Walbro carb problem

[skills]

Hi all,
I've been having fun with my little boat: the 15hp Wards/Chrysler fires right up and never so much as hiccuped....until a few days ago. I hardly got it to run, just enough to get back to shore.

Today I did some troubleshooting and found the float...well doesn't. Float that is. Little bitty pinhole and it's full of fuel. I tried to solder it but the pinhole quickly turned into a large hole as soon as any heat was applied. A little internet search revealed that part #75-528 is the replacement (From Walbro's site for the LMB carbs)

But, most places want north of $50 just for the float!! No thanks, not unless I HAVE to go that route. So, has anyone successfully used a different float? Or even a different carb? I have a pile of old OPE engines laying around, and I'm going to dig through them to see if anything will work too.

 

[F_R]

Re: Walbro carb problem

How about a drop of Epoxy over the hole? Marine Tex should work. Or JB Weld

 

[skills]

Re: Walbro carb problem

Update: One of the engines that I had (a Lauson two-cycle lawn mower) had a Walbro with the same float! Swapped in that float, and she's back in business. I did have to change the idle mixture screw a little bit to get it idling smooth, but after a few minutes of fiddling around I'm back in business. Gonna take the camper and boat up to the lake tomorrow I think!

As for the epoxy...I'll remove the solder from the original and try that out. Can't hurt to have a backup laying around!