Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

my 12.5 hp kawasaki on my mower goes into surging after 1 minute of running. I took carb off and cleaned very good but didn't take off any weltch plugs ( this right word?) thou. it seems better when I open up throttle. more noticable at lower rpm's.  power doesn't seem to be hurt at all.  is this a common thing for Kawi motors? any ideas on fix?    thanks     Gene

I know the answer to this and it is simple to fix. I have corrected this problem many many times I have the same motor.

While looking at the carburator I can explain how to do this fix. It requires a straw or The drain tube (thats what I use) that coms off the top of the carb.

Anyway with the engine off look at the carb ...you will see just above the alluminium bowl the main body of the carb...on the edge facing you you can see a small spot that looks like a Bee Bee to the left of it you can see a small hole facing you. By what ever means blow pressure into this hole. I use the tube and mouth pressure.On the top side of the carb just up from this tiny hole you will see a bigger hole facing up to the sky ...this is exit hole to the tiny one. grass dirt or crap falls into this causing surging, I do not know the reason for this pathway (but the design is very poor do to clogging twice a year or so) but I do not care I discovered the fix and stop my surging every time...some times I have twirl a strait pin down in this holethen blow it out useing the smaller hole...in fact after a few years you can recognize slight surginging ahead of time. This carb is also very very easy to take apart and clean. gently screw in your needle counting the turns to shut...do not do this tight ...screw out and take all apart with fairly standard screw driver. use carb cleaner or brake cleaner and you are goo to go.

I know this fix sounds dumb...but I am a McGuiver kinda guy and this is the fix.

Good post Bomax. You deffinetly pulled a Mcguiver allright lol.

PS: I really like that show...

Thanks, for posting your technique for fixing this issue.  Geno is the type of guy that would appreciate this.