ORIGINAL: captinjohn
I am talking about rubber parts related to small engines. I was not talking cars & trucks. Car companies got to place good cooing system hoses so they do not get a bad name. Also how about hoses on the real old John Deere tractors....seem to last forever. I do not care what you say...there is different qualities in rubber. I got a 70 year old continental army engine & the rubber is good as new like on the govenor boot. Also I inspected parts at a Military plant. The rubber parts had to be certified as to the date of MFG & meet military specks. Think & look around more.
Capt,n
Well Captn, we'll just have to agree to disagree on some of these points. Like you, I've been around the block a few times and witnessed just as many examples of old rubber that has turned to dust or in some cases melted into a nice gooey pile of muck. I'm not sure any of these observations prove anything one way or the other though. I will maintain that any Walbro problems are more related to local fuel blends than any changes in the internal rubber parts. I'm sure you'll maintain otherwise and that's OK!
As far as Walbro parts go, I only use genuine Walbro kits and never any of the many that are available unbranded and in plain white bags, etc. I have several clone carbs though and no problems with them yet.... and who knows the source of the diaphragms in those carbs. As far as the Walbro kits, the included pump diaphragms are in some cases not even rubber but some other material in the case of the brown or blue ones. The brown one seems to be the most common these days, especially in the WT carbs.