carburetor wont stop leaking

Hello all,

first post here. I am posting for a friend. He has a john deere as well as a D17. I have rebuilt both carbs for him with out a problem. but now the john deere carb tsx-810 will not stop leaking. it fills up the air intake pipe and drips on the ground. I am so confused. I know the float is working and does not have any holes and I put a new needle and seat in the carb. about 5 min after turning on the gas it starts dripping out of the carburetor. is there anything else that could cause this problem beside the needle not seating in the seat and cutting the flow of gas out? thanks. I know this is not a john deere forum but this is the first one I have been able to register and post on.

thanks for the help
marc

Well I know the float does not have holes in it so it must be binding up.
Thanks

I hope someone has a good answer because I have been fighting with my WD-45 carb with the same problems.  I have rebuilt it seems to hold pressure when you blow on fuel intake with carb in hand. Install and turn fuel on and leaks.  Limp by plowing snow with the sediment bulb valve cracked a little bit.

I am sure you probably already know this stuff but at times we all need to just stop and breathe.go back to the beginning. why did it need rebuilding. what were the problems to start with? If it was flooding before you started to work on it and you replaced all the other usual kit parts then unless you have dirty gas, the float is the only thing left that has not been replaced. Did you use a quality kit? are you sure the float is good? submerge it in a can of water on the stove and warm it up and see if any bubbles appear. if so- float leaks. also shake it and see if you can hear any gas inside it which I assume you already have done. if the float has been repaired with solder that can make it too heavy sometimes and it will not rise enough to shut off the fuel flow soon enough and will flood also. that only leaves the float level which "someone" may have already tried to work on it and failed. If the float level is good then make sure it does not rub anywhere on the sides of the bowl or bowl gasket. did you get a new float pin with the kit? don't want a floppy float. not all new needles and seats are good. check your fuel and make sure it is clean as that can mess up the newer needles. let some gas run in a jar from the drain on carb and let it set overnight and see what if anything settles out. (rust/crud).that will cause a needle to not work. you can check the fuel level by taking out the drain plug and putting a short pipe nipple in place of it with a short piece of clear tubing attached to the nipple and wire it up high enough to be above the gasket that is between the two halves. if the gas comes up in the tubing above the gasket it is too high and the float has some problem or the seat is not working. as I recall, the drain plug is 1/8 pipe thread so a pipe nipple or better yet a barbed fitting is what you use. you do not use a gasket on the fitting and only finger tight is enough. one more thing--some kits use a small hook type bent around wire that attaches to the needle and slips over the flat part of the float. if you have that be sure it is installed properly or else the float will not work either.your new kit may have had it and the old parts did not have it so it was not installed with the new needle and seat that can be a problem. did you use a proper sized seat tool or screwdriver to install the new seat? too small a screwdriver and you can get a burr in the inside of the seat and cause needle to hang up. it takes a really wide flat screwdriver to span all the way across the seat. I made one years ago using a stubby screwdriver which is not used much and filed the flat sides straight (no taper left for 1/8 inch or a little more) so they will properly FULLY fit the slot all the way to the bottom of the slot in the seat. check to see if the new seat gasket is the same thickness as the old one. if it is different that can throw off the float level.

When all else fails, swap carburators, with my B, just cause it came with it, don't mean it's happy with the partnership... Oh my sounds like my first marriage,,,, now there's a start of a thread... Swap out carbs with a buddy and see if you and he have the same issues.

I know on my B, had to port the side walls for float hitting, I work in a factory myself, know how it is... But before modifying make sure that's the problem. Unless you had the tractor new, and know how and what was done to it, or you must reverse engineer geneations of fixes, but then that's the fun of it all. Let you know, I'm running two front oil seals on my B to get it to stop leaking!

