The 4th little brigg's is ALIVE

It did not take long to put the carb, muffler, and shroud back on. That bottom bolt on the carb is sure a pain.  I pulled the shroud back off to convince the recoil rewind to work better.  It did not take too long to get it started.  The on/off switch does not turn the engine off.  The high speed jet needs adjusting and the linkages some fiddling.

I made a video but all you can hear is the metal base on the motor banging against the metal stand it is sitting on.

I am not sure if this engine was junked because of the repaired pump or because it was backfiring like it did for me prior to lapping the flywheel.

The rotary on/off switch is working.  The switch wire needed to be connected to a lug behind the coil.  All the tin is back on.

For now this is last we will see of the 4th little briggs.

Saturday Jan 13th

Torque wrench arrived.  Loosened and retorqued the head to 160 inch lbs.

The 4th Little Brigg's Carb

Time to checkout the carb and fuel tank.


Prior to taking the carb off the engine I took pictures of the linkages.

The only linkage removed was the one rod to the wind vane used as a governor.

First step is to clean the entire carb in the ultrasonic using cheer and borax. I not using ammonia this time.   After 4 minutes it looked like this and I removed the screws from the pump cover and pried it loose with a razor blade  taking care not to ruin the diaphragm if it was still serviceable.

It looked like it might be so I carefully removed it working the edges loose with a razor blade. 

I would replace it if I had another on hand but it looks serviceable so it will get reused.  It is easy enough to test by blowing into and sucking on the long feed tube once the carb is clean and reassembled. 

The main jet needle looked very clean when I took it out.  I wonder if it was this clean to start with or if the cleaner cleaned it in place..

I was thinking I could reuse the carb to tank gasket but it is trash.  Had I been thinking I would have taken a picture of it prior to trying to remove it.  With luck I will find images on the web.

The good news is the pump diaphragm regained some of its flexibility after cleaning.  I noticed that the pump spring was not as tall as the new one I had installed in the first pulsa-jet.  So I stretched it a bit.  The pump seems to work. 

Now I need to clean the tank and cut a carb to tank gasket.

What I learned:  I had been thinking it was the ammonia that removed the paint.  This carb lost some paint but not as much.  Mostly the pain came off the lighter bits so I am thinking it is also temperature related.  Most of the time I would rather have a clean carb then a painted one that does not work.

I had second thoughts regarding the used pump spring.  I removed the new spring and diaphragm from the other carb.  The new spring is on the left. The already somewhat stretched spring is in the center.  I placed the new spring and diaphragm in the red carb.  After additional stretching the center spring was placed into the green carb.

The image on the left was found on the net.  It is an aftermarket gasket.  There are two bolt holes on top because briggs moved the screw location.  The older green carb uses the top location the red the bottom.  Closer hole better seal.

The image was imported to make the cut for pixel tracing.  The trial cut was made with purple paper was too small.

It was easy to stretch the size a bit in MTC and cut a good fitting gasket.  OK maybe it is a bit lame to make a gasket that costs $1.50 but I don't have one on hand and with the zombie engines I am needing gaskets on a regular basis and then there is shipping.  Also keep in mind that for me this is entertainment.


The filler neck on the gas tank was crushed down on one side.  A little work with a small pliers and the cap screwed on.  To clean the tank I added gravel and about a cup of acetone.  Lots of shaking and the inside is nice and shiny.

All cleaned up and ready to go back on the engine.  That is an intake gasket on the carb intake.  Do you think the green cap gives it a bit of a Christmas feeling!

4th Little Brigg

Today I took a look at another one of the trash pumps. Cosmetically the engine is in decent shape for its age so the goal is to repair rather then restore.   It is the red 3HP engine with the blue pump.  Model 82232, meaning 8ci", roller bearing, and pull start.  Date code is 1986 which is post 1982 and means it has electronics ignition.  This unit has a straight output shaft with a threaded end.  No keyway.  Best of all this engine has a cast iron sleeve.  Parts Manual, User Manual.

This engine, the red one,  is over 20 years newer then the 3 other 3hp engines.  It will be interesting to see the changes.  The 3 little briggs are series 0 engines and this is a series 2.

I cleaned the spark plug using a propane torch, a trick I learned on youtube from +sixtyfiveford,   I need to see if the ultrasonic cleaner works on plugs. A short workout on the pull starter but "no joy".

To go any further the pump had to be removrd. Mostly it was easy. The impeller was threaded onto the output shaft and removed using pbBlaster, a little heat, and a few raps with a wrench to vibrate the oil into the rust.  Then I took the engine over to the other shop and used s 20+ year old air chisel to unscrew the impeller.  At first glance the pump seems functional but is missing it hose connectors.

With the pump gone I pulled off the blower shroud and head.  The valves look good.  You can feel a compression release acting on the exhaust valve.  See Briggs and Stratton Innovations.   Very little hard carbon but a lot of soot.  The cylinder wall looked good too.  I did not measure it.

With everything looking good under the hood I started to put the head back on.  The UPS man had just delivered my "TEKTON 24320 1/4-Inch Drive Click Torque Wrench" from Amazon and I anxious to give it a try.  Sadly it did not matter what it was set to it did not click.  It even jammed up as one turned the adjusting ring.  It is going back. I put the head back on guessing at the torque.

I have been twisting off bolts since I was a kid so I have to take a bit of care.  Anyway after adding a dribble of gas to the intake I spun the overrun clutch with my 3/4" drill.    The thing would fire and stop the flywheel dead in its tracks. I did get it to run once and it ran quite well till it used up the gas.

Given that we know the valves are working correctly I would guess that the flywheel key is sheared.   Just to be safe I am letting it rest over night with a dribble of pbBlaster on the exhaust valve stem.  But my bet is on the key-way.

To check I will have to pull the overrun clutch and remove the flywheel.    For the time I am ignoring the carb and fuel tank.  If the engine won't run it don't need fuel.

If the output shaft of this engine is the same as on the generator it may end up doing duty there.  Would need to tear further into the generator to find out. So far I have only removed the shroud.  I may even put the trash pump back on it if I can get the hose connectors I need of one off the other pumps.  The 3 hp is not quite so hard to move around as the larger ones.

Thinking that the key is sheared I have been doing some reading on http://oldMiniBikes.com tonight.   It was very informative.

1. Never use a steel key
2. Torque flywheel to 60 ft/lbs
3. Never strike the flywheel
4. Lap the flywheel to the crankshaft with valve lapping compound
5. Use a 1" socket on the starter drive to tighten it with a torque wrench
6. The concave side of the washer faces the flywheel

The claim is that if you lap the flywheel-crankshaft fit it takes the strain off the key.  So much so that a key is not really needed.  I have visions of going through keys like water so this was good news.  I have been using a 1" socket to drive the starter to crank the engine so #5 is a bit of a no brainer but good to see it in print.  Even if it is not the sanctioned method.

A guy on ebay has 25 keys for $11 including shipping.

Pulled the flywheel today and the key is not sheered.  Put it all back together and it did the same thing.  Next I changed the plug, screwed on the impeller to give it more rotating mass (flywheel effect) and put the pull start back on.  It started.  Took off the impeller, it still started.  The pump impeller is cast and has been brazed!   Think shrapnel !   This pump is junk unless another impeller from the lot fits it.

Drained the oil

Next the Carb.