Thanks so much for watching! Find all the parts and tools I talked about in this video HERE! www.amazon.com/shop/chickanic?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsfshop_aipsfchickanic_PMG0YB2GDVPKQXZBP924
One place I worked at had those parts bins and they came with wall plates with like louvers to hang them on. I watch those scrapper shows on utube and see them in dumpsters a lot.
I suggested, once, to my mechanic that he used after market parts. His response was “You can and I’ll even let you use my tools. Plus you get an “outa sight” warranty “.
Using the same honest criteria, love to see the Chickanic head up department in Washington with the same results saving tons of money and to get rid of the scammers.
Yes!!! Yes yes yes yes yes! I was given a Rider with a B&S 17HP engine. Engine was surging with a clogged carb so I simply bought an aftermarket on Amazon. Engine ran worse with the new unit. Lesson learned
OEM all the way! It’s well worth the time and effort to get good parts. Learned that a long time ago. I’m glad you are addressing this. Stay away from Amazon and other chinesium companies supplying garbage.
As long as the OEM is not sourcing them from Amazon....I think there is also a big difference between "it works now" and "it works everytime every day". Things like Farmertec saws may fine for a homeowner that uses it 3 times a year and stores for 5 yrs, but pro use every day? Not a chance. My opinion
Disagree completely. i can replace a part 3 times for less than what a single OEM factory part costs. And..what if its something like a Mc Cullough chainsaw part or a Tecumseh/Lawson Power products part? OEM for those is virtually unobtainable.
Even the factory Sthil carb is ftom China along with most of the engine parts soooo. A lot of aftermarket is fine and even made by the same manufacturer . Some good some bad.
@@MUUKOW3 Yeah, it seems most parts are being made in China, but they are made with more strict standards if being put on Stihl or other professional brands. Take any cloned engine from Harbor Freight. Looks like a Honda, but it ain’t and will likely fail very quickly. I’ve had several neighbors who’ve bought their garbage. I personally witnessed a gas powered sump pump that croaked on the very first use. The big brands have a reputation and they won’t let aftermarket or very poorly manufactured parts be used that will fail on the first use. Hell, they can’t.
@@MUUKOW3 China produces products to the tolerances that the customer pays for. If something does not meet the tolerances for the OEM customer they get sold on the aftermarket.
Gotta be careful of knock offs too. Recently bought motorcraft coils for my truck that I got for a good deal. They came in motorcraft packaging and were identical in every wat to real ones, but they made my truck run like crap. My mechanic said they all were counterfeits and the supplier I got them from was not happy either.
Great work you do on your channel! Fixing stuff started with me when I was a baby!! Walking home from school back in 1965 when I was in 3rd grade, I found a lawn mower out for the trash truck to get. I pushed it home. I asked my father to help me fix it; he said: "That's impossible, I know nothing about lawnmowers." I tried to pull the rope, but it would not move. I took the entire thing apart and ended up at the piston; I had to knock it out of the cylinder with a hammer and piece of wood. I found a piston ring was broken and that is what locked up the engine. I removed all the rings and walked the 3 miles to Sears. They sold me the new ring for $1.50. I put the motor back together and when I started the thing, my dad ran out of the house to see what was going on. He had this horrible look on his face!!! He looked at the mower, then up at me; looked down at his feet and shook his head left and right. I knew what that means: He thought his entire life was a failure - his little 8 year old child was a mechanic! ... and he didn't have a clue when I asked him to help me fix it. I made a ton of money that year mowing yards during the summer. I sold that business, with the lawnmower and the list of my clients. A year later, I fixed a radio and started a TV and Radio bussiness. longer story.... me and my red wagon picking up broken TVs and Radios. Life just keeps getting easier and easier.
OEM Parts are the only way to do things properly! I've made a few customers mad because I won't let them bring me their own parts. If it leaves my shop it's gonna be perfect!
Maybe moreso with small engines, but in the auto field, many car engines have been built to superior quality using aftermarket parts, not just any parts though. Unfortunately, even the brands that were once respected are having problems with poor quality.
Only problem is if the manufacturers have obsoleted the OEM part Stihl for instance don't make or supply a piston/piston chamber kit for a MS 200T saw. Only option for the part now is a non genuine part kit.
Bree, I had to stop the video at 10:08. Regarding those Chinese spark plugs, and coming up with a use for them........when I was a kid and I was really into duck hunting, I would use old spark plugs for my duck decoy anchors, simply wire a couple 2 or 3 together and tie to the decoy anchor cord and ' Viola ' as the French do say. By the way, I recently brought one of my generators outside to run it for an hour or so to exercise it and the damn thing wouldn't start. Now it's a fairly new 2500 watt Chinese made unit that performs well, typically. So I remembered what you said about Chinese spark plugs. So I replaced it with an NGK, and you guessed it..........VIOLA !!
Bre, I have to admit, I bought an Amazon carburetor package for my cheapie Poulan chainsaw. Now, I believe I paid a whopping 119 bucks for it back when Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc her in CT but I couldn't bring myself to pay 60 bucks for an OE carb alone so I gambled on 21 for the Amazon. To my amazement, it tried to start on the second pull and did on the fourth. I admit, I had to tweak the adjustments on the carb to get it singing but being a former racer who is used to carb adjustments, to me, it was no big deal. Your video on adjustments helped me on that, thank you. 20 minutes changing the carb, lines and fuel filter, 5 minutes adjusting and I had close to 2 cord of wood cut from a freshly down black walnut in about an hour, and this is the bottom of the barrel Poulan, a 3314 with the 14" bar. I get it, that import stuff can be crap a lot of the time. Heck I thought I'd be robbing parts from the import to fix the OE, but it's working for now. I know lot's of people, in fact most will have no idea about adjusting and even be a little scared of doing it so I am the anomaly. This is why I love your channel, I've learned a bunch about the small engine world. Thank you so very much.
