I am hoping I can get a little help with an old Homelite XL12. Model 3039706 It is the blueish green one so I would be guessing about 1980. It has a Walbro SDC 8 Carburetor. It starts and seems to run OK and you have time to play around with the mixture, then it quits and won't start again. I believe that when it quits it is flooded and there is usually a puddle of fuel in the housing surrounding the carburetor which I think has come out of the carburetor throat. There are a couple of things which I have done but if anything it is worse.
1) Disassembled the carby and blew it out with compressed air. I may have been guilty of blowing air through the nozzle check valve and screen but I am not sure exactly which parts they are. Upon assembly I noted the position of the fuel metering lever (and with hindsight having found a Walbro service manual) which was much higher then it should be. The saw ran about the same as it had earlier. To start it you need the low mixture very lean (out about a quarter of a turn) and high about 1 turn which is about regulation.
2) I put a carburetor service kit in it which did not include the mixture needles, and I did not remove and replace the welch plugs as I could not see how to get them out. I guess that you just punch a hole in them but as I thought the problem was probably the fuel metering adjustment I was a bit lazy and skipped that part. I adjusted the height of the fuel metering lever (the one in the kit was damaged so I used the old one with the new needle) close to specification but possibly a little higher. I adjusted both mixture screws to 1 turn out. The saw started with choke after about 3 pulls and quit when I shut the choke off. Restarted with choke and opened the choke a little slower. The saw ran and idled quite smooth. (I thought I had it) but coughed when revved. It died while trying to adjust the high mixture and had quite a bit of fuel in the housing surrounding the carburetor. I pulled the plug out and it was soaked. I gave it a couple of minutes and turned the mixture screws in about a quarter and started it again. Pretty much the same result, with the saw running at high revs and getting rougher and slower regardless of how much you squeezed the trigger quitting with fuel in the housing and the plug soaked
As I don't know what I am actually doing I thought it best to get a bit of guidance before taking the carby apart again. I would like to see it running as it was an exceptionally powerful little saw in the short bursts that it ran before I started fiddling with it.
If I can get a large enough hammer it will run for awhile just trying to get away from me
