Briggs and stratton carburetor fuel shut off solenoid problems

i got me a freebie today, a 2006 LT2000 craftman

i know the owner and know that something was causing it to flood, so bad that it filled the crankcase with gas

anywho, im going to clean and rebuild the carb on it this week, do i need to replace this fuel solenoid, clean it, or what

also could it have been what was causing it to flood, and if so can i just get a new carb bowl the style that does not have this eletronic grabage on it

The fuel solenoid is used to cut off the fuel supply when the engine is shut down. We had gas getting in the crank case on one of those engines when not in use. After rebuilding two different carburetors and still having that happen, we just shut the fuel off with an in line shut off when it's not been used.

The solenoid is only to shut flow of fuel off of the main jet, thus to prevent any fuel flow after key is shut off, to prevent a back fire in the hot muffler. Same thing can be accomplished by idling the engine for a short time before shutting down, to allow the muffler to cool a little.

Fuel flowing into the crankcase is indicative of the needle valve needing to be replaced along with a full rebuild of the carb.

More important, is the addition of a fuel shut off valve in the fuel line and actually remembering to shut off the fuel flow after each use.

Just my .2 cents worth

All I ever do for a flooding problem is, install a pair of vise grips to stop the fuel flow, (Don't pinch it too tight.) remove the float bowl, check to see what contaminates are in the float bowl, push up on the float lighty to check the float level, while holding the float in place, remove vise grips and see if needle and seat leak, in my cases if it does leak is because of a foriegn object caught in the needle and seat, or the needle has a rubber tip that is deformed, if it doesn't leak, I remove the float to see if it has gas in it. It's always one of the above for me when it leaks bad enough to flood a carb in a few minutes. But if it takes all day or overnight to flood, I just install a shut off valve because the motor idling will require more fuel than what the carb is leaking. The fuel solenoid I believe restricts to fuel flow to almost 100%. To me it doesn't restrict it 100% is because the main jet has a slot for a screw driver to screw the jet in or out. The solenoid can't seal the threads that the jet is screwed into, plus it can't seal the slot in the jet. But it does restrict it enough to make the engine starve for fuel to prevent a back fire.

A fuel shut off is a must for those engines. As the previous posters said, when the float valve doesn't seal properly, the gas just keeps flowing till the cylinder fills up. The solenoid is called an anti-after fire solenoid, and as hankll & monteman said it doesn't stop the incoming fuel to the bowl.

The needel valve has some type of rubber seal on the end, i was told that the newer gas will harden that seal and cause it to leak. ive replaced several of them over the summer and all has been good, my question is are they now using a different compound/material to handle this gas? only time will tell.

yea i was planing on getting a rebuild kit just didnt need to know if i needed a solenoid also

i always up shut offs on everything even my snapper that has the fuel pump not gravity feed

90% of the time, if it's a Briggs, if you don't replace the brass needle seat, it'll still leak.

90% of the time, if it's a Briggs, if you don't replace the brass needle seat, it'll still leak.

yea i never do lol