About ten years ago, I was offered a 'working' generator by a little old lady who was selling her caravan, it looked fairly unused and all she wanted was £40 so I said yes, but I got it home, found something on the electrical panel was damaged, and the engine just wouldn't start, so I applauded the devious shrewdness of the old lady, chucked it in the shed and forgot about it. Now I know NOTHING about these things, but with all the threats of blackouts, I figure I might as well get it out, and have a look at getting it running as a back up, because I sure as hell can't make a non running thing any more non running than it is already, so this video has come at just the right time to inspire me and gives me plenty to look at... lol

You’re brave enough to not cover up your mistakes, but use them as a learning tool for yourself and us too..bravo 🙌

I've been a small engine mechanic for many years, and believe me I couldn't have been much faster. I Probably would have installed a new carburetor sooner, but only because my working hours are too expensive to tinker around with a carburetor for a long time. Well done! Greetings from Switzerland

Man I look forward to ever episode you put out.

Multiple problems always takes a lot of time to fix. Good job.

20:30 also spray the choke and throttle shaft as sometimes the bushings inside will allow air through.

Mate, I love how you adjusted the sound of your video. The talking was clear and the generator sound was turned down. Truly a jack of all trades. Cheers from Brisbane Au

Hey, thanks for lowering the gain when the generator was running. Love your content too!

Great video! Just a little pointer when you shut the fuel off, the generator was still under load (heater was glowing) when the engine cut out, for generators that rely on residual magnetism for excitation this can weaken the field and cause low/no voltage issues. It’s normally an easy fix but it just best practice to take the load off before killing the engine 👍

Not suggesting that this was your problem, but often when I have to run partial choke I find that the main jet has a very small buildup in the orifice. I have a set of #61-80 drills and I typically can twist a drill in there by hand that pulls the crud out of the orifice but is not removing parent material. If the drill isn't exactly to size, your can use it as a file to clean it out the rest of the way. A tiny hole, even with a few tenths of buildup can be an issue. It has worked for me many times now. Keep up the good work.

I picked up one of those little ignition spark testers and it came in handy one day. I had a new chainsaw that wouldn't start, taking the ignition wire to ground looking for the spark jump proved the ignition was firing yet no engine run. Because the spark tester is inline with the spark plug the tester quickly showed there was no spark. Yep, it was a brand new plug but brand new doesn't mean working. Changed the spark plug and its been runing since.

Love small engine (>500cc) teardowns and diagnoses. I have a 7hp garden shredder, 500cc lawnmower, 4200kw genny, a hedge trimmer and a chainsaw, a mixture of 2-stroke and 4 stroke, and they all need to be fussed over and loved from time to time but what I really love about it is that it's all down to logic, trial and error. That's how my dad taught me to look after and work on my Lambretta 200 back in the day. Cool video to watch and glad you got it sorted eventually. And, yeah, those mickey mouse carbs are dirt cheap and that's what I would have done as well.

Some tips/tricks when working on small engines. A small neon bulb tied with one leg to the metal chassis, and with other leg to the rubber/silicone jacket of the sparkplug cable, will also light up. Sparkplug cables (even new) have enough leakage to light up a small neon bulb, because such a small neon bulb needs only a few µA to light up. This can be made very cheaper then the commercial sparkplug testers. Regarding the magneto coil (spark module) you used a playcard to leave the gap between the coil and magnet, that is fine, but in reality, the distance between the magneto coil and magnet does 2 things. 1) The closer the gap, the more powerfull spark you get, the greater the gap, the less powerfull spark. 2) this gap has also a little influence on the ignition timing. That being said, there is much more involved with this gap distance. As i mentioned, the closer the gap, the more powerfull the spark will be, but here is the catch. With a very tight gap, the gas throttle response is much better, and on 2 stroke engines (like chainsaw etc...), you hear a difference in sounding and you have more power and this is all good you think, but in reality you are slowly killing your entire ignition system. When this gap is to close, you have lots more of socalled Eddy currents, this Eddy currents heat up the guts of a ignition coil and in extreme cases melts the insulation on the copper wire and will evently intermittenly shortout. And things get even worse, when the gap is to close, not only the ignition coil will overheat, also the entire aluminium flywheel will heat up, including the magnet, and eventually the magnet will loose his magnetism when overheated. This lost in magnetism will weaker the spark strenght, and many people will make the gap even closer (if possible) and the total breakdown continues. Also when this gap is closer, the RPM starts to drop, because the attraction between the magneto and magnet works as a break, and on engines where the bolts of the flywheel cover are close to the flywheel (in less then 2cm) it's best to use stainless bolts/screws for this cover.