If i encounter ANY lawnmower with a plastic carburetor I trash the entire engine and install a good used one with a metal carburetor. I can find plenty of the old mowers at Habitat or other thrift stores. I bought a Troy bilt that apparently had around 20 hours on it (for $40 dollars) but would stop running after a few minutes due to the junk plastic carbs that Briggs and Stratton started using. The mounting was changed making installation of a real metal carb difficult, I pulled the entire engine, scrapped it for metal and installed an older Briggs I found on a mower in another thrift store. Now i have a RELIABLE Troy bilt for the sum of $65 dollars that has not failed to start for 3 years. I well remember the failure that was the Carter ThermoQuad carburetor with its phenolic plastic body/fuel bowl. Plastic does NOT belong in carburetors. My favorite is an old Craftsman mower with a sticker on it that says "not for sale in California" That told me I likely wouldnt have air/fuel mixture issues or carb problems because its going to run dirty and well indefinitely.
Bought on your advice a mantis tiller 2nd hand. Needed carb kit, new fuel lines and filter. Ordered the aftermarket chinese carb kit for the C1U K54 carb. But to save time ordered a complete kit with new carb, fuel lines, filters, sparkplug for around $15. Worked luckily properly after turning in the "H" and turning out the "L". The tank grommet was too big luckily old one was still usable. With these cheap parts you have to be lucky. For commercial users always go OEM. Especially critically dimensioned parts. Once bought aftermarket pump kit for an older outboard. Returned the aftermarket kit as the stainless waterpump cup fitted sloppy in the plastic OEM pump housing. So had to go OEM Yamaha for the complete pump.
I bought an aftermarket carb for my Ryobi blower. It didn't work, but what I did was to take the diaphragm and gaskets out and put them in the original carb and it runs like a champ. So it wasn't a total loss anyway.
I have an old Craftsman lawn tractor with a Kohler twin cylinder engine. I forgot to winterize it one year & the carburetor seized up. When I looked into a genuine Kohler replacement, I was shocked. I could buy a Holley double pumper 4 barrel cheaper. Bought a Chineseium off eBay. It still works. If it quits, I can buy 10 aftermarket carbs cheaper than 1 OEM
Louis Rossmann on youtube did a test on Amazon fuse kits and found that some of the manufacturers (China) did not blow at their stated values. Not even 4 times their value. When saving money costs you money you've been robbed twice.
*L.R. is another 100% HONEST guy worth watching. He can cuss 'up a storm' sometimes... but he's just 'very passionate' about calling out bad (dishonest) folks/companies, etc. He HATES John Deere (and rightly so)!* 👍🏼
Last year I ordered a carb from Amazon for my 30 yo JD LX176. To my surprise, the connections were backwards. It was a mirror image of the original. I ended up rebuilding my original carb.
I have either had or witnessed so many bad experiences with small engine repair shops that I simply got to a point that I refuse to use them anymore. From lack of knowledge or cutting corners on their repairs (sometimes it is hard to know which), charging for work that wasn’t done or poorly done, and charging for new oem parts that were not oem. Even when repairs were done correctly, I have often had to wait an excessive amount of time to retrieve my repaired machine and had repair bills that were so high that I would have been better off tossing the old machine out and just buying a new one. At this point, my skill level is good enough that I can typically keep a machine running for 10-25 years (depending on what kind of machine, 2 stroke or 4 stroke, etc.) by servicing and repairing it myself. I dread when a machine becomes beyond repair and needs to be replaced because of the high prices and lower quality of new machines as compared to what was being made a couple of decades ago. I have had better luck and cost savings buying an older, slightly broken machine (or two) second hand and repairing it or building one from two machines. It is amazing how many of these machines out there only need slight or simple repairs and still have tons of life left in them but are given up on by owners who can’t repair them and have had bad experiences with repair shops so they just give up and move on to a new machine. I think most reasonable people understand that quality repair services are not cheap and are usually worth paying up for but when a shop does shoddy work, overcharges, and generally under delivers, customers not only lose faith in that shop but in all shops.
Really appreciate the lesson on aftermarket parts. I think some of my issues on my 2 and 4 cycle repairs are aftermarket defective parts. I still use Aftermarket parts but I look for the name brands. I try to use OEM plugs all the time. It does make a difference. Thanks and have a blessed 2025!
spark plug neckless like Taryl. I once fixed a 2 stroke blower for a co-worker of wife. with one of those amazon all in 1 kits, it worked, and I used the plug, but I gave them back the original one as well. in case they had to revert to it.
Only exceptions for aftermarket parts is at those times when the manufacturers obsolete the parts. For example Stihl no longer supply cylinder piston kits for MS200T chainsaws so the only option is a Chinese aftermarket part. Same also goes for UK sold TS400 disk cutter carburettors as these are obsolete and the only option is a non genuine carburettor. If we have to go this route we always let the customer know that we will have to use non genuine and it's a 50:50 chance the parts will work.
I've bought two Chinese carbs for an FS100R. The first one was shite but the second one is chugging along nicely. I've also bought Chinese carbs to get diaphragms and gaskets but never actually got round to doing it yet.
You are the best. I love your engagement, facial expressions and ability to tell interesting stories. Thank you for helping us all with our small engine problems so we can cut our grass. You are to small engine repair what my boy Scotty Kilmer is to car repair, Essential to fixing stuff without going broke. I watch you all the time and appreciate your help. God Bless You Chicanic!
I bought some aftermarket fitted rubber fuel hose for a Stihl 029/039. Where the hose does a 180 to go in the carb, they all kinked and won't let fuel go through. OEM only for those. On the flip side, some OEM parts are made in China, but you can't always tell.
