Briggs And Stratton Carburetor Gaskets

Rare breed with speed

The Sioux Falls resident is a retired - he's pretty sure, anyway - motorcycle drag racer who could have lost his life in a spectacular crash on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 2008 while approaching 200 miles per hour.

At Full Blast Engineering, the modest-looking motorcycle shop he owns, folks have sent their Harleys to Hess to make them faster for more than two decades.

"I have age-old repeat customers who keep coming back," Hess says. "They keep coming back because I tell it like it is. I give people a fair, honest product and I don't jab them. I don't have a lot of overhead - that's why I'm still here."

That's why I'm still here. In Hess' life, there are a few ways to take that.

On Sept. 25, 2008, he was piloting a 22-foot-long motorcycle referred to as a streamliner - essentially 1,350-pound bullet with two wheels - at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah when the world as he knew it began hurtling itself into the air. The problem with asking someone to describe what it's like to crack up a motorcycle at 200 mph is that most often the pilot is also doing his fair share of cracking up at the same time. It was no different for Hess, but he's still here.

"Leo went through hell," says longtime friend Harry Bunker, a motorcycle parts salesman who often helps in the shop. "I don't think there are a lot of people who would have been able to handle what he went through. He's a tough SOB - that's the nuts and bolts of it. The best way to get Leo to try to accomplish something is to tell him he can't do it." The clock had started on a lifelong relationship with internal combustion. Hess' first bike was a 1947 Cushman with a five-horse Briggs and Stratton engine. He graduated to a 1940s flathead Harley that he and a few friends bought for $40.

Growing in Pipestone, Minn., they'd take turns skipping study hall to ride it around on school days.

"It was banana yellow, and it burned more oil than it did gas," Hess says. "We finally got caught skipping study hall. Then the bike disappeared. Thinking back on it now, we probably shouldn't have been riding it around the school as much as we did."As with all motorcycles Hess obtained from there, the first step was to go out and see how fast he went. The second project was to take it apart and understand how to go faster. Bore on the carburetor , change the cams and gear ratios - all you need.

Briggs & Stratton 5085H Carburetor Primer Bulb For Quantum Engines ...

Does not match part number listed on the B&S parts diagram which made it harder to confirm this was the right part. Appears to be made of an improved material over the originally installed bulb. Even though some folks online might convince you this is difficult to install, it was rather easy to remove the old one with a couple of screwdrivers and insert the new one with a socket – no need to drain the gas, tilt the mower or anything other than perhaps cleaning the area with some carb cleaner. Instructions could have shown a more practical installation… Must remember to not leave in old gas as that is typically the cause of these failing!

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