Earthmaster Project Progress
by Steve Watroba

Just a little update on my Earthmaster......it's back from the dead! I pulled the head, and soaked the stuck valves with mystery oil overnight, re-installed the head, and bingo, the compression returned. But alas, my carb foiled me again, it would fire a second then flood out. After numerous dead ends for a replacement carb, I went to work fixing mine.I soldered new floats on the float arm, they came from an old motorcycle carb, replaced the packing on the throttle shaft with o-rings, cut new gaskets, and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned.

It worked! I could not believe the original head gasket does not leak.The first tank of fuel is treated with the mentioned Marvel mystery oil, I hope to keep those valves clean.

A note about the valves, only the intakes were stuck, my theory when my carb was giveing me trouble, I had to keep the choke half closed to keep it running, this made the mixture way too rich, this gummed up the valves, after the tractor sat a while the valve were stuck.

Since rebuilding the carb, things were better(it started), the first couple days I had to keep the choke closed to keep it running, but the longer I've been running it the better it runs! Yesterday it was running strong with the choke wide open! I've almost gone through the first 5 gallons of treated fuel, I think this is whats helping things improve. I've been pulling logs, clearing my house lot on the familly estate. I get a lot of looks from the nieghbors, and comments about how they are impressed this old thing still runs so well.

I still want a good carb, the main problem with mine is the mixture screw was rotted out, and stripped, I turned a point on a regular machine screw, and jammed it in there.This is another reason why it may run too rich.

Lastly, a word about Earthmaster carbs. In my various research on this tractor, or it's continental motor, I've been surprised to find how many carb #'s I've been given by dealers, suppliers, tractor tests on MH Ponys (which use the same engine), etc. At last count the following carbs are supposed to work on this tractor, none of wich I've been able to find reasonably priced: Marvel schubler TSV13, TSV16, TSV24, Zenith 14993, and the latest from a past "Tractor of the Month" article, Zenith 61S5.

My email is steve.watroba@nocturnal.com, let me know if you have info about these carbs, pics of these carbs, or carbs available. Thanks.