Ma'am, you have saved me a lot of frustration, time and money already.... However, two weeks ago I decided to go with an aftermarket trimmer head ( 2 for 1 actually) that didn't even last a week. Both were complete junk. I just ordered the SpeedFeed 400. Thank you for sharing with us what you know about two cycle engines. I commend you
That's really nice of the Echo folks to get you those parts bins. I am always needing storage like that. My parts are all electronic and smaller than yours but I have hundreds of different types and I really hate trying to find something by reading the tiny print on a commercial ZipLoc bag. The local Dollar Tree store once in a while gets parts boxes in and I buy up as many as I can. Nothing worse than spending hours to find something you need (and you KNOW you have) for a 10 minute repair.
I have had as much trouble with brand name carbs as the cheep ones, to the point i only get the cheeper version and accept that i need to check them first thing if the saw doesn't run right.
10:53 Have got those plastic ones & the top pops off & one showed it was OPEN on the outside but CLOSED on the inside, after that I ONLY buy the metal ones now
I purchased a Depstech endoscope this week after your recommendation. What a great tool to have. Going around the house and through the cars looking into all those tight places I've never seen into before.
I have had really good success with most aftermarket parts I install over the years. No complaints or comebacks due to bad parts. That is not luck or a "one off." OEM parts are often ridiculously expensive with not much in the way of quality as a benifit.
Tip: Ever need a thin but very stiff wire to ream out a small hole like in a carb? Try metal guitar strings. Acoustic strings are a larger diameter than the equivalent electric strings. Readily available and cheap. Free if you have acquaintances that play regularly.
In my experience, AM parts are usually much more of a problem for those who are, shall we say, not mechanically minded. I count on AM parts needing tweaking or adjustment (in fact, even OEM parts). The cost savings can work if you have some basic understanding of how and why a part works. A little customer review research prior to purchase also goes a long way.
15:50 That was really cool of them to give you a deal on plastic parts bins. Goes to show even after being a business partner for years they still will bend over backwards to support you. You can't buy that.
In Australia a Briggs carby costs a bomb. I once bought a Chinese one that didn't work. When l took off the bowl all the stuff inside was poorly made plastic that didn't have a chance of working .
I had a similar thing happen here. Took a 3 year old Stihl whipper snipper (Weed Wacker) to a local independent shop for a full overhaul. It worked OK before the overhaul, but was occasionally hard to start, and after the overhaul it was consistently hard to start, usually taking 10-15 attempts at minimum. I then put up with this for a year or so until my son bought a house, so I kindly donated the weed wacker to him and bought a new Stihl for myself. He put up with it being hard to start for about 6 months then started complaining that it was almost impossible to start, so I took it to a local stihl dealer and asked them to do an overhaul. They found the plug looked to be original, the spark arrestor was missing, and the kit put through the carburetor was completely the wrong one, and had blocked a needed passage that was part of priming line. $120 later it starts first pull each and every time. Because of this one time, although I had bought a bit of gear from them in the past, but not got it serviced there, they now do a yearly service on all my gear, and will continue to do so in the future.
the only aftermarket carbs I've had great success with are HIPA. As for the Nikki carbs, OEM is the way to go. I had an Ariens 19.5 that the carb died on, 4 after market carbs later I threw them away and got an OEM.
I love your sense of humor but let me tell you this. I have 14 engines on my farm I maintain. Every since I heard you talk multiple times about how gas goes bad, the first thing I do when I go to fire up an engine I haven't run in a while, the first thing I do is put fresh gas in it. Guess what... Those puppies fire up easy as pie every time. You are amazing and thank you for all the great info!
I learned my lesson regarding aftermarket carbs. I bought an aftermarket carb for my Honda powered pressure washer. Normally I would just clean those kind of carburetors, but for some reason I had trouble trying to remove the main jet on my original one. An aftermarket carb was only $15 or so, so I took a chance. My pressure washer started up and ran alright for the 5 or so minutes that I tested it. Went to use it about a week later, and it would not run under a load unless the choke was on. After doing some further research I found out that the main jet on the aftermarket unit was the wrong size. I decided to spend the $50 or so to buy an OEM carburetor, installed it and my pressure washer has been working just fine now for over 6 months.
During my Career as a Mechanic and Counterman, I've both bought and sold After Market parts in addition to OEM Mfgrs. Sometimes they don't fit. Fortunately for me I had 4 racks of catalogs and could sell a similar part by a dozen different Mfgrs including all the Big Brand Names. If it was a personal purchase I could sometimes modify the AM part. Because My two Homelites had nothing but an oil bath piece of foam rubber for an Air Filter element, I cleaned them all the time. The Two Poulans and the Husquvarna 55 didn't require as much attention so usually whenever I flipped the bars on them I checked out the whole saw. I sharpened the chain and greased the nose bearing after every use. When I quit those two Homelites were 35yo.
I love your show, I watch all time. My wife is impressed with your knowledge of small and not so small engines. I've got a question that I've been trying to find out the answer. This show you talked about after-market parts. I have a John Deer D-125 Lawn tractor, 42" deck and I finally decided to change the blades. One problem that I ran into was trying to find the correct blades that are supposed to be used. I checked with John Deer site, and they never mentioned the part number. Amazon indicated they have after-market blades that supposedly fit my mower, but when I checked the ratings column, several mentioned the two blades hit each other when in use. A couple of customers said they had to grind the blades down 1/16", so they wouldn't hit each other. When I checked on the length the description page on Amazon listed the length as 23 3/8", the same length John Deer blades have at all most double the price. I did find a pair of blades that was suppose to be John Deer compatible and the blades were 23 1/4", hence I shouldn't have to grind them down. They look exactly like the John Deer blades, at half the price. I haven't received them yet, but I was wondering why John Deer doesn't make the blade model information public. I spent days this year and last year trying to find the correct blades. My blades still cut good and has never been changed or sharpened, but I know the day is coming that they will have to be changed.
