Fix tecumseh snowblower from surging 

I listed some basic tools for working on your carburetor in the description.

Great video and awesome explanation of the 2 reasons for surging and showing how to fix surging via the governor. Thank you!

Thanks to your video, my Ariens 1028 is now running perfectly. It WAS NOT a plugged jet...that was the first thing I did which had absolutely no effect. This was the only video I found that talked about the governor, and that is exactly what my problem was. From idle to WFO I had surging and backfiring. Once I knew what to look for, I could see the throttle bouncing back and forth. Simply bending the spring did the trick.

Last fall, i cleaned the carb on my snow thrower. Then in the winter i noticed the throttle was not working. Just on and off. Yes it was surging (flames from the muffler-no joke). After watching your video i realized that the throttle had fallen from the 11 o'clock position to the 7 position and the z rod on the governor control was reverse. Hopefully all will work when i piece the machine back together tomorrow. Your video was very helpful. Thank you.

I cleaned my carb but that didn’t completely solve the issue. Then found your video and now it works great. Thank you.

at last a fix that works rather than striping down the carb with no effect...thanks...

Good job! Be sure and save your old USA made carb. That way you have a high quality spare after you rebuild it.

Very good explanation. Love show & tell. In spite all the haters Tecumseh engines are very reliable IF you take care of them. I have a 5hp on a snowblower for 30yrs. No over rev'ing , no holes in case, great cold weather starting. I would suggest setting the rpm even lower say about 3400 and see how it performs. Less chance of rod coming loose this way. Only compliant I have is lack of sufficient power for a 24" bucket in heavy snow. That's why I just picked up a 8hp version to repower it.

That is a new or different carb at the ending! What next Fake Repair?

Thanks amigo work to me something that simple make the difference

You’re fix was dead on thanks for the video.

Exactly what I needed! Thank you.

With all seriousness, if that was surging, what would I call what mine's doing? Mine revs up and down, to near stopped, and back again, about once every 3 seconds. I've never seen or heard a machine run more smoothly than the one you indicated was surging. I didn't see it hear any surging. Did I miss something?

Some haters out there. I followed your suggestion and tightened up the spring. It definitely made it run better. I liked your step by step approach.

Thanks, it was the spring... I owe you a beer.

I have a Ariens compact 24 I bought used for $300. The person only used it a couple times. The electric start wouldn't work. I took the starter apart and found moisture had worked its way inside the stator and rusted it up and seized it. For the hell of it I took it apart and gently sanded it clean (mostly) with fine sand paper. Put it back together and it now works. A $175 dollar savings on that. On to the carburetor. The engine was surging. When I took it apart it was actually pretty clean through the needle. I cleaned it out with carb cleaner. However I did notice that the O-ring for the cup had white corrosion built up on it ( pay particular attention to that). My best guess is poor assembly from the manufacturer. The O-ring wasn't seated properly causing outside atmosphere to works its way through the O-ring into the cup. The small amount of murky gas inside was an indication of it. Im pretty sure this snowblower was surging since day one or shortly after. Everything is back together now and running great. I used a small amount of Parker Super O-lube to coat the O-ring. I'm a little hesitant about that. But if it causes issues then cleaning the carb again is a simple process.

Could you bend the spring tighter without removing it from the governor arm? Maybe use a needle nose?

that sure looks like a new or cleaned carb at end of video ( i have never replaced a gov spring unless someone stretched the guts out of it ) some (HONDA ) have springs on link rods to compensate for loose linkage holes

looks like the brand new carb installed halfway through the video fixed the problem??

I'm trying to work on my Tecumseh right now... Think have to clean carb And then this, engine requires high RPM to run without dying. All the various springs seem slack. Want to be able to turn the throttle down Have to see how I get on...thanks for the video. Have you a video of the tear down of your carb? This engine matches mine, having to search through loads of videos for the same engine...

I have a Troy-Bilt snowblower 24 in 5.5 Tecumseh engine I'm installing a new carburetor with some missing pieces I need to know where or how to hook up fast and slow on the carburetor

The govenor rod and spring on my generator rusted through in 2 pieces. When replaced it ran great.

