Craftsman motor replacement?

[bkenobi]

I put the carburetor from the old engine on because the donor seemed to struggle and died. It works great now so I was thinking I might rebuild the donor carb for a backup. When I started to look for the rebuild kit, I noticed that I can get a whole new carb (as well as air and fuel filters in some listings) for $15-30. The original carb lists for over $200 so I'm curious if anyone has found these aftermarket units to work?

I tried a Walbro clone on an old Ryobi line trimmer and it seemed ok until the butterfly plate screw came loose and got eaten by the piston. Probably unrelated, that trimmer eventually threw a rod. That one was too cheap not to try, but I'd hate if something similar happened with this engine.

 

[ultrarunner]

Brother put a cheap carburetor on his Craftsman and still running strong used on the farm…

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I put a $12 ebay carburetor on a Briggs 13.5 hp recently and it works fine.

 

[bkenobi]

Ok good to know. It's not worth rebuilding if these cheap aftermarket models work fine. I'll hold onto the old one but if something goes wrong I'll probably just get a new one.