sigh

[Travis]

I finally decided to take the carburetor off the mule and clean it,

Pull it off, piece of cake....

Take off the bowl, here is what it looked like.

 

Then I proceed to pull out the float pin, sigh 

As you can see, part of the hinge casting broke off.

I contemplated JB welding it, but decided not too.Mikuni and Kawasaki are $170-$200 too proud of this carb.

I stooped low and bought a  $60 off of amazon.

Is rather go oem but couldn't in this case.

 

Oh well, nearly 20 years on 1 carb. not bad i guess. never took apart and cleaned, just b12 chemtool in the tank every so often.

[Nate T.]

The 550?  Dang I saw one on Amazon for $15. If anything just use the housing and swap old parts in.  

[Travis]

Yep, for the 550, a OEM mikuni is $170+

$60 seemed to be reasonable. I saw some for $30, or less but I really question the quality at that point.

Interesting thing I noticed, I'm used to Briggs carbs made by Nikki or Walbro.

This Mikuni uses a metal needle with a rubber tip instead of a metal needle and rubber seat.