Somewhere I learned that it helps to remove any rust or filth of your magnet and coil to help the magnetic flux flow more properly. Good job fixing that generator, I just fixed mine that acted up as well, It had a carb issue with a primerbowl vacuum leak.

Wow! Excellent job and great repair! vert well done. Some info for you... These carburettors have very narrow internal channels that become clogged, notably the idle circuit. The Tecumseh carbs can be a particular pain. If you know how to clean them properly they are perfectly fine. Even though the carb may look clean internally (clean bowl, clean main jet etc..) the internal passages can be blocked and nearly impossible to clean. This is a classic symptom of what was happening with yours. The ONLY way I get them to come back when they are this stubborn is with the ultrasonic cleaner. Some times they have to sit for a good few hours in there. The combination of near boiling hot cleaner, and the ultrasonic energy is the only thing that can break up the crud in to those passages. If the flange/surface where the bowl gasket seals is pitted or corroded, it must be cleaned to a near smooth finish with brass wire wheel and possibly wet sand paper. Same goes for the bowl it self. The bowl gaskets almost always need to be replaced on these cabs as they dry out and crack. It will certainty leak air around the bowl gasket. There is not much variation in these Tecumseh carburettors, just what ever horse power motor they were designed for. The older models like the original one you had featured an adjustable low speed idle mixture screw as well as main jet screw. The new aftermarket one you replaced it with was the standard fixed jet with non adjustable low speed idle jet (not a mixture screw!) This jet often becomes clogged and needs to be poked through with a thin piece of wire as I saw some one else mention in a comment below.

I love your gap gauge for the ignition coil and flywheel magnet. I was taught to use the cardboard from the ignition points. Yes, that was back when engines had points and you had to pull the flywheel to get the points. We also cleaned the magnet and the ignition coil to get rid of spark robbing rust. A little rust goes a long way in creating sparking issues. As for your shut down process. I professionally mowed for ten years. I used 10% ethanol all those years with no problems in any of the equipment. At the end of the season, fuel was emptied out of all the tanks. Fuel conditioner was added to the fuel, put back into each tank and the engines were warmed up. Then I shut them down exactly as you did. Plus, I emptied the tanks of all fuel, and ran the engines again until the sputtered and died. In 10 years I never had trouble with any 2-cycle or 4-cycle engine starting up in the spring. The repair shop couldn't believe how I never had engine or carb trouble. First because I was using ethanol and second also using low octane gas in the 16HP and 20HP mowers, weed eaters, edgers and chainsaws instead of mid-grade. Not that I'm out of the business I do spring for the mid-grade for the one weed eater and 2 chainsaws. I still run 10% ethanol in my one mower now. But I'm not supporting 8 weed eaters and 2 edgers anymore!

I think you did everything you had to do to diagnose the problem. But, ultimately it was the carb. Possibly it was sucking air on the choke shaft from the side. But, you did a great job. Love your stuff. It benefits us all. 👍🔧🇬🇧

I would have fought this one pretty much the way you did. Intermittent fails are a difficult problem. I worked in maintenance for a number of years. I developed the habit of temporarily bypassing the safety circuit from the machine to test for operation. There are so many failure points in an E Stop circuit you can spend a lifetime trying to track them down replacing components. Watching your video I'm recognizing part of the troubleshooting issue with magneto engines is not having a consistent power supply to check the circuit. With a continuity checker on the low oil safety switch the light would be off at normal oil level, on at low oil level, and you can travel up the circuit to the magneto. If only it didn't have everything packed in under the shroud and flywheel. ☹ Hindsight is 20/20. I have the advantage of looking at the last 5 or 10 minutes of your video before I start commenting and saying "There's Yer Problem!" Love the thought process you go through. 😁😎

How did you acquire all this knowledge to fix things?? Was it trial and error??Did you go to school for engineering?? What do you do for a living? You are really impressive..

I literally had the same problem this week. Ordered up a new ignition unit and and carb. The carb had a lot of rust inside the bowl and choke, so I decided $15 was faster and cheaper than trying to fiddle with it. This video has confirmed and given me more confidence in my decisions on how to fix my small engine issue.

