[Shop-talk] Weedwacker starting problem

[David C.]

I had the same problem this spring with my Stihl, which to date had NEVER 
failed to start.  The guy at the Stihl place said it was bad gas.  He 
flushed the tank out and put in new premix and it fired right up.  The 
premix I was using was at least a year old and the 2 stroke oil was of 
questionable quality to start with.  The repair guy said with the quality 
of gasoline these days you shouldn't keep premix any longer than 60 
days.  He said to dump any left over in your lawnmower/generator/etc to 
burn it up.  Makes good weed killer, too.

Dave C


At 05:04 PM  7/22/2007  -0400, PJ McGarvey wrote:
>Craftsman 17" 21cc weedwacker, working fine (except for a broken pull-start
>rope this Spring) for about 6 years.  Right after I filled the tank with some
>more gas/oil mixture (of questionable age) it decided to not start.  Finally
>got around to emptying the tank and cleaning out the lines with some
>compressed air, and pulling apart where the priming bubble is, and using some
>carb cleaner on it, it would then start pretty quickly but would quit just as
>quick.  This happened about 5 times before I gave up on it.  Kinda weird.
>Maybe the plug needs replacement?
>
>That, or I guess I'm looking at pulling apart the motor completely to rebuild
>it or at least give it a good cleaning.  The gas/oil mix that I added was no
>older than what was in the tank (but was older than one season at least)
>
>Any other suggestions, like running some carb cleaner through the engine
>somehow, or good parts to replace on it while I have it apart?
>
>Thanks,
>PJ
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