craftsman blower 358.797251 fuel line routing? Carb rebuild?

[Joseph Acquisto]

Got a craftsman blower 358.797251 that sat for years and had mice make a home in it.

After cleaning it out, it would pull through, but hang unless the plug was pulled out. Maybe just getting too old to pull hard.

Any way the fuel lines and prime/purge bulb were shot, so ordered new. Also soaked the walbro carb and fuel tank for a couple day in diluted simple green industial to clean out the gunk.

The fuel lines were just falling apart, so I did not pay a lot of attention. I have figured out the hookup so it will pull fuel from the filter line in the tank to the carb, then the purge bulb, back to the tank, so it will work, but the actual routing is a bit mysterious. There were some sleeves and a foam disk the lines ran through for abrasion protection I guess, can't really see how the should go.

Also, I found some rebuild kits, gasket and an after market carb. Now that I have those, wondering if I should pull apart the walbro to replace the diaphragms and any rubber parts inside or just see how it runs. Or does not. Or just use the aftermarket.

 

[Joseph Acquisto]

Went ahead and replaced the fuel lines, filter, bulb and cleaned the carb, installing new "diaphragms" and gaskets. Had to buy a sheet of Uni Filter foam and cut what I needed as the OEM is not available. Went with Uni oil. Man that stuff is thick.

So, it did start pretty easily and seems to run. Sort of. Kind of fussy and does not want to stay running. New Champion plug, gap .025. I do have a new NGK I might try.

It is 30 degrees outside and the mix is a couple months old. Stihl oil at 50 to 1. Smokes a bit when running. I wonder if the filter oil is just too thick for this little engine? What info there is in the operator manual say "engine oil".

Pretty sure I got the carb together correctly, but, don't have much to go on.

 

[hotshot]

Just saw this post..I still run one of these 20+ year old dinosaurs. Great shredder for fall leaves with plenty of power, use 40:1 mix on it.

Use just a small bit of regular 30W oil on the custom cut UNI air filter, squeeze it around, then wring it all out in a paper towel.

Those fuel & purger lines are a PITA when routing through the back of the two plastic clamshell housings, easy to pinch a line off &/or misroute the throttle cable.

The Walbro WA-219 carb on those is special, with the venturi offset to the bottom & a fixed high jet.

If it’s not idling right with the speed screw adjusted in, check the mixture screw setting. The number of turns out from fully closed is over 1-1/2 on mine with the limiter cap removed & discarded. If the weather is cold it may take 2 turns out.

Also a PITA is the trapped muffler design where you have to split the housings, pull the whole carb & intake assembly, then remove 4 tension springs just to pull the muff off to clean carbon out of the exhaust port. Probably why they did not put a spark arrestor screen on them.

Should’ve been an “easy off” two screw design to run periodic carbon maintenance & not require a new carb outlet gasket & an intake manifold gasket every time…

 

[Joseph Acquisto]

Just saw this post..I still run one of these 20+ year old dinosaurs. Great shredder for fall leaves with plenty of power, use 40:1 mix on it.

Use just a small bit of regular 30W oil on the custom cut UNI air filter, squeeze it around, then wring it all out in a paper towel.

Those fuel & purger lines are a PITA when routing through the back of the two plastic clamshell housings, easy to pinch a line off &/or misroute the throttle cable.

The Walbro WA-219 carb on those is special, with the venturi offset to the bottom & a fixed high jet.

If it’s not idling right with the speed screw adjusted in, check the mixture screw setting. The number of turns out from fully closed is over 1-1/2 on mine with the limiter cap removed & discarded. If the weather is cold it may take 2 turns out.

Also a PITA is the trapped muffler design where you have to split the housings, pull the whole carb & intake assembly, then remove 4 tension springs just to pull the muff off to clean carbon out of the exhaust port. Probably why they did not put a spark arrestor screen on them.

Should’ve been an “easy off” two screw design to run periodic carbon maintenance & not require a new carb outlet gasket & an intake manifold gasket every time…

Thanks for the info. I kinda forgot about this post once I got it running. I just kept messing with the choke and eventually the smoking got less and it began to idle, sort of. Kept at it, messing with the the mix screw screw and after a few minutes getting it hot, the smoke was gone and it runs fine.

I was a bit worried about the muffler being clogged up, but, that seems not a problem now.

Still hesitates a bit when going from idle to full but fine