Well now this is a interesting video and a very interesting subject about aftermarket parts. I think I would be very leery after listening to you about buying any aftermarket parts. Now that favorite line of yours, if I can do it anybody can do it. I'm not buying that. Giving your expertise is far superior to the average person.
I always use OEM parts unless I have no other choice. Just had too many problems with the Chinese knock offs. One caveat is Stens products. I've found them to be comparable to OEM, but Stens doesn't make everything I need. I will say that Stens belts seem to be better made than the OEM John Deere ones, which honestly don't seem to last long and are fairly expensive. So, I stock Stens belts for JD riders.
close that gap on those knock off sparkplugs and use them for weights to tight line, yo-yo or jug fish for channel cats.. we used old ones on the farm and works great and if you lose them you don't care.
Another great video! With all your video's I have gone with your suggestions of OEM parts. I have a Honda GV160 lawnmower, Stihl chain saw, and a Stihl weedeater over 20 years old. All of which run like new. I keep them serviced and clean and treat them as if I first bought them. Every video you put out, I learn from. Although OEM parts cost more, it's better to go with those parts and your lawn equipment will run so much better.
5:59 there is a much better option, you can replace that carburetor with part number 594605 and it works much better aftermarket than the Nikki version.
Reminds me of 20 years ago the saying you get what you pay for is back in style! I find alot of oem auto store part for are hit and miss on how long they will last. I try to pay more and go with actual auto dealer parts!
Another great video telling it Like it is. Our countries trade agreements have hit an all time low with not only the Small Engine repairs parts but the automotive repair parts also. I can't tell you haw frustrating it is when a mechanic installs an engine parts which is deep inside the engine bay of a car and fails to preform and has to be replaced again- 'Who pays for the second teardown?' and our mechanical designers are not getting any better ! GM decided it would be a good idea to put a starter under the intake manifold-NOT or a Plastic Valve cover PVC system combination-NOT .I could go on and on but it not a showing of ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY in my opinion! Have a great day Bre from a disturbed old Greaser !!
I discovered this channel yesterday, been binge watching all night. Yeah, I should get to bed but not sleepy yet. I ran my late father's VW shop as a teenager when his health began to fail. Ended up doing robotics engineering after college but mechanics is my first love. Keep up the great work, total fan! Being retired to Florida at 61, got plenty of time on my hands these days. By the way, anyone as sharp as you should be able to design a better carburetor. Think about it! Invention isn't that hard really, look at everything on the market and put in the best features. Very little is truly an original design.
Bought a Fs85 for $50… It had scamazon parts installed with the OEM parts in a bag, I slightly shortened the OEM coil & made a new hole for the spark plug boot. I took the diaphragm out of the POS scamazon carb, put the kit in the OEM carb… It fired right up
greta video Bri, for my cars I will sometimes use parts that are the original OEM suppliers for both my cars, I am really fortunate to have a friend who's family owns business this business, i have my Echo SRM-21 and a snowblower with a Tecumseh 8 hp engine and have kept both units oem parts only , you are only benefiting yourself by doing this, no point in being penny wise and pound foolish , or as my friends grand mother use to say if you buy cheap you buy twice 👍
Thanks so much for watching! Find all the parts and tools I talked about in this video HERE! www.amazon.com/shop/chickanic?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsfshop_aipsfchickanic_PMG0YB2GDVPKQXZBP924
the most honest TH-cam site on the internet
Agreed!!
Aw! Thanks!
🫡👍🤙🏽
You can say that again...Her knowledge of small engine repair is vast..
She is the best
One place I worked at had those parts bins and they came with wall plates with like louvers to hang them on. I watch those scrapper shows on utube and see them in dumpsters a lot.
I suggested, once, to my mechanic that he used after market parts. His response was “You can and I’ll even let you use my tools. Plus you get an “outa sight” warranty “.
The spark plugs can be used for catfish sinkers. Drop them off at your favorite bait shop. LOL Enjoy your work!
Yes 👍
I have done that with used spark plugs when I was a kid. I thought only kids did that.
Came here to say the exact same thing. Growing up in the 60's and 70's spark plugs went swimming all the time.
Using the same honest criteria, love to see the Chickanic head up department in Washington with the same results saving tons of money and to get rid of the scammers.
Yes!!! Yes yes yes yes yes! I was given a Rider with a B&S 17HP engine. Engine was surging with a clogged carb so I simply bought an aftermarket on Amazon. Engine ran worse with the new unit. Lesson learned
OEM all the way! It’s well worth the time and effort to get good parts. Learned that a long time ago. I’m glad you are addressing this. Stay away from Amazon and other chinesium companies supplying garbage.
As long as the OEM is not sourcing them from Amazon....I think there is also a big difference between "it works now" and "it works everytime every day". Things like Farmertec saws may fine for a homeowner that uses it 3 times a year and stores for 5 yrs, but pro use every day? Not a chance. My opinion
Disagree completely. i can replace a part 3 times for less than what a single OEM factory part costs.
And..what if its something like a Mc Cullough chainsaw part or a Tecumseh/Lawson Power products part? OEM for those is virtually unobtainable.
Even the factory Sthil carb is ftom China along with most of the engine parts soooo. A lot of aftermarket is fine and even made by the same manufacturer . Some good some bad.
