Hello... I just bought a remington sl-9 and it hadnt been ran in years, so i got it home and mixed up a oil rich 16:1 mix and gave 'er a few pulls and it started up and ran okay, but not perfect, so i adjusted the carb a bit and it ran alot better but the idle was always a bit wierd. When i let off the gas if would take a whlie for it to return to idle- and sometimes it would idle fine and occasionally it would die. so I decided to take the carb out and take a look at it and cut a new carb to engine gasket.... I peaked inside the carb and it appeared fairly clean so i tightened it all back up (didnt want to get to far into it and tear a gasket or something)- then reinstalled the carb with a new gasket.... now it wont run right- hard to start when warm, barely idles.... runs wide open fine. I assume i got some dirt in it, or knocked some loose. so, my question is, what is the easiest way to clean it without opening it? should I remove the carb and spray carb clean thru the H & L screw holes and the vents and fuel hole? Is blowing it out with compressed air alright- or do i risk damage to the guts of it? I am not too familar with 2 stroke equipment.... Where would I find a carb rebuild kit for it? the carb is a tillotson HS53A... I cant find anything for this specific carb, however, I found a few on ebay for "HS series carbs"-- will those work? let me know.... I would like to have this running again today! I have some cutting to do!
-First off.......welcome to the site.
-Second, DON'T blow carb cleaner or compressed air into that assembled carb if you don't want to ruin the diaphragms.
-Third, you don't need to run 16/1 in that saw (even though that's what it sez on the saw) as we're using modern 2-stroke lubricants, and the 16/1 ratio was intended for motor oil (DON'T use motor oil). Use good modern 2-stroke oil intended for air cooled engines at 32/1 in that saw and you'll be fine.
-Fourth, don't waste your time trying to 'fix' or 'clean' an assembled carb that's been sitting for years. You're going to have to crack 'er open and rebuild it propperly with an RK-23HS kit. It's not hard, and the kits are easy/cheap to get. Clean the disassembled carb body with spray carb cleaner. If you blow it out with compressed air, DON'T put the nozzle right into the passages and blast away. Hold the nozzle a good foot or so from the body to lessen the pressure a bit. You can use the spray carb cleaner tube right in the passages however. Here's the Tillotson info you need for the rebuild of that carb.
http://www.tillotson.ie/docs/techinfo_HS_US.pdf
Tillotson
-Fifth, My guess is that you may have not gotten the impulse hole cut right in your homemade carb gasket. The RK-23HS kit will come with a new one, so you're covered there too.
-Sixth, be sure you tune the engine right when you get it back together. When tuning the H side, DO NOT tune it for max RPM's or the 'cleanest' sounding running at Wide Open Throttle (WOT) when not in the cut. Tune it so that it burbles (AKA 'four strokes') at WOT out of the cut. When in the cut, it should JUST 'clean up' when heavily loaded down. Anytime you 'lift' cutting pressure (reducing load on the engine), it should drop right back to 'four stroking'. If you tune it for nice clean high RPM running when unloaded, the saw WILL lean out/bog down when loaded in the cut. This WILL damage the engine. I have a shelf full of old saws (including an SL-9) that people killed the pistons/cylinders in by making this mistake...