- Thread starter Prajna
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Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
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Not in Portugal they won't. If you're lucky your parcel will track as far as Guarda and then vanish. More often you'll receive a notice that it has arrived in Lisbon and there will be a ten page form demanding details like your shoe size, sexual preferences, etc, as a condition of assessing duty and bribes for its release!Order you new Chinese spare parts now .. they'll arrive in 120 days or so if you're lucky
Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
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Here's the spark plug:
There are a couple of tiny scratches I can see in the cylinder opposite the exhaust port but it all looks pretty good to my uninformed eye.
I gave the exhaust a good soak and shake in some diesel/petrol mix I happen to have a few gallons of. A little muck came out, though rather less than I expected after the hours this thing has done. It's firing now cold with no choke but not quite catching. I think you're right, @DAPPH, it's a bit rich really. I'll give the filter foam another swill out in hot water with a dash of fairy to make sure there's no oil in it.
There are a couple of tiny scratches I can see in the cylinder opposite the exhaust port but it all looks pretty good to my uninformed eye.
I gave the exhaust a good soak and shake in some diesel/petrol mix I happen to have a few gallons of. A little muck came out, though rather less than I expected after the hours this thing has done. It's firing now cold with no choke but not quite catching. I think you're right, @DAPPH, it's a bit rich really. I'll give the filter foam another swill out in hot water with a dash of fairy to make sure there's no oil in it.
Blue Chips
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Just a thought: On more than one occasion, I found that the gasket sealing the primer bulb had shrunk, creating an air leak that prevented the primer bulb from pulling enough vacuum to refill the bulb with fuel when released. In my cases, a new gasket fixed the primer problem. Of course, there could be other issues as well.
I've been through a number of strimmers over the years. I currently have a Husqvarna petrol model and a Milwaukee M18 battery-powered model, plus a walk-behind Swisher trimmer/mower. I like the Husqvarna, but I love the recently-acquired Milwaukee, and my wife actually volunteers to do the trimming, now that she only has to flip a switch or swap a battery once in a while.
Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
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The bulb certainly sucks (and not in the colloquial sense) because I can see the bubbles going down the return pipe. Wife is keen to use this little strimmer around her vege garden if I can get it starting reliably again but I do like it very much and am a little hesitant to share it.
Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
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- 676
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- Castelo Branco, Portugal
Arrrgh! I was sure I cleaned the air filter recently but lo, it was minging! Took advantage of having it off and did the cardboard over the intake (actually I just flipped the choke across at full revs a few times) but now I need to wait for the filter foam to dry out before I check the cold start again.
Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
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- Castelo Branco, Portugal
Started nice with a clean air filter. It may still be a bit warm from the run earlier so I'll see how it is in the morning. Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys, especially @DAPPH, who has given me plenty of things to contemplate/explore next time one of these little two strokes decides to be fussy.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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If the mixture is correct it should be a milk chocolate light brown .
Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
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Looks more gray to me.
Cant see it mentioned so here goes.
Totally fresh bought fuel?
I am finding even new kits starts to struggle to start once the fuel is a few weeks old especially if its been in the can in the sun (expanded container) as the volatiles gas off & you loose then when you open the can.
Fresh fuel & start first try.
Now keeping fuel stored in cold space in main can.
Only taking enough out for the day mixed up.
That & going battery powered.
Totally fresh bought fuel?
I am finding even new kits starts to struggle to start once the fuel is a few weeks old especially if its been in the can in the sun (expanded container) as the volatiles gas off & you loose then when you open the can.
Fresh fuel & start first try.
Now keeping fuel stored in cold space in main can.
Only taking enough out for the day mixed up.
That & going battery powered.
Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
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- 676
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- Castelo Branco, Portugal
We use mix up pretty quick around here. Having said that: I do always mix up 5l each time (because I have more confidence that I have an accurate ratio than when mixing smaller quantities) but jerry cans do tend to sit in the sun despite efforts to find shade for them.
It still demanded a sniff of go gas this morning but starts very easily after the first little paddy.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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It's full of oily gungy black soot inside the threaded neck , cleaning the air filter will have helped for a while ,hence the weaker burn greyish colour present .
There are some good You tube videos (
& zillions of really crap ones ) . Put " Right colour of a spark plug " into your search engine .. look at " Images " and view a few YouTube video's that show the same sort of colourings to get a better flavour of it all .
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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2x Briggs and Stratton Fuel Fit 250ml 992381 Additive Fresh 3 Years Stabilizer | eBay
2 Bottles Briggs & Stratton Fuel Fit 250ml 992381. Use Briggs & Stratton Fuel Fit fuel stabiliser to help keep your fuel fit for up to 3 years, promote quick starting, and clean the fuel system. 250ml Fuel Fit treats up to 25 Litres of Unleaded Fuel.
duckduckgo.com
The Briggs and Stratton fuel saver overcomes the degradation problem caused by having to use bio fuels , it keeps the fuel in good condition for three years Have a good look on line I managed to get half a litre for a fraction of eBay prices from a garden tractor repair company many years ago (
Just had to write down which site I visited & the price being asked for a couple of hours. )My standby suitcase genny is filled with the modified fuel so are the three jerrycans of petrol which were refilled two years ago . The genny gets run a few min every month without problem .
On small things like strimmers & chsinsaws if left undisturbe for a few weks give the thing a good shake to remix any thing left in the tank , though it's always best to run them out dry so no fuel is left in the carb to evaporate and leave thick sticky oil on the needle sest , in the jets / drillings or on the reed valves in the carb .
Prajna
Fixing things for the love of it
- Messages
- 676
- Location
- Castelo Branco, Portugal
Yeah, fuel additive would probably help. Most of these machines do get a regular workout and I do give em a shake before use. I can hardly walk past a can of mix without giving it a shake and reflexively shake the can before filling any machine up. I will need to rig up some shade for the fuel. I usually have 20l of unmixed, 5l each of 50:1, 40:1 and 25:1.2x Briggs and Stratton Fuel Fit 250ml 992381 Additive Fresh 3 Years Stabilizer | eBay
2 Bottles Briggs & Stratton Fuel Fit 250ml 992381. Use Briggs & Stratton Fuel Fit fuel stabiliser to help keep your fuel fit for up to 3 years, promote quick starting, and clean the fuel system. 250ml Fuel Fit treats up to 25 Litres of Unleaded Fuel.duckduckgo.com
The Briggs and Stratton fuel saver overcomes the degradation problem caused by having to use bio fuels , it keeps the fuel in good condition for three years Have a good look on line I managed to get half a litre for a fraction of eBay prices from a garden tractor repair company many years ago (
My standby suitcase genny is filled with the modified fuel so are the three jerrycans of petrol which were refilled two years ago . The genny gets run a few min every month without problem .
On small things like strimmers & chsinsaws if left undisturbe for a few weks give the thing a good shake to remix any thing left in the tank , though it's always best to run them out dry so no fuel is left in the carb to evaporate and leave thick sticky oil on the needle sest , in the jets / drillings or on the reed valves in the carb .
I could lean down the ratio for the Aowei and see how the plug looks. Interestingly, a young friend of mine has an old Zundapp scooter that runs on 25:1 if using engine oil in the mix but 40:1 if using modern 2T synthetic.