@@MUUKOW3 Yeah, it seems most parts are being made in China, but they are made with more strict standards if being put on Stihl or other professional brands. Take any cloned engine from Harbor Freight. Looks like a Honda, but it ain’t and will likely fail very quickly. I’ve had several neighbors who’ve bought their garbage. I personally witnessed a gas powered sump pump that croaked on the very first use. The big brands have a reputation and they won’t let aftermarket or very poorly manufactured parts be used that will fail on the first use. Hell, they can’t.
@@MUUKOW3 China produces products to the tolerances that the customer pays for. If something does not meet the tolerances for the OEM customer they get sold on the aftermarket.
What I learned most from this video: Do not ever get Bre mad! Great videos! Thank you. jim
Gotta be careful of knock offs too. Recently bought motorcraft coils for my truck that I got for a good deal. They came in motorcraft packaging and were identical in every wat to real ones, but they made my truck run like crap. My mechanic said they all were counterfeits and the supplier I got them from was not happy either.
I had the same problem with AC/Delco coils. 🤬🤬🤬
Great work you do on your channel! Fixing stuff started with me when I was a baby!! Walking home from school back in 1965 when I was in 3rd grade, I found a lawn mower out for the trash truck to get. I pushed it home. I asked my father to help me fix it; he said: "That's impossible, I know nothing about lawnmowers." I tried to pull the rope, but it would not move. I took the entire thing apart and ended up at the piston; I had to knock it out of the cylinder with a hammer and piece of wood. I found a piston ring was broken and that is what locked up the engine. I removed all the rings and walked the 3 miles to Sears. They sold me the new ring for $1.50. I put the motor back together and when I started the thing, my dad ran out of the house to see what was going on. He had this horrible look on his face!!! He looked at the mower, then up at me; looked down at his feet and shook his head left and right. I knew what that means: He thought his entire life was a failure - his little 8 year old child was a mechanic! ... and he didn't have a clue when I asked him to help me fix it. I made a ton of money that year mowing yards during the summer. I sold that business, with the lawnmower and the list of my clients. A year later, I fixed a radio and started a TV and Radio bussiness. longer story.... me and my red wagon picking up broken TVs and Radios. Life just keeps getting easier and easier.
OEM Parts are the only way to do things properly! I've made a few customers mad because I won't let them bring me their own parts. If it leaves my shop it's gonna be perfect!
It's like my dad always told me son you get what you pay for
@@stevenbelsky1652
Not this day of age ! even some OEM parts come in package saying made in china !
Maybe moreso with small engines, but in the auto field, many car engines have been built to superior quality using aftermarket parts, not just any parts though. Unfortunately, even the brands that were once respected are having problems with poor quality.
Only problem is if the manufacturers have obsoleted the OEM part Stihl for instance don't make or supply a piston/piston chamber kit for a MS 200T saw. Only option for the part now is a non genuine part kit.
@@garyalford9394 Pay the Chinese enough and you'll get good equipment from them too.
Aliexpress specials = Not paying them enough.
I have tried some of junk parts . Cars , lawnmowers . chain saws .Time , money and FRUSTRATION . You are right .
I still have an after market carburetor sitting on the shelf, it’s plastic and not even machined! Just a blank casting! I kept it for nostalgia.😅😅
Bree, I had to stop the video at 10:08. Regarding those Chinese spark plugs, and coming up with a use for them........when I was a kid and I was really into duck hunting, I would use old spark plugs for my duck decoy anchors, simply wire a couple 2 or 3 together and tie to the decoy anchor cord and ' Viola ' as the French do say. By the way, I recently brought one of my generators outside to run it for an hour or so to exercise it and the damn thing wouldn't start. Now it's a fairly new 2500 watt Chinese made unit that performs well, typically. So I remembered what you said about Chinese spark plugs. So I replaced it with an NGK, and you guessed it..........VIOLA !!
westport wa.state here
spark plugs make nice weights when salt water fishing around rocks. have used them for years.
Bre, I have to admit, I bought an Amazon carburetor package for my cheapie Poulan chainsaw. Now, I believe I paid a whopping 119 bucks for it back when Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc her in CT but I couldn't bring myself to pay 60 bucks for an OE carb alone so I gambled on 21 for the Amazon. To my amazement, it tried to start on the second pull and did on the fourth. I admit, I had to tweak the adjustments on the carb to get it singing but being a former racer who is used to carb adjustments, to me, it was no big deal. Your video on adjustments helped me on that, thank you. 20 minutes changing the carb, lines and fuel filter, 5 minutes adjusting and I had close to 2 cord of wood cut from a freshly down black walnut in about an hour, and this is the bottom of the barrel Poulan, a 3314 with the 14" bar. I get it, that import stuff can be crap a lot of the time. Heck I thought I'd be robbing parts from the import to fix the OE, but it's working for now. I know lot's of people, in fact most will have no idea about adjusting and even be a little scared of doing it so I am the anomaly. This is why I love your channel, I've learned a bunch about the small engine world. Thank you so very much.
If i encounter ANY lawnmower with a plastic carburetor I trash the entire engine and install a good used one with a metal carburetor. I can find plenty of the old mowers at Habitat or other thrift stores.
I bought a Troy bilt that apparently had around 20 hours on it (for $40 dollars) but would stop running after a few minutes due to the junk plastic carbs that Briggs and Stratton started using.
The mounting was changed making installation of a real metal carb difficult, I pulled the entire engine, scrapped it for metal and installed an older Briggs I found on a mower in another thrift store.
Now i have a RELIABLE Troy bilt for the sum of $65 dollars that has not failed to start for 3 years.
I well remember the failure that was the Carter ThermoQuad carburetor with its phenolic plastic body/fuel bowl.
Plastic does NOT belong in carburetors.
