Strimmer or hedgecutter will not start? Probably an easy fix.

[frank rabbets]

REALLY annoying. It won't start or starts then splutters out. Nearly always the choke has to be over used witnessing fuel starvation. The electrics are super reliable but it might be worth checking the plug. Also witnessed by the plastic primer bubble not returning because it cannot draw petrol through the filter/s.

This applies to those types of carburettor that you can wave about or run upside down. They depend on VERY fine filters. There is one in the petrol tank and one in the carb. Probably best to clean the carb filter first. This is much finer than the one in the tank and easier to get at.

The one in the carb is accessible by removing the plate with one screw on. Beneath this there is a fine gauze pressed into the body of the carb. This is removed by sliding a strong needle down it's side and prizing it out. I examined mine with a microscope and saw corrosion or some other type of white powder so decided to wash it in battery acid an prod it with a very fine paint brush. It was defo blocked. Washed it in acetone and blew off with air line. It is possible to flatten the filter very slightly before pressing it back in.


Depending on the design the one in the petrol tank is easy or difficult to remove. If there is a large grommet it's easy to remove. If there is just a polythene pipe coming out of the tank then it's more of a job. There are 2 types of filter, either a blob of a fibrous material or a fine plastic gauze. The blob is difficult to clean. I shaved the outside layer off with a new Stanley blade and reversed flushed it with petrol in a syringe. I have not had a blocked gauze one yet but this could be cleaned by reverse flushing and prodding with a fine brush at the same time.

Anyway I've had 2 strimmers and 2 hedge cutters saved from the skip just by cleaning the filter/s.

I know it's a bit of a job but it is fixable and if it won't start it's a new one which will probably block up in 2 years anyway.

 

[clivehorridge]

I had the same problem with my chainsaw, same engine set-up, I imagine.

Both fuel and the air filters were blocked solid.

I have an added problem of a plastic part on the cover broken off and lost. It provides the support for the throttle and choke spindle so without it, everything is flopping about.

The nearest dealer for that part is in Ploesti, some 60 km from either place I'm living, and it's work hours only.

It's a PITA and they're not interested in helping. I've been told the machine is too old for spares to be available anyway. I can see a home-grown bodge-up coming, when I've time to devote to it.

 

[frank rabbets]

It's time consuming Clive. I've just got my petrol leaf blower going after the carb filter was blocked. It is an amazingly fine gauze. You can't see light through it even when clear.

After a fortnight with it from new the pull string would return..........didn't you hear me shouting? . I took it apart and fixed it. I could have taken it back but I could not have demanded a cash refund as it had been used and was OK for a bit from new. The dealer would have returned it for repair so quicker for me to fix it.

Best to mend what you have perhaps Clive. Each year these machines get poorer quality in my experience. I thought I would buy a Stihl strimmer i.e. good quality. Well straight off the silencer burned a hole in my jacket so I had to make a perforated shield for it. Then the cutting cords jammed . Then drive shaft got REALLY hot and burned me. I drilled a hole it the tube and filled it with oil. A bit cooler but then one day the strimmer head flew off at full revs and shot across the lawn smoking like a Katherine wheel. The centre had completely melted out due to the heat.

I bought a cheap unbranded strimmer to replace it about 4 years ago and it fantastic. Friendly reliable and very well balanced and easy to use.

 

[jonnyboy54321]

Frank.

I've been using exclusively Stihl products for 15 years. Commercially.
Never heard of such a thing.

 

[clivehorridge]

Yes, I agree, the known brands are just milking money IMO, like B&D did in the days when there was little competition.

Who in their right mind would describe B&D as good quality and reliable these days?

 

[clivehorridge]

Frank.

I've been using exclusively Stihl products for 15 years. Commercially.
Never heard of such a thing.

Despite my post Jon, I'm not going to argue with you, my experience is way less than yours, if you're using equipment commercially.

The saw I mentioned is a ten year old Stihl, and it's been reliable until the casing piece broke off, and now it's scrap. That's what annoys me, the motor is good, the blade (chain) carrier is good, the drive mechanisms are good. For the sake of a small vulnerable bit of plastic on the cover that Stihl tell me can't be replaced, the unit is scrap.

Clearly the design plan is one of sales, not a reliable long serving machine.

 

[Iwan]

Clearly the design plan is one of sales, not a reliable long serving machine.

You got it in one Clive! Its a disposable society we live in!

Very comparable to the factory underside finish on 100's and 120's!!!

 

[Towpack]

Many of the petrol strimmers use Komatsu Zenoah engines. I have one in a 1/5 scale RC model off road car. Using a premium 2 ST oil not only extends engine life but minimises engine coking. When they coke up they get difficult to start. The wire gauze fuel filter on mine is easy to clean but I always fill the tank through a filtration sock to keep out dirt in the first place. I run an oiled foam air filter but the model car will be exposed to far more dust than a strimmer.. Also, if you don't have a NGK plug, get one. They're the best. JMO


Like this one only different paint scheme. https://www.flickr.com/photos/21987980@N02/2536261222

 

[clivehorridge]

You got it in one Clive! Its a disposable society we live in!

Very comparable to the factory underside finish on 100's and 120's!!!

There's still paint on the underside of my 1995 80 (some, anyway)

 

[frank rabbets]

I had a qualcast strimmer once and it just stopped so I stripped it and found out the con-rod which was just a piece of pressed steel had broken. I welded it together and it lasted 12 months. This time measurement highlights another point. You only have 1 years guarantee. How many hours of use is that ? Very few I think. My Toro 8-25 is 20 years old and been very reliable with a lot of use. Our neighbour had a similar machine which he part exed for a Mountfield 2 years ago. It lasted 30 minutes and was in/out of the workshop all the time. So I've bought an old Toro like mine on ebay and reconed it. Cost me total of £140. The workshop says you can't get a reliable garden ride on now.

