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

I have a 1980 Toro 824 (Mod: 38080 SN: 0003627) snow thrower that I just purchased.  The machine runs and performs remarkably well but it has a leak in the carburetor.  A roundish stream of gasoline seems to come through the side of the carburetor at the arrow point in the pic (sorry about poor quality) below.  I am getting a little to blind to be able to see exactly what is going on.  I can see where the gas is leaking but there appears to be nothing but carburetor body in the area.  The machine runs fine - more or less as the engine tends to run faster going uphill than down.  Any pointers?  Do I need to replace the carburetor or is there a float or something not functioning correctly?

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A 38080!  That’s one of the nicest snowblowers ever made.

Not the whole carb.  The hole is supposed to be there but gas is not supposed to rise to that level in the carb. 

 

It could be:

 

Your float has pinhole, taking in gas, and can’t float anymore. (likely)  Depending on the location of the pin hole it may flood sometimes and not others.

 

Dirt not allowing the needle valve to seat. (not so likely)

Messed up seat or needle. (not so likely)

Miss-adjusted tang on the float that secures the clip holding on the needle valve. (not so likely)

 

Trouts

Thanks!  I kind of lucked out - bought it on Kijiji.  Never owned a snowblower before - always used one of the farm tractors or my JD 40 crawler dozer.  I am in town now so no farm tractors and the highway guys look at you funny if they see you getting close to their pavement with a crawler even if it does only weigh 4900 lbs.

Anyhow, thanks for the pointers - sounds like I need a carburetor rebuild kit, right?  Thanks for answering my question on the hole.  I thought it a casting defect at first until I noticed that the gas stream was round instead of irregular.

The float could just be sticking if the engine hasn't  run for a while. I had this happen with a chipper. A vry light rap on the side of the carburetor with a hammer took casre of it.