Husky 359 Walbro to Zama carb swap?

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trophyhunter

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I had ordered the Zama C3-EL42 carb to have on hand for my 359 when the notorious 199A Walbro carb decided to act up. And act up it has been all of a sudden and today it just went DOA while doing some bucking. So time to change it out, is it better to remove the plastic limiters on the adjusters before installation on these Zama's or just leave em on?

Starting point for number of turns to begin tuning etc? Thanks for the advise guys!
 
Workshop manual I have says 1 and 1, but I suspect that's without limiters, of course.

I'm gonna go ahead and pull them, there's no way to know for sure where they are set at with the limiters in place and I dont want a lean condition on the saw.
 
I have heard quite a few say they have more trouble from the Zama's than the Walbro's. I am not trying to scare you, but swap it out long enough to send the Walbro to Treemonkey and let him fix it and send it back, because it is a much better carb per the masses that use them. But you can always run it, and it may never give you trouble either. Good luck.
 
Not familair with the exact limiter setup you have, but on my 350 I took the limiters off carefully, then shaved the stops off with a razor blade and put them back on. Makes it easier to adjust than just removing them completely.
 
I have heard quite a few say they have more trouble from the Zama's than the Walbro's. I am not trying to scare you, but swap it out long enough to send the Walbro to Treemonkey and let him fix it and send it back, because it is a much better carb per the masses that use them. But you can always run it, and it may never give you trouble either. Good luck.

Uh yea, not to impressed with the Zama at all, although it's running ok I just can't seem to tune it to spool up like the Walbro would run it. The lack of an accelerator pump in the Zama may be why?
 
Uh yea, not to impressed with the Zama at all, although it's running ok I just can't seem to tune it to spool up like the Walbro would run it. The lack of an accelerator pump in the Zama may be why?

When you send your carb to treemonkey he put's a new carb kit in and everything.
 
I had a walbro failure on my 359 when it was quite new and I put a new Zama on. The Zama works very well for me and now I have a Walbro that Treemonkey fixed. Honestly, I cant really tell much difference, but the Walbros have a better reputation. Thats all I can tell ya for now.

Ron
 
Well that's good to hear at any rate Ron, I'd like for that Zama to do the job as it seems it can at least be rebuilt by the likes of me when it needs a kit. I flat ran out of daylight today and had to get back after the last load of wood I bucked earlier so I'll spend some more time tomorrow trying to get it dialed in.

I did pull the plastic limiter shroud and tabs off before I did the swap makes adjusting the saw a whole lot easier.
 
did you diagnose the problem or are you just assuming it's the carb?;)

Swapped another 199A Walbro carb from the other 359 into it and it ran perfect, plus the bad Walbro had all the classic symptoms of that carbs known issues. So yea, it was limited to the carb in this case.
 
Good deal.... Send it to TreeMonkey!!

Nope, If I can't rebuild a saw part myself then it's no use to me at all. Our saw dealer's in this neck of the woods are a joke and you better be able to work on your own saws if you hope to keep them up and running.

At least the Zama carb can be made right by your average tech with a cleaning and kit. I just ordered another one of those Zama's for the other saw when that Walbro goes down.
 
Nope, If I can't rebuild a saw part myself then it's no use to me at all. Our saw dealer's in this neck of the woods are a joke and you better be able to work on your own saws if you hope to keep them up and running.

At least the Zama carb can be made right by your average tech with a cleaning and kit. I just ordered another one of those Zama's for the other saw when that Walbro goes down.

I have and extra carb for each saw I own

Mostly because I've been fixing a few saw's and just want to change other peoples saw's carbs are bad then fix there carbs and put them back on
 
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Uh yea, not to impressed with the Zama at all, although it's running ok I just can't seem to tune it to spool up like the Walbro would run it. The lack of an accelerator pump in the Zama may be why?

Could be, and there is a way to have those Walbro carbs fixed! ;)
 
I'm not aware of the Zama carb having any issues on a stock saw. AFAIK, the issues with the Zama was on ported 346s.

I have read several times that the Zama replacements doesn't really work as well as a functional Walbro HDA-199 etc on the 357xp/359 - but I don't really know....
 
Nope, If I can't rebuild a saw part myself then it's no use to me at all. Our saw dealer's in this neck of the woods are a joke and you better be able to work on your own saws if you hope to keep them up and running.

At least the Zama carb can be made right by your average tech with a cleaning and kit. I just ordered another one of those Zama's for the other saw when that Walbro goes down.


Once Treemonkey fixes it, it's fixed for good. All it would need for the rest of it's life is the normal carb kit.

Glad you got everything taken care of.
 
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