Weed Eater Woes

[Brett]

So I've got this Husqvarna string trimmer that I bought new 8 or 9 years ago. I paid about $300 for it and its been perfect until last fall on the last mowing of the year. when half way through the yard the primer bulb split in half and she sucked air into the fuel lines and refused to run (@#$%ing ethanol). So I borrowed my neighbors trimmer to finish and went on a parts hunt. I went to a parts website and ordered a new primer bulb, spark plug and air filter, and fuel filter. I figured she finally deserved some TLC. I wanted to replace the fuel lines as well, but the 3 little pieces were more than all the other parts I got combined, I'll pick some up at NAPA I thought. So next time I was at napa, I picked up some tube. They didn't have the exact size, but it was cheap so I got a bit of the two closest sizes. All my parts came in, and I put it all together. the hose wasn't as snug as I wanted, but I tried it any way. she would only do about 1/3 throttle. Checked for spark, Good strong spark. Swapped the old hoses back on, same thing. Clean the carb, adjust the carb, same result. I repeated this step about 6 times to thoroughly frustrate my self. So I hung it on the wall in the garage, and avoided making eye contact with it for about 5 months. Last week with spring on the horizon, I figured I need to look into things again. I ordered up a new carb and gasket, and the correct fuel lines. I've got her now I say to myself. I put all this together and give it a try. Same as before BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP. I screwed around for probably 20 min to no avail. So I head into the house for a beer and inform the wife that I'll be buying a new weed eater. She quickly agrees. I was going to look at new ones today on the way home from work, but just couldn't do it. I couldn't admit defeat just yet. So tonite i took another crack at it. Maybe its low on compression, Check compression 185 psi. Wow that sounds high. I check my Husqvarna chainsaw thats practically new, 145 psi, Huh? I figured what the hell pull the muffler off. She fired right up and screamed to life. The muffler was completely plugged up. I flushed with solvent, and burned it out with a propane torch. the spark arrester screen was actually removeable too so I took it out and scraped a significant amount of carbon off of it. I put it all back together, fired it up and fine tuned the carb, and its running like the day I bought it. So I headed into the house for a beer, and this time try to explain to my wife how me saving $300 on not buying a new weed eater should equal more parts for the truck. She reminds me that I just bought 2 windshields, and I wisely let it go at that.

Brett

[HingsingM37]

Great story Brett. The first thing I do with any of my 2 stroke equipment is pull out that screen from the muffler, they always plug up.
I sympathize with your money saving logic, household cost savings equals truck parts Unfortunatley our wives are not wired the same. I am going to try that approach later this month as I try to justify fuel cost for a parts roadtrip to NC. We'll see what happens. I'll keep you all posted.

[m-37Bruce]

I had a similar thing happen with my twenty year old saw, sold it to my coke-cola delivery guy, he even offered to sell it back. To late, we had already snagged a new Stihl 391.
http://www.stihlusa.com/chainsaws/MS391.html