🎯 non-ethanol...just did a trip to the local (40 miles) small airfield to refill all my jerry cans...$6.50 a gallon, but worth it to me. Great content, very interesting FC101

John, please remember the complete expression: A Jack of all trades and master of none, but still better always than a master of one!

I love the way you process a problem, like a flow chart in your mind. I learned a few tricks, thanks

So funny how parallel our struggles are! 😂 On that carb, there's a small aluminum disc opposite the needle seat under the float. Use a small drill bit with a depth limiter on it to drill it out enough for an allen wrench to fit and pry that loose. The fuel flow issue will become apparent as there is another filter screen behind that. The carb kits often come with these screens and discs. Seat the disc with a brass drift. 👍

I admire your patience!

No matter the topic, I always learn something from you and your channel. Thank you for having one of the best channels on YT. Matt

Great job again John. Too many little problems added up to make it hard to figure out, but you got it. 👍 Thanks for sharing. I have a generator I have to choke part way to run also. I should go ahead and replace it.

Great video and results! As someone who, like you does not work on the little engines very often, I think you did a great job!

Another great one. Love the "click" on the manual torque wrench. Also, an interesting natural frequency on the assembly as it heaves slightly every 1-1.25 seconds.

I really enjoy your channel. Thanks for the videos and saving my ears with your editing volume control. 👍👍

I am about half way through and I noticed you are outside in the new shed roof addition you built. Hooray! How nice it is to use something you built to help you work better and easier.

Thanks for the video, always enjoy watching!

Good job on fixing the generator. I watch James Condon almost all of his videos and do not think he would have done any better. With the high likelyhood of electricity and fuel shortages in Europe this winter I believe a good generator will be worth its weight in gold. Imagine a house on the grid with a freezer full of food and power outages of several days. A generator would be very valuable. I love to watch you fix tools and machines and am just thankful I don't have to do that any more since I am 77 and happy to be there.

I had a Power King yard tractor with a rusty gas tank. Trying to finish a garden with no time for a proper fix, I had to stop plowing several times every 30-40 mins to clean the bowl out, the last 10 mins it would only run full choke. It's often hard to find time (or remember) to fix things in between the times you need to be using them, so bravo on staying ahead. Also I need an in-line spark tester and I didn't know. Thanks

As I am an addict to these type videos I've seen other youtubers tackle such problems. Mustie1 is a favorite and I've seen him overhaul carburetors many times. There are frequently tiny pinhole metering ports in the side of the jet tube which he cleans with tiny wire. They are so small it would be easy to miss them and fail to clean them out. Such clogged pinhole ports could cause fuel starvation when the choke is not mostly engaged, such as in this case. This was an interesting problem and your solution was spot on. A fun and informative presentation. Thanks for posting.

Thank you so much for turning down the volume during loud engine stuff!

I enjoyed the video and learned a bit. Thanks for busting open the old carb.

Good video! Over the years and I don't know how many carburetors I figured out that there Comes A Time to just go ahead and replace it after you've taken it apart and cleaned it half a dozen times. I think an ultrasonic cleaner is probably the best way to do it. But carburetors are so cheap nowadays that it just makes sense to replace it. Your time is money as well.

Getting it done! Good job.

Been watching your channel for a while now . Your a very determined person . You never give up . Great skills on explaining showing everything step by step . Great content and really enjoy watching . I use too have more problems with engines owning all types of equipment . The best thing I ever did one day was made a decision too buy a filtered funnel and start useing gas line anti freeze and a squirt of Lucas fuel treatment in every fuel tank fill up in every engine I own all year round . I also started shutting the fuel off like you did and running things dry that where not going too be used all the time . I have never ever had a problem with any of my equipment anymore . No more varnish / water / or poor gas from sitting also . I just turn on the fuel from what Im going too use like a generator or log splitter that has been sitting long time and usally one or two pulls and I’m up and running. I don’t know what they put in Lucas or other similar products but it really has changed everything for better around here 👍👍

Thanks for the video John. I have a generator that's been sitting for a few years in the garage that I've been dreading to see if it would run. Fat chance it would. Your video gives me some good things to check.

Love these repair videos!

