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Chineese Kohler Carbs on Ebay


SmilinSam

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Purchased one of these for the K341 in my Sunstar...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Carburetor-For-Kohler-K321-K341-Cast-Iron-14-hp-16-hp-14HP-16HP-Engine-Carb/112336620767?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Theres a boat load of these cheap carbs on Ebay , some direct from China, others from distributors here in the US.

Figured it was cheap enough I could afford to throw it away if I had to. Here is what I found...

The seller I bought from above, didnt use any packing material  to ship the carb. They just tossed it into a small box and let it bounce around inside. The box arrived damaged, and the tangs on both the throttle and choke shafts were bent. No, big deal as the throttle shaft wasnt bent much at all, and I needed to replace the choke shaft with the correct type for my application.

The choke and throttle shafts will interchange with oem Kohler ones. Had no problem putting my oem choke shaft in the new carb body.  The throttle shaft appears to be the same deal, though I did not actually change that one out. There is one difference though. While the shaft dimensions appear to be the same and the butterflys appaer to be identical, the screws are not. The screws on the chineese carbs are bigger diameter..

After changing out the choke shaft I installed the carb in the tractor. The bolt holes for the air cleaner housing are identical both in position and thread size to the oem carbs.  At least the bolts in my oem carb screwed right into the china carb. Mount to the block seems identical to the oem carb also. No problems at all installing. Even the throttle link snapped right onto the throttle shaft ball nice and tight.

Started up the tractor, and while it runs well at idle, it constantly surges when you increase the rpms. Tried adjusting the jets with no results at all.. Removed the main jet and found that it is slightly shorter than an oem version, and also the threads are different. You cant screw an oem one into the china carb or vice versa.

I suspect that the float is not adjusted properly, but dont know. I am going to take the carb bowl off next and see whats inside. I do note that the surging stops when you apply a load  to the engine, like runningthe tranny at full speed forward, but immediately starts in again when you take the load off. Did not have this problem with the oem carb when it was working.(throttle shaft broke loose).

Will update this thread when I get the bowl off and look at the float. If it is adjustable with the normal tang to bend, and it fixes the problem, this wont be a bad carb. We will have to see.....

Edited by SmilinSam
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I have bought 3 of these Chinese carbs (straight from China) for Kohler Magnum engines in the past year. The last one came yesterday. All were well wrapped in both foam and bubble wrap inside their boxes. None were damaged. One was put on an 18 horse magnum in an Argo and one was put on a 20 HP magnum in a sun star. Only modification needed was the little hole had to be drilled out a bit bigger for the choke rod to fit. After adjusting the idle and high speed jets, both engines run well with no issues. The carb I just got yesterday will be going on another 18 HP magnum that I'm putting back together now. I have no complaints with these carbs and they were just $27.00 Canadian and $5.00 shipping.

I also have a cheap push mower that hasn't seen much use but it was giving me carb problems--wasn't getting any fuel. I took it apart 3 times and it looked perfectly clean inside. Finally gave up and then found a Chinese carb for it. Stuck it on and it fired right up. Started second pull again this spring and it's been running fine since. Also have a friend who was having carb problems with a push mower. He got a carb for it and it has been running well since.

Edited by puttputt
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I got one acouple of years ago of EBAY for a 16 HP K series, would idle fine but not open up, contacted the seller and they sent another one! that one wouldn't idle but did open up so I left it on to mow, the next year (proper storage of fuel was followed) it didn't run well either, switched coils,points,condenser and finally gave up. been looking at ISAVETRACTORS tuneup kits & another carb when I get some $$  . been mowing with 712 Shuttle but installed the 48 inch deck.

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I have purchased three, all for k series. two are or have been used, both worked great. Third has not been installed and it is for a 16 hp. Packaging was bubble wrapped and box was fine. I never buy direct from china , look for one with good feedback and hope for the best, if this last one is junk I am still dollar wise ok will be finding out in the not so distant future if I am three for three,

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Tried bending the tang this way and that, but didnt make any difference. Still surged at anything over idle no matter where I put it. In fact, moving the float up (like an oem carb is supposed to be set) actually prevented the valve from seating and I had gas running out of the carb into the air filter.

Seller has offered to send another replacement carb.

Learned a few more things opening up the bowl...

The floats are white plastic. Just slightly taller than the oem metal ones. The hinge point for the chine carb float hangs down into the bowl a little more than the oem version. The float valve and screw in seat on the china carb is slightly longer and slightly larger diameter than oem. However, the threads for the screw in seat are the same as oem.

Not sure if there is something that can be done to make this thing actually work. Will play with it some more while I wait for the replacement carb.

 

Edited by SmilinSam
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Not the governor. Ran perfect with the previous kohler carb on it. Only reason for the new carb was that the control plate on the throttle shaft on my other carb came loose from the shaft.

