Carburetor

Last time there was a winter storm, my snow thrower (Toro 721r) crapped out. 

(Background: My house is along a long driveway, with two other houses. The unwritten rule is that we all help clear the driveway, which has worked out well. One neighbor is great about this and I try to match his efforts (he is out more often, but I clear the whole driveway, including where he parks, when I go out there). But this neighbor also has a very bad back, although he doesn't complain. The other neighbor is new and doesn't come out as often, and doesn't have a snow thrower, instead he just uses a shovel, which isn't nearly as effective. Anyway, when my snow thrower died, the first neighbor did almost everything during a huge 24-hour storm that deposited 16 inches on snow. I felt really bad and offered to help, using his snow thrower, but he declined). 

So my snow thrower wouldn't start. First, it would start with the choke on and stalled when I pushed the choke off. Than, it wouldn't start at all. My neighbor, who is pretty handy tried to help. He cleaned the spark plug (although it had spark) and said it might be the carburetor. The next day I called local small motor repairs (mostly lawnmower and snow thrower places). They all said it sounded like the carburetor (probably died from bad gas), but they could fix it in two weeks because they were so backed up. They said it would be $90/hour for repairs, plus parts. I figured that would probably end up costing at least $200 (the mower only cost $579 new). I'm not expert in motors, and didn't even know what a carburetor does, but I can follow directions well and like to solve problems. I've changed out a toilet, put in a garbage disposal, build a sofa from scratch, put in smart light switches, and have mastered anything Ikea. So I looked online and saw youtube videos for snow thrower carburetor repairs (none the same model as mine, but there were other Toro models). Amazon had a new carburetor for $29 and I ordered it. It arrived and sat on my counter for a week, taunting me, as I feared inevitable failure. 

Well, it is going to snow tomorrow and so I had to give it an effort. I watch 8 videos, all of which provided almost no help, as I realized that it being for a different model made a big difference. However, I decided to take what I learned and started to take the machine apart. I took pictures after every step and placed the screws/parts in separate containers, ordered chronologically. I kept taking things apart until I could access the carburetor and was able to remove and install the new one. Then step-by-step, in reserve order, I put everything back together, which is always tricky and there were some thought provoking challenges to overcome, but in the end the mower looked back to normal. 

Now, I had no idea if the carburetor was even the issue, and I had fading confidence that I put it in correctly (or more troublesome was if I  put everything else back to together correctly (I had disconnected lots of hoses, springs, screws, pullies, clamps, etc.). I took a deep breath and started it up...Success! It roared to life and seemed to run hard. I didn't keep track of the time, but it took around 2 hours start to finish. If I had to do it again, I could do it half the time. $200 saved and a small sense of self satisfaction. More than that, I can do my part and clear the snow tomorrow.