OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions on Other Engines Sanli OHV 400 leaking fuel at carby

Friend of the family recently found a Sanli PowerCut 400 mower left out for hard rubbish pickup. Mower looked in reasonable condition & doesn't appear to have had a hard life, so we decided to try and resurrect it to useful life.
Now, I've had some success recently with Baby Briggs mowers (9 Cubic inch jobs), so I thought I'd tackle this one.
Check that it spins freely, nothing clanging, clashing, etc. Loaded up with fuel and turned on the tap. And found out why it had been junked.
As soon as you turn on the fuel tap, fuel starts to leak from the join between the carby and the intake manifold. This is marked on one of my photos attached.
Can any of the experts here advise me of what I should be looking for/at ?
Have we found a bargain or just inherited an S.E.P. (Someone Else's Problem)???

Has to be a float needle not seating properly

Hi GazmoBriz and welcome to ODK,
I concur with NormK, for fuel to be coming out from where you indicated, it has to be rising up and flowing out, hence the alleged needle and seat assumption. Remove the bowl from the carby and see if the float/needle is present and not stuck open from lack of use, no fuel for a prolonged period, seized or rusted open

Ok, opened bowl under carby, was polluted with a orange gel substance along with fuel. Even after cleaning bowl, it appeard to be rusted. Decided to remove carby to clean the entire unit as per a youtube video pointed out in another post by grumpy. Whilst was able to clean the main jet and emulsifier, also cleaned out needle & seat area. However, when going to reassemble, noted that the gaskets both inboard & outboard of the carby were not much chop either.
Decided to check up on some replacement gaskets & possibly carby. Found that cost was a little high, but local shop (Not a Sanli rep) did offer me a recent trade in for $20 (Branded as a Rockwell) which seemed to have all the parts.
I checked the donor when I got home & the carby & fuel system seemed nice and clean. As a result, I have now swapped over everything from the fuel tank to the inlet manifold. Tank, lines, fuel filter, carby and gaskets.
Tried to check for throttle workings. Found that the cable/actuator was broken. Donor machine to the rescue again, replacement actuator & cable now fitted.
Test fire of rebuilt machine still not successful. Have confirmed that there is spark. Had to give up for today due to meal commitments, but will try again tomorrow.
May have to remove air filter to see if it is clogged. Just because it appears to be clean, it may not be so. Donor machine only has a pure foam block for an air filter, so not game to use that.
Oh, and thanks for the replies and advice folks, I'm gonna need all the help I can get.

Try adjusting the valves, seems to be a somewhat common problem on ohv engines. I've heard that if you have corrosion in your carb it's junk (need to get new one) and that you should always use carby rebuild kits. I've cleaned out the carb on my Honda gxv390 best I can, and have put it back together without rebuild kit. Ran the engine like this, but not for that long. About to stick it in my Victa quite soon and then we will see if the carby clogs back up. If this has not been solved till then, will report back with my results of a super dodgy and not recommended carby rebuild.

OK, just so I don't hold people in suspense.
Got ahead of myself earlier. When I said I had spark, I actually checked the spark plug with the donor machine, not the repair job. Plug is okay, but found that the Stop switch (cutoff) has parted company from it's wire. Got my first inkling that someone else had already attempted repairs, as the screw holding in the Stop switch was burred, so couldn't replace without drilling out a screw. Managed to re-solder the wire on the switch. NOW I have spark.
Also noted that replacement carby had the fuel tap operating in the wrong direction. Sticker on mower says Fuel on is to the front of the engine, but carby has tap saying the opposite. Checked old carby & tap direction matched the sticker. Also noted second hint of someone attempting earlier repairs. Engine side of carby had markings consistent with someone unsuccessfully scraping something off the surface.
Have decided to go back to original carby. As well as a replacement bowl (something told me rust & fuel don't work well together) and bowl gasket, I decided to get a set of replacement gaskets for between carby & inlet manifold. These are now on order & will be fitted when arrived.
Have attached some pics of carby before & after cleaning.

I'M ASSUMING YOU REMOVED THE MAIN JET AND THE EMULSION (stupid caps lock) tube and gave them a thorough clean along with the idle and high speed circuits?

That goop in the bowl kinda looks like gasket goo.Seen that in a few "Repair" jobs before.

These carbies block up quite easily. Always clean out the jet and emulsifier. The bowl of the Chinese ones seem to corrode much faster and more intensely than Honda - is this maybe because of a different coating inside the bowl?

Pete

Yes, bigted, main jet and emulsion tube were removed and cleaned, as was the idle. Cleaning was done internally as per the videos as pointed out by grumpy in other posts re Sanli. Photos were posted purely to indicate the level of brute force and/or ignorance this poor mower has endured in it's life.
Did a reinstall of the carby just to confirm fuel leakage problem now resolved. Will do a full refitting when the gaskets finally arrive via snail mail.
I have every faith that this unit will live again. (May even have a go at resurrecting motor on donor chassis if this all works out.)

ihatewetsocks - I didn't like the look of the ochre coloured stuff in any case. Always thought that fuel systems should be pristine. That was why I ordered a replacement bowl along with gaskets.

Just a further update on this one.
Have received the replacement gaskets & bowl, & these have now been fitted.
After full re-assemble, loaded with fuel, verified no leaks (yay).
However, still no joy in getting started. (Seems I may have actually inherited an S.E.P. as previously thought)
Bigted, would you have the valve clearances for this engine, may need to check those before proceeding ??