I usually wear my brand-new, distressed-leather motorcycle jacket when I work on my snowblower too!

Do you think the spring was the fix or the new carb? Looks like you need to tighten up the side heater box mounting bracket where it attaches to the carb bosses on the replacement carb.

Hey fantastic informative video thank you , can you tell me where can I get one of the tachometers ? Thanks

So bending that spring is absolutely the wrong thing to do that spring has a specific amount of load on the governor throttle linkage and if you unload or preload the spring more then that messes everything up, how do I know because I just went through the surging issue and that spring adjustment had to be completely redone back to stock specs, before my proper idle, and top end rpm could be set.

How long have you run the engine? It looks new. No discoloration on the muffler and everything looks shinny.

been looking at the tach's what one are you using there?

Not sure about this. I cleaned my carb thoroughly with my ultrasonic and reassembled, adjusted the spring as instructed in the video and still surging. I guess I will wait for significant snow and see how it reacts.

How about the rpm meter you used., is that from Amazon too? thanks

Would a new carb be anything reason for it not to turn on?

Hi where did u buy the tach from.

*Fonzi has struck hard times... he is repairing snow blowers now :(*

Is this a two-stroke engine?

I have the same engine but it won’t idle you have to switch the choke around and it backfires out the muffler and carburetor

Where can I get that spring

Don't shake its ok

Not to be a hater but you have a low speed fuel mixture problem you masked by just speeding up the engine. The spring is not the problem. You have a low speed and high speed circuit in the carb. You have a carb issue. That carb is famous for that surging issue and that engine is famous for throwing rods at anything above 3600 rpm. Do yourself a favor and drop the rpm to 3450. I fix small engines for a living.

you installed a new carb. So you have no idea if the spring was the problem. I doubt the spring was an issue. I have never replaced one in 20 years of fixing snowblowers.

Why didn't you not just use the adjustment screw.

Wrong! You might have fixed the problem but what you did was not the way to do it. There was nothing wrong with the spring. Why buy a new spring and then bend it? Even if the spring was the problem the old spring will bend just as easy as a new one. It is possible that the governor control arm was not set right but most likely it was a carb problem. Even a brand new carb can cause surging with a preset carb. The engine is built for low emmisions in order to meet the regs. Once that engine starts to wear it now needs more fuel to run properly. I am not going to get into how to modify the carb but I have done it several times but only after I am positive the carb is clean ( dont put your trust in the ultrasonic cleaners). Another problem with preset carbs is only a problem with outboard engines. I had a 9.9 HP Johnson and at idle you could water ski behind the boat ( well not quite but it was way to fast for trolling ) . I called the dealership ( talked to there mechanic - snotty bastard) and he said that is how they are and there is no way to fix it. Is that right. I modified the carb and fixed it so it would idle right down and the best part is I no longer had a spark plug that was always getting fouled because of the wrong mixture. It ran perfect when I got done. I am sure if you checked the emissions on it when I got done it would have been better than it was from the factory. The dealership I dealt with didnt treat me very well and where of no help. Once they heard the engine idle down and run so perfect they wanted me to tell them what I did. Because of the way they had treated me I said. You figure it out your the experts.

Helpful but poor video. You can't see the most important part of spring removal and replacement.

This no good

Bro why ru so shaky

Now that was funny. Another want to be a mechanic

Best way to fix a tecumseh is replace it with a briggs and straton!

Bad advice! Surging is always from carburation and changing the governor spring is NOT fixing the problem. Ethanol destroys these cheap carbs. Surging in itself is NOT necessarily indicative of a performance problem. If your carb has a pilot jet, cleaning it will almost always fix the surge (Not on tecumseh). Buy another carburetor on amazon for $15 and do the right thing and replace it. Thumbs down on changing the controls.

a mechanic should be as a doctor,,, shouldn't shake !

Seriously…..speed up!!! Near suicidal by the 2 minute mark. Thanks for nothing

These crap Chinese are everywhere now. They bought Tecumseh line and introduce these crap motors. The true Tecumseh and Briggs engines were much better. These are just cheaper. That all.

jumpy and noisy video does not help viewers... do this one over

You won't keep it running. The tecumseh motors are absolute junk.