hosocat
ArboristSite Operative
I think there is some ongoing discussion about advisability of using an ultrasonic cleaner to clean chainsaw carb bodies. Here is my recent experience.
This week I decided to tune up a homelite 240 chainsaw and a troybilt tb430 leaf blower that have been lying around my garage. Both of them would start and run, but they both required feathering the trigger and partial choke to keep running. So I decided to clean the carbs and see if that helped. The gaskets, pump membrane and valve diaphragms all looked good, so I just cleaned and reassembled. However, this time I did something I've not done before. I used my new ultrasonic cleaner to clean the bodies. With the 240 carb I immersed it in a jar of acetone, and for leaf blower I immersed in a jar of harbor freight degreaser cleaner solution (the greenish yellow stuff).
Upon reassembly both pieces of equipment would not start or even sputter. Just stone cold dead. If I dribbled fuel into the carb throat they start right up, but die in a couple seconds.
So, I'm thinking in both cases the check valves were damaged by ultrasound and the carb venturi cannot draw any fuel from the line.
This is just my experience. Don't know how the ultrasound has worked for others. Not really a big deal for the leaf blower, cuz I can get a replacement carb easily from hipa. But the homelite 240 makes me sick because I'm not finding any replacement carbs available.
This week I decided to tune up a homelite 240 chainsaw and a troybilt tb430 leaf blower that have been lying around my garage. Both of them would start and run, but they both required feathering the trigger and partial choke to keep running. So I decided to clean the carbs and see if that helped. The gaskets, pump membrane and valve diaphragms all looked good, so I just cleaned and reassembled. However, this time I did something I've not done before. I used my new ultrasonic cleaner to clean the bodies. With the 240 carb I immersed it in a jar of acetone, and for leaf blower I immersed in a jar of harbor freight degreaser cleaner solution (the greenish yellow stuff).
Upon reassembly both pieces of equipment would not start or even sputter. Just stone cold dead. If I dribbled fuel into the carb throat they start right up, but die in a couple seconds.
So, I'm thinking in both cases the check valves were damaged by ultrasound and the carb venturi cannot draw any fuel from the line.
This is just my experience. Don't know how the ultrasound has worked for others. Not really a big deal for the leaf blower, cuz I can get a replacement carb easily from hipa. But the homelite 240 makes me sick because I'm not finding any replacement carbs available.
