to actually get one that will actually work.

 

[Rivets]

The real problem here is that most DIY guys really don’t know how a small engine works, especially carbs. They think that it takes too much time to learn about the equipment they are working on. They want us to do the research for them and then rely on answers provided by other DIY guys who are also to lazy to do the research themselves. There are even some “EXPERTS” on this site who also believe that the governor is the cause, when this occurs only about 10% of the time. Also they don’t realize that not all carbs work the same.
As long as I’m ranting, I wish members would read all posts in a thread before posting. Many times they repost What has been posted before and make everything more confusing. This pertains to both DIY &”EXPERTS “

 

[Auto Doc's]

Hi Rivets,

Put gas in it, of it doesn't start its broken is the approach we see quite often. We have an interesting mix of folks on visit this site. Some are experienced DIY/Pro types all the way down to basically those lacking any common sense.

I will admit, I have been guilty of just replying to only the newest post before realizing later that I am repeating another poster's comments. Sometimes it can be reenforcing and other time it can be annoying.

If a thread has gone beyond 5-6, I seldom back track and read every one of them (some can get quite lengthy). I actually have work that I'm also trying to get done. I usually check in daily, so I don't fall too far behind for the more interesting posts.

The real annoying ones are those that post a help request and then "ghost us" because they did not get an immediate answer to their query.