The modern neoprene tipped float needles have a probability of sealing better but a reputation for sticking closed. The classic solid brass needle often doesn't quite fit the valve seat, but can be ground in with valve grinding compound. When checking for sealing, lung pressure is plenty on the fuel pipe, but finger pressure lifting the float is too much. A better test is just the weight of the float with the carburetor upside down. That will be a little more pressure on the needle than the float floating. The manual on that particular tractor or carburetor should specify a distance the float should be from the gasket deck when the needle valve is closed by the weight of the float with the carburetor body upside down.Typically the top surface of the float is close to parallel to that gasket deck, but often the specification shows a measured distance at some particular location. If that gap is too small the gas level will be too high, making the engine run rich in the transition between idle circuit and run circuit and the carburetor may overflow. The idle adjustment and high speed adjustment can adjust for float level when those are predominant, but in between the float level sets the mixtures.

As for rubbing on the float bowl walls, the float can be a bit fat, contain gasoline, be heavy from a solder repair (as mentioned above) or the accumulation of water in the float bowl can have rusted the wall and made it stick out and be rough. The pivot is often a brass pin (easily bent) in thin brass bits on the float that are easily bent and soft enough to wear over the decades to make the float floppy side to side so it can easily drag on the wall of the float bowl. The float has to be light weight to work and so is more than a bit delicate.

Gerald J.

I find it much easier to just turn off the gas when it's parked and be done with it. Just saying.

Years ago when I first got my CA I went through the carb and it was fine for a short time and kept overflowing and not running right. What I found was there were hard crusty debris inside the metal fuel line after the sediment bowl that engine vibrations were causing to come loose. I fabbed up a new steel line and haven't the carb apart in 15 years or more. Might be something as simple as you're getting contamination in the carb that's after your filter.

The Viton needles work great in sealing off the fuel from the seat. The problem that plaques the Viton needles is dirt. The slightest tiny piece of dirt or debris will stick fast to the Viton needle and cause the fuel to seep through. Another thing that is greatly overlooked is make sure the vent in the top half of the Carburetor is open. We just had one of the family here pull his hair out with the same drip, drip problem, and it turned out there was a resident that made a home in the vent port. Cleared the vent port out and Viola! No more drip. If the vent is open, check the fuel inlet where the 90 degree fitting screws in. You can't believe the crap, debris, & rust that collects in the unused portion of the threads as well as the rear of the inlet cavity. If you didn't run a bore brush inside and out of that bore, you're sure to come out with a lot of crap. On all my rebuilds that I do for our customer's, even after I glassbead inside that bore, I still run the bore brush in and out and make that bore shine! The rust dust, debris and crap that comes outta' there is amazing! Even after glassbeading. All that muck in there gets stuck to that Viton needle causing havoc. If it still has the drip issue, I would head to the fuel tank to see what it looks like in there in the debris and rust department....  HTH
Steve@B&B

I have a D15 series 1 and it takes forever to heat up to where it will remain at idle. Then when I put it in gear and throttle up its starts popping and dies. If I increase throttle very slowly it will act close to normal. Any ideas as to why

Redneck06 wrote: Hello all, first post here. I am posting for a friend. He has a john deere as well as a D17. I have rebuilt both carbs for him with out a problem. but now the john deere carb tsx-810 will not stop leaking. it fills up the air intake pipe and drips on the ground. I am so confused. I know the float is working and does not have any holes and I put a new needle and seat in the carb. about 5 min after turning on the gas it starts dripping out of the carburetor. is there anything else that could cause this problem beside the needle not seating in the seat and cutting the flow of gas out? thanks. I know this is not a john deere forum but this is the first one I have been able to register and post on. thanks for the help marc

My Cockhutt 50 with the 262 Allis Engine did the same and would not run well. I cut an old carburetor to put over the float to make sure there was no binding of the float and also important, opened the carb bowl vent hole. If it does not get atmospheric pressure in the bowl, it will never un well and may overflow. Seems to work very well now.

On my d15 I ended up taking the carb completely apart again and doing a thorough cleaning, and I mean thorough white glove cleaning and after I put it back together all was great. I had build up which wouldn't allow the needle to close properly. Hope this helps