Have one just like it torn apart setting on the bench . Thanks for the inspiration to get back to work on it 👍👍👍👍

“Definitely likes being choked” Never know I had so much in common with a generator

Hello from the Netherlands! I enjoy your videos a lot! Thanks for all the efford. I could not resist to post my opinion about the relation Fuelmixture / Spark. If a fuelmixture is very lean, the sparkplug needs a much higher voltage to let the electricity flow between the electrodes. Thats because there are less fuel molecules between the (isolating) air molecules to conduct the electricity. That's why spark related issues will appear faster on a mixture issue. Sorry for my poor English, but I hope I can express my thoughts on this. Best regards and wish you all the best, Peter

I allways go with the strategy that there is only one problem. But when I try to fix something thet has been running with a problem and another one appears I get a bit lost... :D Thank's for your great content that you produce, it's allways a happy moment when a new video from you appears in the list, :)

I wasn't even 1 minutes into the video when I noticed what your problem was with the generator... its a tecumseh! Sheeesh, what a boat anchor. I can fix Briggs, Hondas just run so never a problem there but I have never been able to get a tecumseh working again once it has stopped or started giving me troubles. Now with that said, I'm just a country boy working on stuff and not a mechanic so hats off to ya (and a bow) for a job well done on fixing that thing. You are a better man than me. Keep up the food work and love your videos. You ALWAYS have something for me to watch and learn from, like how to fix a stupid tecumseh motor. 😄

My new favorite day of the week is when we get a new FarmCraft video 💪

Good afternoon & thank you for the info

Great job. Was educational and engaging as I watched you figured it out! Nice work.

Awesome class! Thanks!

9/13/22. 2day watched u troubleshoot & replace both carb & coil...after much time re-testing each..intermittant..problem area. I too have had same experiences & finally changed both & bingo..rngine runs 👍 great! Thx for showing everyone the bottom line...get both new carb & new coil & get back to work💪🛠⚙🙂

Great detective work. I've been there several times!! After a while I can get grey cell fatigue messing with a problem and just simmer on the problem for a bit. That sometimes helps me.

thanks i have same choke problem with old honda engine on concrete mixer. Now i can fix it . love your content

100% warn out shafts sucking in air. It happened to me. All the parts are tired and warned out so when under stress it will fail or under perform. Bravo you fix it !!!!!!!

Great job, Sir!!!

Great video John, great video.

That HM100 is actually a pretty good engine. I still have the same one on one of my log splitters, it's now almost 30 years old and still runs just like the day we purchased it. Always kept inside and changed the oil every season. I was gifted a generator EXACTLY like the one you have, 100% the same, there is actually a video about it on my channel and let's just say, I didn't have the same outcome as you did. I wish I did. Sometimes trouble shooting these small engines is super easy and other times it's a challenge like with yours, but at least you have a good backup generator now.

From not knowing anything about engines, I now know checking fuel delivery, checking for spark and cleaning the carb is the first things you do. I love your attitude! Find out what's wrong by trial, error and checking one thing at a time, repair or replace. I will strive to apply this to my own life! Thank you.

really agree that it's annoying that problems happen only occasionally. our excavator gave flow sometimes when it is not supposed to give flow to the implement that is on. the fault was the lever. it wasn't cheap. it was only a small button that could not be replaced, without changing the whole lever. I think it went for $800 just for the leaver. Love your videos!

Great video! I love the way you work. Just gods honest truth. Thanks for sharing. Take care from Canada eh!

Thanks, very informative!

I've been down thus road before, but not with your knowledge. . Thanks for teaching me .

I didn't watch the rebuild video but just a few suggestions. Under those aluminum disks inside the carb, are usually a screen filter and they are RARELY every cleaned, cause those disks are pretty much a one time thing and unless you get a factory kit, they are hard to find. Also, the air bleed ports in the front of the carb(air filter side) are often overlooked. But you got it, no harm no fowl, just a few suggestions. Love your content

I have the same generator. It came with the house I bought in 2003 and has been seldom used. In 2018 it ran like crap and after doing full maintenance I replaced the carb and plug, having already just installed fuel and air filters. After that it ran like a Swiss watch. I fire it up two or 3 times a year to exercise it. Yesterday (2/23/23) it acted like your generator. Then I recalled the last time I started it it was giving me problems so I set it aside and used a different generator. Yesterday I tackled the issue. Added fresh fuel with 1 once Sea Foam additive per gallon (I added 2 gallons). Two fixes solved the problem. The real issue was a clogged fuel filter. What was also a problem was I had replaced the fuel line some time ago and left too much slack in it. When I corrected that to get a better fuel flow the generator returned to the Swiss watch mode. Enjoyed your video. Yours is the second generator I’ve seen with a problematic low oil switch. FYI: I mounted my generator on a Harbor Freight moving dolly. It’s a perfect fit. I used Harbor Freight’s large, heavy duty cable ties to secure the 2 together. It works perfectly and helps when I change oil. When I set the generator and set the rear casters on a 2X6 my oil pan slides underneath, and the angle helps the oil to drain. Best of all, the generator just glides over a concrete floor.

