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

I have a Honda HS828 snowblower that recently started surging. It has ran perfect all year until a couple days ago when it started surging about 20 minutes after running it. The motor surged for a while then it died and would only run for a few minutes at a time at about half throttle then it would surge and die. That was also the warmest weather (low 30s) that I have fun this snowblower in. I pulled the carb apart and it looked pretty clean. Could this be a weather related issue? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I've been typing on a phone, so sorry about not being clear. As the others, I agree about cleaning every opening on the carb with a wire (I used a torch cleaning kit from Menard's). Mine still surged after this cleaning' and then started backfiring. I ordered a new carb and gaskets, then cleaned the floaters in the tank before the new carb arrived...at least I have a spare OEM carb on the shelf now.

The temps were back down into the low teens again today (Saturday) and I had to clear about 8 inches of crusty hard snow that we got on Thursday night. I ran the snowblower for over an hour and it ran the whole time without surging at all. I never did go through the carb yet so I'm still not sure what the problem was. The thought of ordering a new carb did cross my mind. I think I will still consider it for the future if it starts surging again. Thanks for all the help everyone.

ya the Honda carb prices are pretty cheap.. my guess is the needle could be sticking intermittently.. u could just try and replace the needle and see what that does, but it wouldn't hurt to replace the brass seat as well, the issue is the brass seat is pressed into the carb body and not easily replaced without having some experience in doing that.. might just be worth replacing the whole carb as a unit.. the needle and seat is kinda pricey around $15 Canadian.. so if u can get a carb for $40-50 might just be worth it..