[cutntrim]

My Toro aerator that I bought used last spring has been acting up. It's "surging". In other words the throttle will fluctuate up and down, and nearly stalls out. I take my equipment to a service shop and he's done LOF on it and changed the plug, and done a few tweaks here and there but the problem remains.

Any ideas?

[HardDaysKnight]

Bring it back and tell them to get it right. Btw what does LOF
mean. Our aerator has one speed now and I love it that way.
We have an Olathe core aerator and it's been very dependable.

[cutntrim]

Lube Oil Filter. Although, come to think of it I'm not sure it has any zerk fittings on it.

[Uncle Albert]

Have him check the diaphragm it controls gas flow and could be ripped. had the same problem. and that was the cure.

[cutntrim]

Thanks. I secretly took it to a competitor of his to look it over (since he's had it twice with no success), so if they strike out I'll have that looked at.

[GLAN]

Need carb service

[Mark Oomkes]

Originally posted by GLAN
Need carb service

Ditto. It's either gummed up with some junk or the gas went bad\turned to varnish. Clean the carb, fresh gas and you should be set.

[Dale Wiley]

Possibly a defective carb float. They have a tendency to stick, since aerators can have sporadic use.

What model of areator is it ??

We have the commercial greens aerator with a single lung Kohler and its basically trouble free. We bought it used from Pebble Beach GC, and its 13 years old.

[start2finish]

Originally posted by Dale Wiley
Possibly a defective carb float. They have a tendency to stick, since aerators can have sporadic use.

In equipment that we use on a seasonal or sporadic use, we drain the gas from the tank and let the machine run out of gas before parking it. This seems to help keep our carbs from giving trouble when we use it the next time.

[Bill Schwab]

pretty hard to diagnose an engine over the net, but it honestly sounds like a type of vaccum, fuel or even a governor surge. All it takes is a loose bolt on a carb or manifold. If you had bad gas, typically, it is either bad and not going to run, or it is OK. Carb float, good guess, and good place to look. Lemme axe you...does a Honda use a soldered float? Or is it a ploy material? Soldered floats can leak and fill with gas, casuing them to stick down and keep the needle open, thus flooding... Stuck floats an cause the needle to stick closed and cause insufficient fuel supply and make the engine run lean.
If you had an electrical issue, most often those are either off or on, especially with the pointless ignitions.

Now, I'm not sure, does a Honda use an air governor? Because if it does, and the air escapes the shrouding, there will be sporadic pressure from the flywheel fan against the deflector, which, will cause surging. Typical causes of that can be grass stuffed into the cooling fins, and all kinds of happy horse crappy like that.

[Toddppm]

Bill, Air governor ? On one of our Walk behinds we have a 15hp Kawasaki that has a surging problem also. It's been like that since it was about 1 yr. old but runs fine once the throttle is turned up. The thing is the shroud has a big hole in it where the starter cord smacks into it. Could that be the problem?
One of those things I've been meaning to fix.....

[cutntrim]

My guys picked up the aerator the day before yesterday, and said it ran fine when they used it. The service invoice said they took apart the carb and found the diaphram stretched and missing the inlet screen. They replaced the gasket between the carb and tank, and adjusted the engine RPM and carb after they got the engine running.

Good call Uncle Albert. Thanks everyone for the replies. Nice to be able to get some good advice, being that I'm not a gear-head.