 

[Rob Cowell]

Modern petrol usually has a good slosh of ethanol in it, and that absorbs water. I've found it makes a massive difference to use 2 stroke oil with fuel stabilizer on stuff I don't use every week.

 

[froggy Steve]

100% Stihl for us ! Everything ie hedge cutter, chain saw, leaf blower, 2 x brush cutters all Stihl & they take one hell of a beating in the season too. Always empty of fuel at the end of the season, saves glooping up. Rarely had a problem, just replaced the button pump rubbers a couple of times, air filters & thats about it. Mowers are John deere JS63V walk behind mulching mower, John Deere 1445, 4x4, 1.5m cutting deck out front beast and an Iseki SGX 323 with low dump collector.

 

[jonnyboy54321]

I will agree up to a point about disposability, although I actually think it's more down to the arrogant pricing of spare parts. Similar to car manufacturers. I do have three/four machines that need two or three bits to be serviceable, but what ends up happening is finding a s/h machine that has what I need and making one good one out of two. As an example, I have just written off a long reach hedge trimmer as it needs the bevel gears doing, I can but a new attachment for sun £200 yet the bevel gears (a small part of the overall machine) are £265 to buy.
Honda are no different. Try rebuilding a mower gearbox. Theres not much there, but the bits that you generally need cost circa 25% more than a new 'box. I suspect its partly down to internet shopping driving down new machine/attachment prices to a falsely low level, so they need to make their money somewhere.
Frank - I have two Toro ride-ons here that I am gonna market in feb/march. I agree about the build quality, far superior than the Deere's that replaced them, however deere parts are about 40% of the price of Toro, so a cleft-stick.
What I will say is this. I only ever use Stihl's own two-stroke oil, and we're very careful to get the mixture spot-on. Cheap 2# sells the machine short IMHO.

Clive
If you send me the machine model number/serial number/a picture of what you need, I'll look into it. My pal works in the spare parts quotation section at Stihl UK, which is about a half mile from my house!

 

[StarCruiser]

Petrol now contains 5% bio ethanol. This rots out plastic fuel tubing and potentially the primer bulb too. There is ethanol proof tubing available.

The real trick is to use new petrol or at least that from a sealed can of less than a couple of months (though older sometimes works ok) make certain the mix is correct, usually 50:1. Any more oil and it will likely not start or run smokey at the very least. Air filters need to be in place on these little machines otherwise the mixture can be way out.

They can be sods to tune on the two screws as it really should be done under load.

 

[Shayne]

You got it in one Clive! Its a disposable society we live in!

Very comparable to the factory underside finish on 100's and 120's!!!

I hear you Iwan , i buy a new pair of shoes/boots every 6 or 7 years whether i need to or not so i'm not sure i qualify for the modern world .

 

[joinerman]

I think Black & Decker now hide behind the brand name WORX

 

[frank rabbets]

Well the white powder on my filter gauze certainly looks like water corrosion. I don't know what the gauze is made of but it did not stick to a magnet so may be stainless steel. looks like corroded ally if I had to bet. I have thought all my life there must be water in petrol as I used to get corrosion in carb parts with no obvious water present.

I learned to ride a 2 stroke motorbike in late 50's when we just used engine oil. I've had 7/8 2 stroke garden tools over the years and have put any oil in that came to hand. Never had an engine problem apart from the broken con rod but that was not oil.

I've had rotted out pipes on one of my strimmers. Changed it for the pipes off my bust stihl lol.

 

[Towpack]

2 stroke tech has come a long way since the 1950's as has 2 stroke oil. One of the main differences and considerations of 2T oil over 4T is that 4T is not formulated to burn cleanly forming ash and deposits not to mention the fact that it has inferior lube properties in the concentrations present in a petrol/oil mix used in total loss lubrication engines as are most 2 strokes.. May well have been adequate for the comparatively primitive 2T engines around 60 years ago but for modern engines with much higher performance characteristics, it's a death sentence. The 2T engines used in even new garden machinery are still pretty basic but a good 2T oil is still a must. Back in the mid 80's a friend of mine had a Yamaha DT175, I had a TY250 which was basically a bored/stroked version of the same engine. He used to buy 5 litre cans of the cheapest 2T oil he could find whereas I always bought premium stuff, usually Castrol or Honda low ash formulated oils. That was until he got through 3 pistons in 18 months due to seizures. When he switched to decent stuff he had no more problems. His thinking was "the oil that doesn't get burned goes straight out of the exhaust!" which may be true but that's not the bit that's important. If anything the oil choice in a 2T engine is more important than that in a 4T engine. JMO

 

[Shayne]

I had both them bikes 25 to 1 i put in them but i have no idea what brand of oil my local petrol station had a hand pump tank about the size of a fire extinguisher just left leaning against the wall 24/7 . Dirt floor kick the chickens out of the way and i'm sure if you asked the old lady in the shop for a bulb to fit the space shuttle she would rummage one out in under a minute . Then Spar bought the place and you had to leave for work 45 minutes earlier if you wanted to pop in for a pack of fags on the way

The water in carb is probably humidity from the air it breathes .

 

[frank rabbets]

Yes I would only use the proper oil in anything expensive. I'm a bit paranoid about my cars for example.

Yes the air must have water vapour in it. You can see air circulating round the pipes on these little 2 Stroke motors.