Does the motor feel like it has compression, if it does that means valves will be good enough to get it to fire

Yes, NormK, does feel like it has compression. Marked difference in turning motor with plug in or out, and can definitely feel when top of compression stroke.
Just grasping at straws with this one, but refuse to be beaten by a machine. It's just like I used to repair computers, you work out all the reasons it won't work, then eliminate them one by one until the fault is found. Have so far eliminated the leaking fuel & the lack of spark, have cleaned out carby both internally (main jet, emulsifier, idle jet and all apertures)and externally, replaced bowl & gaskets in carby & gaskets between carby & inlet manifold. Every thing feels like it should start, it just won't.
Even tried a few checks & remedies from previous threads. Confirmed that I have fuel flow by undoing bleed screw on carby & turning fuel tap on (with cup underneath). Have removed cover from air filter box to check if air flow was problem, but no joy there either.
Just looking for that vital piece of missing clue that will solve the problem. All assistance is greatly appreciated.

A short squirt of starter fluid(Areostart or Start Ya Bastard) in through the carby with the butterfly open and then try starting, if it fires you know it is fuel, if it doesn't fire it is ignition. In most cases this is correct to give you a guide, just don't over use the starter fluid. Always remember the PO could have fiddled with things as well

Thanks for the tip, how quickly I forget my basic mechanic skills.
Tried with Start Ya Bastard & got it to fire first try, ran for about 10 seconds.
Tried a second time , and noticed it wasn't revving up to what I would expect at full throttle (no, not up to choke position). Whilst it was running, manually moved the governor bar & managed to achieve what I would expect to be normal revs, as well as running for about 30 secs before I stopped it.
Am I looking at something in the governor linkages, or something I missed with the carby ???

Ok, di some more checking. Decided if I'm going to ask for help, I better supply some more happy snaps.
This is in Stop position


This is in the Start/Choke position


And this last one is in the Run position.
As previously stated, got the engine running, but to get what I would consider normal revs, I had to manually adjust governor bar (Circled yellow) towards rear of mower. Could this be due to a bad adjustment or is the governor spring (green arrow) suspect ??

Sorry but now I can't help, it is a case of working with it to see where it runs best, quite possibly just an adjustment somewhere. For it to run for 30 seconds before you turned it off sort of indicates the carby is probably ok. There is a lot to be said for the old carbs with a slide instead of all the junk they have plastered all over them now, springs,levers,arms everywhere all in the name of progress

Well , just another update on the saga. As per NormK's suggestion, went checking on other things that could be causing the lack of RPM. I was almost correct before, it was a spring, just not the one I originally pointed out. The one I pointed out was the Governor Linkage Spring. The one causing the trouble is the one on the bottom of the assemble which seems to have about 6 holes to go into. THAT spring is the governor spring according to Sanli Parts List.
Inspection of that spring & it's mounts indicates that the end closest to the 6 holes has actually been moved (you can faintly see the tarnish where it was before). As well ,cleverly hidden behind the plate, is the evidence that this spring has been stretched & reshaped, thus making it non functional as per design.
Hopefully a new governor spring will be the end of this. Should be a good one for the knowledge base when this is all finished.

One last update. Appears that new governor spring was not the fix-all I had hoped. Appears that the governor shaft extending from the crankcase is not turning or functioning correctly. Can get motor to start & can get it to rev by manually advancing the governor arm, but not via the throttle actuator.
Seems we did inherit an S.E.P. after all. I'm no expert, but I think that would be a bit more of a major job to correct this than my rudimentary mechanical skills would permit. That and the fact I have no manuals for this or even a similar engine. Pity, it sounded quite a nice engine when it was running.
Thanks to BigTed, NormK, and the others who have offered their assistance on this one. And I hope the pictures I have provided help others, as I had great trouble finding images of a Sanli OHV400 linkage setup.

Wow, has it really been 6 months since my last post on this ?
I recently found that I had a Round Tuit, and with that, you can do anything.
Bit the bullet & obtained a sump gasket for the motor & decided to strip it down. (Nothing to lose really). Got another indication of brute force/ignorance inflicted on this motor. 7 bolts holding sump pan on motor, 1 was head stripped (Had to tap it out with bolt remover) and 1 bolt was a complete mismatch. No surprise that once inside, found that the governor arm was on the wrong side of the governor.
Replacement bolts were obtained from a 2nd donor engine (a dead Lawn Beetle) & everything re-assembled. No small task.
Once re-assembled, managed to get the engine started, but there was some lag when I tried to increase revs. Removed carby once more, and did another clean, but this time used the wire from inside a bread tie to ensure all jets were clear. (Yes, I know the purists will shudder & complain at this, but I did have a second carby to use if it totally stuffed it).
Engine now starts, runs, and fully responds to throttle control. It Lives Again !!!
Once again, thanks to all who offered their expertise & advice .

P.S. the original parts donor was put back together with parts left over. It now also runs, perfectly, but will look for a new base for it.

G'day GazmoBriz

This has been a great topic with excellent images to help others.
I thank you for keeping us informed on progress.

I hope the Round Tuit you found was an official OutdoorKing one ...



Cheers
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Jack