Carburetor for FE290D-DS05

[Bill-D]

Thanks for the welcome on the Introduction page everyone. I've got a 1997 Club Car Carryall I that doesn't start or run very well. Been sitting for a while but fresh gas, spark plug, filters don't help at all. Just love my little carryall. It's like a wheel barrow with a motor and at my age I can use all the help I can get. Found a carburetor on the web for over $300 and that was just the body without the float bowl or any internal parts. Then I found one at Amazon for the FE290D for only $38. Says it fits part number 1016478 but I can't verify the part number on my carburetor. Even if it does, would it be such low quality I'd be disappointed? Appreciate any help you folks can offer. Thanks!

[BLACK DEATH]

Why not just clean your original up?
It's easy and may cost less than $5 if nothing tears

[ckiguy]

your carry all sould have a fe 350 in it......wait, its a I, i have the II turf model( factory 22s, factory lift)
like black death said, why not just give it a good cleaning, takes about 20 minutes, and a can of carb cleaner.... just pull it off, use a 10mm to remove the nut, MAKE SURE YOU REMBER THE ORINATION OF THE BOWL, check the float, and go to town with the carb cleaner. use a flat head screw driver to clean the main jet, and the bowl nut, as i recall it has 2 small holes in it, and the feeder to the main jet. reassemble. no need to touch any of the other jets. orings are usually reuaseble, also uncrew the fuel pump, give it a good cleaning, just becareful no to nick the diaphragm. bad bing bada boom! your out 5 bucks and some time to pull the carb and reinstall.... as i recall 10 mm nuts hold it to the hear, and a pair of channel locks to remove the air hose!

[Pitbull Joe]

I had to replace my carb because it was pitted so no matter how much I cleaned the carb it just wouldn't run right.

I got mine off ebay and I think I paid around $40

[BLACK DEATH]

Yeah a pitted or oxidized carb can be junk.
I'd try to open yours up incase, it may be a simple cleaning

[Bill-D]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. My experience with motorcycle carburetors was that after a year or so, the float needle became too worn to seat properly, so cleaning it was a waste of time. According to several websites, parts for the FE290 carburetor are not available, so that's why I went looking for a new carb. But hey, won't hurt to remove it and see if cleaning helps. Thanks!

[BLACK DEATH]

I've need had that issue and I have lots of old honda z50rs with 50cc engines from the 80s & 90s.
Those parts are very small especially the pilot/idle jet.
I've even let em sit for years, open them up, clean em up and they are good to go

[Bill-D]

Removed the carburetor, cleaned it inside and out, put it back on and Voila! Runs much better. Gotta say, however, that I didn't find anything unusual, like plugged jets, gummy parts and so forth. The float needle seats fine and there wasn't any dirt or debris in the bowl. My motorcycle racing days made it abundantly clear that one of the laws of the Cosmos is that some things just want to be taken apart and put back together again. So here's the other things I did that might have contributed to it running better:

The small black hose between the large corrugated air intake hose from the air cleaner and what I'm guessing is the valve cover had a large slit in it, so I replaced that with a new hose.

None of the gaskets and O-Rings looked bad, but I smeared some gasket grease on all of them before putting everything back together.

The gas tank cap didn't appear to have a breather on it. That bothered me, because more than once in my life, a truck, a car or a motorcycle began to run crappy because the gas tank was drawing a vacuum. Then I noticed this odd looking device near the gas cap. Took a while to figure how it came off the tank and how to get it apart, but sure enough, I couldn't feel air in my ear when I used my compressor to push air through the bottom of the gizmo. Used a large needle to clear the tiny passage, tested again and Voila! Darn near blew my ear out! Interesting little, well, gizmo. Has a large and small ball in there to open and close the breather.

By the way, taking the carburetor off wasn't all that difficult, but Yikes! what an adventure it was to get it back on.

First, one of the two studs that screw into the engine block came out as I unscrewed the 10mm nut from the carburetor. Didn't want to score the stud with pliers or channel locks, so I used the two 10mm nuts tightened against each other to get it screwed back into the block. Don't have a torque wrench, and I didn't want to strip the threads in the block, so I got it tight then quit.

Second, getting the throttle return spring hooked up and the cotter pin back in the shoulder pin that holds the ferrule on the end of the throttle cable was, well, difficult. Finally realized I needed to hook both of those parts up with the carburetor NOT on the studs coming out of the engine block and upside down so I could see what I was doing.

But hey, it starts and runs pretty good now, and I can push the throttle to the floor without it bogging down. Not as powerful as it was a few years ago when it would charge up our fairly steep driveway. Probably needs new rings and valves, but I got my motorized wheelbarrow back... :)

[BLACK DEATH]

Glad it worked out & saved you money

[ckiguy]

Bill...old gas will cause running issues to... if the gas is older then 90 days, its stale, expescially with no stabilizer.....carbs do not like the new ethonal fuel....it gums up, and it goes stale quick....your tank is vented, it is the little black piece in the center between the fuel shut off, an the fill hole. the little hose from the valve cover to the air tube you replaced is the vent tube, it theoretically sucks the unburnt oil vapor, and burns it in the combustion again... epa crap. make sure you have the correct plug in it, and gapped right, bpr5s, ngk is what came from factory. next time you fuel up, dump a half a bottle of seafoam in the tank. a fule bottle treats 20 gallon, your tank is only 8 gals as i recall. you can put the whole bottle in too, no worries. ive heard a few guys running only the 92 octane in theres. im cheap.... 87 for me, and a bottle of berrymans, i dont know the compression for these, but if you run a comression, and got over 100, i would say your fine on rings. peices for these engines are still available. club car has there engines coded for them, but you can get the parts you need by ordering for other fe350/290 engines, most are the same parts.
did you also clean out your fule pump, since you said the tank vent was plugged, and the carb had a little bit of debris? real easy.. uncrew the 4 screws, carefully seperate the cases, and remove the diagraghm. place it off to the side in a safe spot, clean both ends with carb or brake kleen, and when done, reassemble... incase you needed to know its basicly under the pass side of the seat.... number 2 screw driver, and a flat head to carfully pry the cases apart. and you will only need 1 fule filter, between the pump and the tank, no need for 2, CC changed that a while ago.