Lawn mower maintenance is important, ladies and gentlemen. You can’t get the most out of your grass cutter if you don’t take care of it. You’d be simply amazed by how many people on the internet blame manufacturers for problems that could easily be solved with just a little maintenance on their machine!
And you can start off that maintenance work by cleaning your carburetor.
Contents
What Does A Carburetor Do?
A lawn mower’s carburetor is one of the most important and integral parts. It mixes the fuel and air to make the lawn mower operate. It’s what the starter ignites when it’s triggered.
Carburetors are necessary to make gas-powered lawn mowers work. Any mower that is powered by fuel requires a carburetor in order to turn on and cut grass. If your mower doesn’t have one, it’s either an electric mower or it’s broken!
What Happens If You Don’t Clean It?
There are a couple reasons that you’d want to clean your lawn mower’s carburetor. For one, you don’t even want your lawn mower to run lean. When we see run lean, we mean that the air and fuel will run out of balance, thus possibly breaking your lawn mower.
Another reason you don’t want to leave the carburetor uncleaned is because it can make the gas go bad. When the gas goes bad, toxic fumes clog up the mower and shut it down.
Basically, you NEED to clean your carburetor.
How Do You Clean One Without Removing It?
- Make Sure The Lawn Mower Is Safe To Inspect – This is pretty much a no-brainer here, but your lawn mower should be in the proper condition for a cleaning. More importantly, you lawn mower should be in a position where cleaning the carburetor without removing it won’t hurt it. It may not hurt to give the lawn mower a quick once over before focusing on the carburetor.
When we say once over, we mean conduct routine maintenance on your grass-cutter. Check the blades, engine, tank, everything!
- Get A Pair of Gloves – Because you need gloves when cleaning! They can protect you from germs and other chemicals that you may be sensitive to on a gas-powered lawn mower. We recommend rubber or padded gloves, as one provides sanitation and the other provides protection.
- Check The Air Filter For Ick- Before you check the carburetor’s relationship with fuel, you should first see how it is with the air filter. Is the air coming in clean? Is it icky and toxic?
If it’s dirty, you should first assess the situation. Is it only a little dirty? If so, then you can probably remove any clogs and get clean air.
If it’s beyond repair, however, you may need to invest in another air filter.
- Check Around The Carburetor – Go ahead and check any connections that are attached to your carburetor’s choke plates and throttle. When left alone for too long, they can get dirty and sticky. Not to mention that the vibration can cause the screws of the carburetor to shift or even dislodge themselves entirely.
Be extra cautious and check this!
- Use Cleaner To Remove Debris and Clogs – After a while of using your lawn mower, it’s only natural that it’s going to accumulate a mess inside of it. Since the carburetor is the go-between for fuel and air, it’s bound to get all sorts of twigs, leaves, grass, and other unwanted things stuck inside. If this gets too out of hand, than the debris can clog air and fuel passages…and when this happens, your lawn mower suffers and the engine stops dead.
To avoid this, you need to use your carburetor cleaner to spray away the gunk from your machine. Just spray that bad-boy and wipe away. And don’t forget to grab the globs of debris and toss them aside.
- One Final Wipe Down – After removing clogs, it’s now time to give your carburetor one last cleaning job before leaving it alone. Check for any grime and ick and wipe it away. After all, there’s bound to be at least a little whenever you use it for long enough without cleaning.
Once you’re done cleaning, set everything back to the way it was and clean up any messes you might’ve made.
Well done! You’ve cleaned your carburetor without removing it!
Concluding Thoughts
It’s not that hard to clean a carburetor on a lawn mower. Heck, you’ve just read an entire guide on how to clean it without even removing it! It’s not only possible, it’s ultimately very time-saving.
With our guide, you can easily clean your lawn mower’s carburetor and still have time to watch the game on TV. And you don’t even need a whole lot of tools to do it!
Just some gloves, wipes, and carburetor cleaner!
Sarah Eberle qualified and became a member of the Landscape Institute in 1980. Over the last 26 years she has practised landscape architecture and garden design, running her own business in Devon.
During the 1990s, Sarah joined Hillier Landscapes as Design Director, where she is still a shareholder but also runs her own practice in Hampshire.
Sarah has an esteemed record in RHS shows, having won eight Gold medals, Best in Show and the George Cook award for innovation twice at Hampton Court. Sarah has also exhibited at Tatton Park and BBC Gardeners’ World Live.