I remember "helping" my grandfather fix a small engine when I was a very young boy in the late '60s. I ended up being his spark plug tester--"here, hold this for a minute... nope, it has spark!"

Very helpful video. Thanks a million! Subscribed.

I like the suggestion to spray for leaks n listen to rpm. I always keep a spray bottle with gas for troubleshooting

I would have probably started with the new carb, and gotten frustrated with the intermittent ignition from the oil sensor thing. You did good there figuring it out. Oh, and I can’t tell you how many times I too was late in looking for an air leak only to find it was the throttle shaft causing the lean condition.

Great content!

I know exactly what was wrong with the original carb. On the main jet/bowl nut (the brass piece) there is a VERY small port on the side, right above the threads that goes down at an angle and exits in the middle where the needle screws into. It's extremely small, like maybe the width of a couple human hairs. Don't feel bad that you didn't see it, if you didn't know it was there you would never notice it. I've taken probably a hundred of those carbs apart and 100% of the time, if they're having issues, that port is plugged. I usually clean it out with a single strand from a wire brush. I would bet you a beer that if you take that carb apart, find that port and clean it out, it'll run good with that carb too. Otherwise good work! I really enjoy your channel!

I got rid of every Tecumseh Engine I had. Those Carbs were nothing but problems. My Moms Fathers 1970's Bolens 1256-02 has a Wisconsin TRA-12D and it is the sweetest running Engine I own . No points or Condenser to deal with either. Just 3 pick-up Coils inside the Flywheel to an Common Ignition Coil grounded through the Ignition Switch. Thanks Mike M. Wausau Wisconsin.

Good work ❤

Great video thanks for sharing

Those Tecumseh engines are tough, tough engines to fix sometimes! A buddy of mine told me to use a metal guitar string to clean jets out on carb's. Thought I would pass that along. Great video!

Wow, another great video. I hope one day you will post more than once a week. By far your are the best you tuber! Thank you for your videos.

Good job!

An interesting process. Sometimes the logical analysis defies a direct solution. We have a small farm with lots of small engines. Some years ago, we made a policy decision to only fuel the small engines with stabilized fuel to counter the long periods of inactivity of some devices. Overall, this has increased the ability of the small engines.

I fixed a weedeater that someone else worked on first. It ran then died. After way too long of a time I saw the brand new plug that had good spark was a non resistor plug. I pulled a used resistor plug out of a junk weedeater and it ran fine. Non resistor plugs will kill the ignition intermittently make sure there is a R in the part number if you ever have a problem like that

Great video love your farm so cool

14:54 the low circuit supples fuel to all rpms, high side only does the high rpm. You can test this when a small 2 stroke. Hold it wide open and then start messing with that low speed.

With that weak spark I would pull the flywheel to clean and check the point gap plus change the condenser. They can go bad. The gap between the coil and flywheel is critical too. For the carb I'd check for water in the bowl. Good idea to pull it and give it a good cleaning, jets may be dirty, it doesn't take much to block the flow of fuel. Fresh gas is also important if it's been sitting around too long. Thanks for the Vid. 😁

I really enjoy your videos

I watched the whole video and an idea poped up in my head that i should fix my kawasaki kx60 that has not run in at least 5 years so i hope i get it running, thanks for the motivation!

I love this little generator. So easy to use

New to your channel enjoy watching the jack of all trades accomplish his tasks.

I like you farm crafting man. I think a lot like you. I've said for a long time there is NOTHING I can't fix. Excepr Ignition coils can't be fixed. Theres like 3 or 4 other things that nobody can fix. And I never liked be called a tinkerer. Tinkering is what amateurs do. I'm more of a professional. Always keeping an opened mind and always always learning new things. Everyday.