My favorite is an old Craftsman mower with a sticker on it that says "not for sale in California"
That told me I likely wouldnt have air/fuel mixture issues or carb problems because its going to run dirty and well indefinitely.
Need more peeps like Bre! She's a home run! 👏👍☝️
Bought on your advice a mantis tiller 2nd hand. Needed carb kit, new fuel lines and filter. Ordered the aftermarket chinese carb kit for the C1U K54 carb. But to save time ordered a complete kit with new carb, fuel lines, filters, sparkplug for around $15. Worked luckily properly after turning in the "H" and turning out the "L". The tank grommet was too big luckily old one was still usable.
With these cheap parts you have to be lucky. For commercial users always go OEM. Especially critically dimensioned parts. Once bought aftermarket pump kit for an older outboard. Returned the aftermarket kit as the stainless waterpump cup fitted sloppy in the plastic OEM pump housing. So had to go OEM Yamaha for the complete pump.
I totally agree with critical parts being OEM although Amazon is wonderful and quick most of the stuff you get is what we call disposable
I bought an aftermarket carb for my Ryobi blower. It didn't work, but what I did was to take the diaphragm and gaskets out and put them in the original carb and it runs like a champ. So it wasn't a total loss anyway.
I really like your honesty and content. 😊
I have an old Craftsman lawn tractor with a Kohler twin cylinder engine. I forgot to winterize it one year & the carburetor seized up. When I looked into a genuine Kohler replacement, I was shocked. I could buy a Holley double pumper 4 barrel cheaper. Bought a Chineseium off eBay. It still works. If it quits, I can buy 10 aftermarket carbs cheaper than 1 OEM
You, are a literal genius. Thank you again, so much!
Louis Rossmann on youtube did a test on Amazon fuse kits and found that some of the manufacturers (China) did not blow at their stated values. Not even 4 times their value. When saving money costs you money you've been robbed twice.
*L.R. is another 100% HONEST guy worth watching. He can cuss 'up a storm' sometimes... but he's just 'very passionate' about calling out bad (dishonest) folks/companies, etc. He HATES John Deere (and rightly so)!* 👍🏼
You are without a doubt, the *BEST* and most honest small engine mechanic *EVER,* Bre!! ❤❤❤❤
Last year I ordered a carb from Amazon for my 30 yo JD LX176. To my surprise, the connections were backwards. It was a mirror image of the original.
I ended up rebuilding my original carb.
This sage advice translates over to your car as well.
I have either had or witnessed so many bad experiences with small engine repair shops that I simply got to a point that I refuse to use them anymore. From lack of knowledge or cutting corners on their repairs (sometimes it is hard to know which), charging for work that wasn’t done or poorly done, and charging for new oem parts that were not oem. Even when repairs were done correctly, I have often had to wait an excessive amount of time to retrieve my repaired machine and had repair bills that were so high that I would have been better off tossing the old machine out and just buying a new one. At this point, my skill level is good enough that I can typically keep a machine running for 10-25 years (depending on what kind of machine, 2 stroke or 4 stroke, etc.) by servicing and repairing it myself. I dread when a machine becomes beyond repair and needs to be replaced because of the high prices and lower quality of new machines as compared to what was being made a couple of decades ago. I have had better luck and cost savings buying an older, slightly broken machine (or two) second hand and repairing it or building one from two machines. It is amazing how many of these machines out there only need slight or simple repairs and still have tons of life left in them but are given up on by owners who can’t repair them and have had bad experiences with repair shops so they just give up and move on to a new machine. I think most reasonable people understand that quality repair services are not cheap and are usually worth paying up for but when a shop does shoddy work, overcharges, and generally under delivers, customers not only lose faith in that shop but in all shops.
Really appreciate the lesson on aftermarket parts. I think some of my issues on my 2 and 4 cycle repairs are aftermarket defective parts. I still use Aftermarket parts but I look for the name brands. I try to use OEM plugs all the time. It does make a difference. Thanks and have a blessed 2025!
Someone once said it's wise to learn from the mistakes other people have made .Because we can't possibly live long enough to make them all ourselves .
Very well stated
I agree. Stick with OEM parts to save the day!
spark plug neckless like Taryl. I once fixed a 2 stroke blower for a co-worker of wife. with one of those amazon all in 1 kits, it worked, and I used the plug, but I gave them back the original one as well. in case they had to revert to it.
Only exceptions for aftermarket parts is at those times when the manufacturers obsolete the parts. For example Stihl no longer supply cylinder piston kits for MS200T chainsaws so the only option is a Chinese aftermarket part. Same also goes for UK sold TS400 disk cutter carburettors as these are obsolete and the only option is a non genuine carburettor. If we have to go this route we always let the customer know that we will have to use non genuine and it's a 50:50 chance the parts will work.
Awesome , Chickens !!!! Sell cheap spark plugs to Taryl for his neck strings , (snicker , snicker ) .
Bree, Had to comment one more time.........The shop is looking GOOD sister !!!
You’re amazing! Thanks for your videos
Thank you for the great vid chickanic I really enjoy your super fix it Chanell, very impressed, please keep them coming . Hi from NM!😊
I Love the way you Saw through the BS great channel.
I tried the cheap parts, and always found myself going back to the OEM stuff!
I've bought two Chinese carbs for an FS100R. The first one was shite but the second one is chugging along nicely.
I've also bought Chinese carbs to get diaphragms and gaskets but never actually got round to doing it yet.
You are the best. I love your engagement, facial expressions and ability to tell interesting stories. Thank you for helping us all with our small engine problems so we can cut our grass. You are to small engine repair what my boy Scotty Kilmer is to car repair, Essential to fixing stuff without going broke. I watch you all the time and appreciate your help. God Bless You Chicanic!
