Don't let this happen to your Pressure washer.

what's up everyone and thank you for stopping by today's project is this home light pressure washer and the problem is that it doesn't run now i found this online in the free section of an online market and i had to drive across town to get it but when i saw it i was pretty confident that i could save it let's take a good look at it find out what's wrong with it and hopefully we can fix it in this video we try and repair this pressure washer however it may not be the exact repair you need to make to yours we'll explore other options later in the video now i was able to speak to the person who was giving this away and he said it didn't start but it wasn't abused in any way just covered in light sawdust so it should run now i don't normally have this kind of feedback from owners and that's because most of the things i find were left on the curb well this one was an ad for something to be given away so the most common problem with pressure washers is that they sometimes go for long periods of time between uses so much time passes that they're kind of forgotten about this is of course the same problem with snow blowers and generators what happens is that the gas in the tank will sometimes go bad and then the engine won't start other bad things can also happen in storage but we'll get to that here in a little bit now even though i know there's a really good chance that this engine works i still want to do a diagnostic on it just so i don't get a nasty surprise like a broken engine the first thing i want to check are the fluids and the most important one is of course the oil as you can see there's plenty of it on the dipstick and you can also see it at the bottom of the threads for the dipstick now depending on what my plans are for this thing we might change the oil later on in the video now i was told that the gasoline was good and it does smell fresh before we drain out the tank i want to try and start it that way we can see what it does and doesn't do try not to pay any attention to these stickers that say e10 is fine to use in this engine i would only recommend using 100 gasoline without any ethanol if you cannot find ethanol free gasoline in your area you might get away with using additives to help the ethanol from hurting your fuel system just as a reminder make sure that the kill switch is in the on position turn the fuel valve to open and then put the choke to start and then pull the rope a few times so it didn't even try and start now i have to wonder if there's something else wrong with the engine other than the fuel system the first thing i want to check is the ignition system to do that i'm going to use my spark checker now you can find these online for only a few dollars and to use it just install it in line with the spark plug pull the rope a few times and watch for an orange glow in the tester once again make sure the kill switch is in the on position as you just saw there was an orange glow from the tester so that means we have a working ignition system now if you did not see a glow then you might have a bad kill switch low oil level switch or even a bad ignition coil the next thing i want to do is drain some of the gasoline from the bowl and see if there's anything wrong with it to do that i'll close the fuel valve remove the drain bolt and drain the gasoline from the bowl now if no gas comes out of the bowl then you might have a clogged valve or your fuel screen in the tank might be clogged now don't mind the dark spots at the bottom of the cup as it wasn't completely clean however notice that the gasoline looks more like tea than fresh gasoline now as gasoline gets older it gets darker and by the looks of this one it's got a few months on it now if you pour fresh gasoline in the tank that fresh gasoline will not make its way to the carb if there's already old gas in it you would have to open the drain bolt for a few seconds to get rid of the old gasoline first next i want to drain the gasoline out of the tank and see if it's as dark as what came out of the carb so this is what came out of the tank and as you can see it's not as dark as what came out of the bowl that means that the fresh gasoline was only in the tank and wasn't getting to the carb next i want to put some fresh gasoline in the carbs throat and do a test start to make sure that the engine still runs fortunately the engine started and ran for a few seconds which is great news now if your engine did not start then you might check the spark plug for any issues just because we have a working ignition system doesn't mean it's actually getting through the spark plug now i could try to put fresh gasoline in the tank and see if it will run however knowing that there was old gasoline in the car but makes me suspect we're going to have to clean it and if not then at least know what condition the carb is in so this is our first problem the frame for the pressure washer is in our way so taking off the intake is going to be a bit tough unfortunately the only way to get around this obstacle was to turn the engine to do that i'll remove three of the engine mounting bolts and loosen the last one that way i can turn the engine away from the frame the other option was to make this part of the frame removable but i didn't want to ruin the frame after loosening the last bolt we can now swing the engine away from the frame now we have more than enough room to take off the intake and the carb i will say this there's a lot of stuff to take off this carb before we slide it off the studs but once everything is disconnected it should come right off the engine this is when we come to our next problem we need to move the throttle lever so we can take off the governor linkage and the small spring however it's stuck i'm going to try and rotate it but i didn't realize i was damaging it we'll take a look at the damage later on this is when we find yet another problem we can't slide the carb off the studs without hitting the wheel so i decided to remove the wheel but i got so focused on removing the wheel i forgot that the engine was loose and i could have just rotated the engine a bit more to clear the wheel at least i know how to take the wheel off now now after removing the bowl there's definitely some buildup on it but it shouldn't be too difficult to deal with the float also has some buildup on it as well but at least it's moving like it's supposed to that also means that the needle that's attached to it is also not stuck either it'll be easier to clean once it's off the car but that way we can clean every surface that has old gas stuck on it after that we need to remove the fuel jet to make sure it's not clogged just make sure you use a flat head that's just as wide as the opening if it's too narrow you might damage the brass jet so here's the brass jet and there's supposed to be a hole in the middle of it so we should be able to see right through it unfortunately it looks like it's clogged so we'll have to try to unclog it i'm going to use a large piece of wire to clean some of the old gas that's around the opening then i'll spray carb cleaner through the hole to unclog it it looks as though it's