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Got one more test to do on this carb and if that fails to yield positive results, I will take the throttle shaft out of this china carb and put it in the oem carb body. Then see if it runs right again.

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Just wondered.  With new tight connections and shafts I thoght perhaps it changed the dynamics of the governor connections. The old stuff had enough play as not be so sensitive maybe?

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9 hours ago, Brettw said:

Just wondered.  With new tight connections and shafts I thoght perhaps it changed the dynamics of the governor connections. The old stuff had enough play as not be so sensitive maybe?

Wouldnt take much to change the spring position, so I will try that too. But the shaft on the old carb and the carb body wasnt worn. Probably one of the best carbs Ive had on a Kohler as far as lack of wear. I dont kno what caused the brazed connection of the plate to the shaft to break.

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Well, I tried the spring positions above and below where it was originally and the surging persisted without any change at all.

Its not a slow loping surge either. Its a sharp, quick surge over and over at anything above idle.

Cant figure this one out. If you grab the throttle shaft and hold it against the light pull of the governor arm, it runs steady...so I dont think its a drop in fuel supply. If its the governor, I sure dont know whats wrong, or how it could have gone wrong. Like I said, this engine ran fine in all respects prior to the control plate breaking free. And it obly overspeeded by a couple hundred rpms up to maybe 3800 or so max for short periods

The engine did not do this surging  ever prior to removing the origoinal carb( which was not worn or loose at all). Like I said, the origional is being replaced because the control plate on the top of the throttle shaft broke free and the engine was trying to overspeed some(which is how I noticed the problem).

Now, I pulled the throttle shaft/butterfly out of the china carb and put it into the original kohler carb and put that back in the engine. No change. Still surges as described above. Surely the problem isnt he china throttle shaft.???

This is driving me nuts.

I brought home a bunch of tractor stuff from an auction yesterday which includes two more K341's. One with a Kohler carb and another with a Walbro carb. Thinking about rebuilding both carbs and trying them. Could also try a different gov spring just for fun I guess. This is getting on my bad nerve...>:( Going to have to go back to building plastic models again just to relax for a while:S

Edited by SmilinSam
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Ya'll aint a goin to believe this...

 

 Got home, fed up with this carb crap, I did one more thing to satisfy lingering doubt as to governor issues. I loosened the nut on the gov arm and reset the shaft and arm as per the kohler manual. Ran the engine again and same issues persisted....no change.

So...

I went over to a engine in a running working tractor and robbed the walbro carb off that kohler engine. Put it on the engine I have been trying to use this china carb on and guess what...???

The engine ran perfect !!

So the issue is apparently the chineese carb. That I put the chineese throttleshaft and butterfly in a kohler carb that had been working ok other than the broken throttle shaft bracket, and the same problems persisted into that kohler carb kinda points to some sort of problem in that part doesnt it????

Edited by SmilinSam
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Surging is usually a high speed jet lean condition (if the governor is ok).  So is it possible that the throttle shaft is disturbing the air flow so it is not creating the low pressure area to correctly draw the fuel into the venturi?

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Is it possible the arm is attached at an improper angle to the throttle plate causing the butterfly position to be wrong at a given position of the lever arm? I hope that makes sense. 

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  • 6 months later...

April now, and I just got around to dealing with the 2 K341's I got at the auction I mentioed above.

The company that sent me the malfunctioning carb described above sent me a second carb free of charge. Just now put that on one of the engines on the stand. Runs fine. No problems with the second china carb.

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Just thought I'd throw in my experience with one of these chineese carbs.  Mine was for a Kohler 14 hp engine on my AC314H.  In my experience, the fuel bowl would simply not seal.  I emailed the guy and told him (also on ebay) and he told me to keep the one I had and he'd send a replacement.  Well, while he was sending, I bought a replacement seal kit and fixed the leak.  The gap is very wide and required two seals to work.  The carb seems to work very well in low and high throttle settings.  The tractor is hard to start though.  It takes time to get fuel into the engine.  If I use starter fluid, it fires right up.  Also, the replacement carb choke mechanism was backwards.  So, I had to modify the cable to make it work.  Still, for $23, it seems to be working pretty good. How durable it will be?  That is another question. 

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On 4/12/2018 at 3:45 PM, PhanDad said:

And I'm sure you'd like to know why.

Maybe something in the casting?

 

Almost sounds like the throttle shaft may have had a burr on it, since the surging problem went to the Kohler engine with the throttle shaft change.
Or perhaps slightly bent. Either one would cause a bind and the quick surging.

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If the original problem was the arm came loose on the shaft, why not just pull the shaft out and braze the arm on, nice and tight? Permanent fix/

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