I bought some aftermarket fitted rubber fuel hose for a Stihl 029/039. Where the hose does a 180 to go in the carb, they all kinked and won't let fuel go through. OEM only for those. On the flip side, some OEM parts are made in China, but you can't always tell.
About the box of spark plugs.... maybe that's why Tarryl sells spark plug necklaces.
Ma'am, you have saved me a lot of frustration, time and money already.... However, two weeks ago I decided to go with an aftermarket trimmer head ( 2 for 1 actually) that didn't even last a week. Both were complete junk. I just ordered the SpeedFeed 400. Thank you for sharing with us what you know about two cycle engines. I commend you
That's really nice of the Echo folks to get you those parts bins. I am always needing storage like that. My parts are all electronic and smaller than yours but I have hundreds of different types and I really hate trying to find something by reading the tiny print on a commercial ZipLoc bag. The local Dollar Tree store once in a while gets parts boxes in and I buy up as many as I can. Nothing worse than spending hours to find something you need (and you KNOW you have) for a 10 minute repair.
I have had as much trouble with brand name carbs as the cheep ones, to the point i only get the cheeper version and accept that i need to check them first thing if the saw doesn't run right.
10:53 Have got those plastic ones & the top pops off & one showed it was OPEN on the outside but CLOSED on the inside, after that I ONLY buy the metal ones now
Love the chickens, get some rabbits also, they both produce just as fast
I purchased a Depstech endoscope this week after your recommendation. What a great tool to have. Going around the house and through the cars looking into all those tight places I've never seen into before.
I have had really good success with most aftermarket parts I install over the years. No complaints or comebacks due to bad parts. That is not luck or a "one off." OEM parts are often ridiculously expensive with not much in the way of quality as a benifit.
15:17 We have used vending machines very successfully instead of parts bins. Those bins are just insane, but certainly better than cardboard boxes.
i only ever use OEM parts. Doesn't save me money but it does save me frustration.
Tip: Ever need a thin but very stiff wire to ream out a small hole like in a carb? Try metal guitar strings. Acoustic strings are a larger diameter than the equivalent electric strings. Readily available and cheap. Free if you have acquaintances that play regularly.
Thank you for sharing enjoy your day have fun be safe😊
In my experience, AM parts are usually much more of a problem for those who are, shall we say, not mechanically minded.
I count on AM parts needing tweaking or adjustment (in fact, even OEM parts).
The cost savings can work if you have some basic understanding of how and why a part works.
A little customer review research prior to purchase also goes a long way.
I love the x ray vision demo
15:50
That was really cool of them to give you a deal on plastic parts bins.
Goes to show even after being a business partner for years they still will bend over backwards to support you. You can't buy that.
I have had very good luck with hipa aftermarket carbs.
Me too and it’s why I believe they warranty them
In Australia a Briggs carby costs a bomb. I once bought a Chinese one that didn't work. When l took off the bowl all the stuff inside was poorly made plastic that didn't have a chance of working .
Nothing better than a well heeled woman! Thank you Chick.
I had a similar thing happen here. Took a 3 year old Stihl whipper snipper (Weed Wacker) to a local independent shop for a full overhaul. It worked OK before the overhaul, but was occasionally hard to start, and after the overhaul it was consistently hard to start, usually taking 10-15 attempts at minimum. I then put up with this for a year or so until my son bought a house, so I kindly donated the weed wacker to him and bought a new Stihl for myself.
He put up with it being hard to start for about 6 months then started complaining that it was almost impossible to start, so I took it to a local stihl dealer and asked them to do an overhaul. They found the plug looked to be original, the spark arrestor was missing, and the kit put through the carburetor was completely the wrong one, and had blocked a needed passage that was part of priming line. $120 later it starts first pull each and every time. Because of this one time, although I had bought a bit of gear from them in the past, but not got it serviced there, they now do a yearly service on all my gear, and will continue to do so in the future.
Thanks for another informative and entertaining video! to state it succinctly...I LOVE YOUR CHANNEL..
the only aftermarket carbs I've had great success with are HIPA. As for the Nikki carbs, OEM is the way to go. I had an Ariens 19.5 that the carb died on, 4 after market carbs later I threw them away and got an OEM.
I love your sense of humor but let me tell you this. I have 14 engines on my farm I maintain. Every since I heard you talk multiple times about how gas goes bad, the first thing I do when I go to fire up an engine I haven't run in a while, the first thing I do is put fresh gas in it. Guess what... Those puppies fire up easy as pie every time. You are amazing and thank you for all the great info!
Great video. Always entertaining, interesting and informative. Take a gold Star out of petty cash
I love this channel! I learn a lot and great to know we're on the same page!!
I learned my lesson regarding aftermarket carbs. I bought an aftermarket carb for my Honda powered pressure washer. Normally I would just clean those kind of carburetors, but for some reason I had trouble trying to remove the main jet on my original one. An aftermarket carb was only $15 or so, so I took a chance. My pressure washer started up and ran alright for the 5 or so minutes that I tested it. Went to use it about a week later, and it would not run under a load unless the choke was on.
After doing some further research I found out that the main jet on the aftermarket unit was the wrong size.
I decided to spend the $50 or so to buy an OEM carburetor, installed it and my pressure washer has been working just fine now for over 6 months.
During my Career as a Mechanic and Counterman, I've both bought and sold After Market parts in addition to OEM Mfgrs. Sometimes they don't fit. Fortunately for me I had 4 racks of catalogs and could sell a similar part by a dozen different Mfgrs including all the Big Brand Names. If it was a personal purchase I could sometimes modify the AM part. Because My two Homelites had nothing but an oil bath piece of foam rubber for an Air Filter element, I cleaned them all the time. The Two Poulans and the Husquvarna 55 didn't require as much attention so usually whenever I flipped the bars on them I checked out the whole saw. I sharpened the chain and greased the nose bearing after every use. When I quit those two Homelites were 35yo.