worked because we can now see right through it the next thing i want to do is remove the emulsion tube which you can see the top of when you look through the throat of the carb the easiest way for me to do that is to push the top of the tube down and then give it a few taps to get it to fall out of the carb once it's out we can then start cleaning any old gasoline that might be on it and unclog any holes that we find as you can see there's some corrosion on it along with the old gasoline the main passage seems to be clogged as well so i'm going to run a large wire through it so i can clear it if you want to use carb cleaner for this part you're absolutely welcome to after that the easiest way i find to clean these is to first use a wire brush then clean the holes with a small wire then use some carb cleaner on it if you want to use some compressed air as well that will work but just be careful and wear some eye protection the next thing i want to clean is the bowl this probably would have been a lot easier if it wasn't gummy since there was just gasoline on it but it's still going to come off with a wire brush either way along with some carb cleaner i like to use my worn out brass brush for this as it fits the contour of the bowl really well while it's not perfect but it looks a whole lot better i'm satisfied that it's as clean as i can get it next i'll try and clean the old gas off the float in the needle i don't think the old gas is going to damage the float in any way but the extra weight from the old gas might affect the way the float works after a few more minutes of spraying carb cleaner and wiping the float looks pretty good along with the needle so i don't lose the needle i'm going to install it back onto the float after that we can untackle the stuck throttle plate what i'm going to do is spray some carb cleaner at the base of the plate where the pivot is after letting it soak i'll keep spraying it till i can turn the flap to one side then i can remove the small bolt holding it to the shaft then i can remove the shaft for a better cleaning after i'm satisfied with the cleaning i'll then spray some lubricant on the shaft where it pivots in the carb i'm going to use some silicone lubricant where the pivot is and it should last for some time i don't want to use any lithium grease because i don't want any dirt to build up on the brass shaft before we install the throttle shaft we need to see how bad it was damaged from when i forced it to turn when taking off the carb now the plastic is not brittle so even though there is some play it's still going to work like it should that means we can still use the original part i've spent a lot of time taking this carb apart and cleaning every single piece that makes contact with gasoline if i had to guess i think i've spent about 40 minutes so far and i'm not even done yet there's still a few more parts i need to remove inspect and clean if you want to make this repair a lot easier for yourself just buy an aftermarket carb instead then you won't have to worry about whether or not you cleaned and cleared everything you need to so this was right below the idle set screw and inside this plastic body there's a brass jet we need to make sure it's clear and for me i like to use a micro drill bit after it's clear i'll then spray the carbs passages to make sure they're clear as well then i'll start to reassemble the carb another reason why this pressure washer might not be starting is that the screen inside the fuel tank that keeps debris from getting in the fuel system is clogged by old sticky gasoline if that happens fresh gasoline won't make it into the carb so of course it won't start to fix it you'll have to drain the gasoline out of the tank and then spray carb cleaner through the fuel line so it can loosen the old varnished gasoline do not use compressed air through the line because it might damage the screen if you do break the screen then you'll need to install an inline fuel filter once the carb is back together we can now slide it back onto the engine studs reconnect the governor linkage and its spring then we can reconnect the fuel lines and all the other things that were anchored to the carb and to the intake with the carb back on the engine i'm going to reinstall the wheel because i'm getting kind of tired of filming this engine while it's crooked after that don't forget to put on the choke lever then we can reinstall the air intake also don't forget to install the vent hose from the gas tank and the emissions tube from the valve cover otherwise dirt might get into the engine this is the original filter and even though the foam pre-filter isn't dirty it is a bit discolored however the paper filter underneath it is almost in pristine condition that shows you just how little this engine has been used the last thing we need to do is replace the three bolts we took off earlier and tighten the one we loosened i really don't blame the manufacturer for this oversight of having to almost remove the engine to service it but i do blame the engineers for this design i guess they never thought someone would have to remove the air intake or the carb the other option would be to remove the studs but i'm still not sure if there's enough room to even do that and even though i'm using 100 gasoline i'm still using a fuel stabilizer just to make sure i don't have any problems if i do forget to empty the fuel system so so it starts and runs very well which is great news now most people forget that you cannot leave an engine running on a pressure washer without using the wand as the pump is cooled by the water flowing through the pump otherwise it might end up overheating this will damage the pump and then you'll need to either replace the pump or rebuild it in the future make sure you close the fuel valve and let the engine run until it dies but if you don't do that just remember you can always close the fuel valve after you stop the engine then you can remove the drain bolt and empty the fuel out of the bowl that way if the gasoline does go bad it won't affect the carb and you won't have to go through what i just did so my question is would you have replaced the carb in this situation or would you have cleaned it like i did personally i would still try and clean it and only when it doesn't work is when i order a new carb thank you for watching i really do appreciate your time please feel free to ask me any questions and i hope to see you in the next video

Channel: Home Garage

Views: 21,462

Keywords: honda, husqvarna, poulan, toro, troybilt, troy, homelite, craftsman, craftsmen, 216, 217, harmony, lawnmower, won't, start, will, not, starting, starts, run, running, runs, work, works, working, problem, fix, issue, diy, grass, weeds, mow, trim, yard, yardmachine, home, garage, inside, house, air, filter, spark, oil, gas, carb, carburetor, clean, rebuild, ultrasonic, bowl, nut, jet, clogged, clog, clear, wheel, deck, blade, pull, rope, cap, line, bag, clooged, water, easy, simple, hayter, mountfield, stiga, snapper, self, propel, shakes, power, washer, pressure, mower

Id: 6O7TmjEDDHA

Length: 13min 34sec (814 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021