I've been working on small engines for the last 10 years. I would always spray the carburetor out with carb cleaner and it usually worked then i went and bought an ultrasonic cleaner and it does a good job on cleaning carburetors

As always, another thumbs up!

Half way through I'm going to guess its the magnets lost their magnetism for some stupid reason. Hmm nope, guess it was a pretty simple fix. Thank you for normalizing the loud parts of the video o I didn't have to keep changing the volume. That simple quality fix makes the video infinitely more enjoyable to watch.

I certainly did not mean it as a criticism. Carbs can always be a pain. The lack of adjustment on the low speed circuit also might suggest that one of those ports are plugged but I noticed that the Walsh plug was intact when you took it apart at the end of the video. In order to clean those ports you would have probably had to remove the Walsh plug and use something like a Torch Tip cleaner (that's what I always use) to physically clean it out and then put the plug back with some nail polish. If you have a lot of small engines on the farm you might want to invest in a small table top Parts cleaner (Ultrasonic) with heating. These units do a fantastic job of cleaning those ports without having to remove the Walsh plugs. Love your channel by the way, great practical videos and you are definitely better than just a jack of all trades my friend.

Good Stuff!

I see two options. I could take it to a repair shop. Or I could just go buy a new one. You did well. What you did was way above my pay grade.

I'm ½way through and have the same 10hp generator and experience the same issues. In my case the combination of problems keeping it from running were: 1. An intermittent short on the wire that runs around the head and goes to the shutoff. I also found a bare section near the oil sensor, but that wasn't shorting out. 2. The second major issue, and why I needed the chock on partway was the main jet was oxidizing and had "grown" a layer of "fuzz" on the metal. To fix it I took a small drill bit and ran it through the main jet. I didn't actually remove any good metal but just some of the fuzzy oxidized growth. After those two fixes I've continued to have issues with a leaky fuel pump (it runs on crank pulses), but other than that it has powered our home many times during power outages.

I reckon these small engines can see you coming a mile away, let’s have some fun with this guy Cheers from Aus

Small engines are so elegantly designed....repairs can drive you completely batty! When they work, they work great. When they don't, they can be a real headache. Had problems with my last lawnmower. Turns out, ethanol ate the fuel line and then the battery wasn't spinning the engine fast enough to fire it. Fuel and fire!

Awesome vid. I would have tried a new spark plus first, but that's more... personal experience of 'oh the spark plugs messed up', here obviously wasn't your issue and then probably the carburetor, the ignition module I doubt I would have thought of that, certainly not before those two. Also the bear in the field was cool.

Get a little plastic bottle with a small hose on it and fill it was gas. Squirt a little gas in the carb to get it to run. Starting fluid is ok, but I think a little gas is better to get it to run. You did a very nice job on this. That was my little tip for you. Lots of small problems all at once can make it hard to fix the problem. New Carb works good.

There are many ways to skin a cat. This storage . This system is well tested and has given me great results with minimum effort. 40 yrs ago an olde timer suggested to run 30:1 - 2 stroke fuel through any engine for storage. He suggested only run the fuel dry if storage is longer than a yr. He felt the oil coating on everything was a great benefit and somehow helped the fuel from going skanky. I've done this and never in 40 yrs have I had carb issues from fuel/storage. The last 20 yrs I make sure to use non-ethanol in all older engines. Lawn mower, snow blower, everything gets 2 stroke fuel for winterizing/storage. Chain saw gets double oil in the fuel for storage. It can sit for 2 yrs with fuel in it, 5-6 pulls and fires. Owned a 150 Merc fuel injected 2 stroke outboard for 20 yrs and did the same for that. Technically it was getting about 3X oil. Although in this one I didn't ever run the fuel system dry. Every spring it would crank 2-3 times and fire perfectly. In retirement I have a 20 yr old boat with 2 - 350 chevy engines (always use non-ethanol fuel here too). I do the same with them and they always fire in the spring with 2-3 cranks like they were shut off yesterday. Sure they smoke for a couple minutes but they would with fogging oil anyway. Once you get your portable tank and hoses figured out, it's actually quite a quick process. Switch the fuel line to the mix, run them for a few minutes to get the pumps and carbs full of mix (if available, stall the engines with the choke for heavier oil/fuel coating) or shut them off. Top up the fuel tanks with fresh fuel. Done.

A worn throttle shaft can also be a sneaky place for a vacuum leak.