Great content Bre. I get the fact about O.E.M. parts. I use plastic bins all the time (Harbor Freight specials). Stay safe.
Like your shop. Thanks for the update.
I love your show, I watch all time. My wife is impressed with your knowledge of small and not so small engines. I've got a question that I've been trying to find out the answer. This show you talked about after-market parts. I have a John Deer D-125 Lawn tractor, 42" deck and I finally decided to change the blades. One problem that I ran into was trying to find the correct blades that are supposed to be used. I checked with John Deer site, and they never mentioned the part number. Amazon indicated they have after-market blades that supposedly fit my mower, but when I checked the ratings column, several mentioned the two blades hit each other when in use. A couple of customers said they had to grind the blades down 1/16", so they wouldn't hit each other. When I checked on the length the description page on Amazon listed the length as 23 3/8", the same length John Deer blades have at all most double the price. I did find a pair of blades that was suppose to be John Deer compatible and the blades were 23 1/4", hence I shouldn't have to grind them down. They look exactly like the John Deer blades, at half the price. I haven't received them yet, but I was wondering why John Deer doesn't make the blade model information public. I spent days this year and last year trying to find the correct blades. My blades still cut good and has never been changed or sharpened, but I know the day is coming that they will have to be changed.
Thank you for your honest videos. Really helps some of us DIY'ers.
Well now this is a interesting video and a very interesting subject about aftermarket parts. I think I would be very leery after listening to you about buying any aftermarket parts. Now that favorite line of yours, if I can do it anybody can do it. I'm not buying that. Giving your expertise is far superior to the average person.
WOW great warning....sad but this is all too common with some repair shops
Mechanics on the dope ?
Great advice from a very smart lady .
I always use OEM parts unless I have no other choice. Just had too many problems with the Chinese knock offs. One caveat is Stens products. I've found them to be comparable to OEM, but Stens doesn't make everything I need. I will say that Stens belts seem to be better made than the OEM John Deere ones, which honestly don't seem to last long and are fairly expensive. So, I stock Stens belts for JD riders.
close that gap on those knock off sparkplugs and use them for weights to tight line, yo-yo or jug fish for channel cats.. we used old ones on the farm and works great and if you lose them you don't care.
Another great video! With all your video's I have gone with your suggestions of OEM parts. I have a Honda GV160 lawnmower, Stihl chain saw, and a Stihl weedeater over 20 years old. All of which run like new. I keep them serviced and clean and treat them as if I first bought them. Every video you put out, I learn from. Although OEM parts cost more, it's better to go with those parts and your lawn equipment will run so much better.
*_AND also saves you TIME! And as we are all getting older... time becomes more valuable every day!_*
5:59 there is a much better option, you can replace that carburetor with part number 594605 and it works much better aftermarket than the Nikki version.
Yes you helping a lot thank you
I love your channel. I love to see ladies fix stuff and you are the queen of the fix-it ladies. Keep the videos coming.
Reminds me of 20 years ago the saying you get what you pay for is back in style! I find alot of oem auto store part for are hit and miss on how long they will last. I try to pay more and go with actual auto dealer parts!
Another great video telling it Like it is. Our countries trade agreements have hit an all time low with not only the Small Engine repairs parts but the automotive repair parts also. I can't tell you haw frustrating it is when a mechanic installs an engine parts which is deep inside the engine bay of a car and fails to preform and has to be replaced again- 'Who pays for the second teardown?' and our mechanical designers are not getting any better ! GM decided it would be a good idea to put a starter under the intake manifold-NOT or a Plastic Valve cover PVC system combination-NOT .I could go on and on but it not a showing of ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY in my opinion!
Have a great day Bre from a disturbed old Greaser !!
Another great video, thanks Bre.😊😊
I discovered this channel yesterday, been binge watching all night. Yeah, I should get to bed but not sleepy yet. I ran my late father's VW shop as a teenager when his health began to fail. Ended up doing robotics engineering after college but mechanics is my first love. Keep up the great work, total fan!
Being retired to Florida at 61, got plenty of time on my hands these days. By the way, anyone as sharp as you should be able to design a better carburetor. Think about it!
Invention isn't that hard really, look at everything on the market and put in the best features. Very little is truly an original design.
Love you and your honesty, you are the best!
Thank you,
Bought a Fs85 for $50… It had scamazon parts installed with the OEM parts in a bag, I slightly shortened the OEM coil & made a new hole for the spark plug boot. I took the diaphragm out of the POS scamazon carb, put the kit in the OEM carb… It fired right up
I’ve been working on small engines for years, and once in a while you teach me something. Thank you 😁
Thanks for the information.
Part numbers are 148443 8x2 rear wheels and 143427 front drive wheel.. Thanks , Marty
Thanks much! 😊
Always good vids and info....LOVED that xray vision part! LOL Aint no one comin in your shop and gettin' unruly! LOL
Thank you for taking the time to inform us!!!!!!!!
Thank you for letting us know about how after market parts can be a major do not use. Myself I prefer to get the OEMs.
greta video Bri, for my cars I will sometimes use parts that are the original OEM suppliers for both my cars, I am really fortunate to have a friend who's family owns business this business, i have my Echo SRM-21 and a snowblower with a Tecumseh 8 hp engine and have kept both units oem parts only , you are only benefiting yourself by doing this, no point in being penny wise and pound foolish , or as my friends grand mother use to say if you buy cheap you buy twice 👍
That's so funny I'm watching this thinking. What about the cheap shut off valves I found cheap on ebay and all of a sudden you ease my worries.
Another epic video. Cheers from Australia.