Hand-held blower S/N 08035R starts easy & won't keep running

[vankjeff]

I bought this blower new a long time ago. It's NEVER been used outside. I only used it to be used to clean the floor inside my business' shop.
After not using it for a few years, 2 months ago I found that I couldn't start it. But that turned out to be a simple fix since a fuel line had failed.
But now it will start really easily but it keeps quitting after a few minutes. Then it will restart very easily and go thru the same shut-down thing again & again.
What could be the problem? Hopefully someone has gone thru this and knows exactly what to do. The parts are getting hard to find as some are now out of stock & discontinued.

I'd sure like to fix this myself. I have a little knowledge of these 2-cycle engines but not much. I don't want to pay someone to fix it since that will be too expensive and they'll probably just try to get me to buy something newer that will also be more of a homeowner piece and not good quality like this one is.

[sweepleader]

It might just be an adjustment on the carb. Have you tried that? Lots of 2 cycles have to be adjusted frequently and if they are too lean they can get hot and damaged or run bad or quit. You might try richening up the mix by turning the high speed screw out a little. Could be ethanol gas or other gunk in the carb too, you might be in for a carb cleaning and a kit. The carb should have the makers name and numbers on it, most of the kits seem to be pretty easy to get and install. Good luck.

[dynodave]

About 3-4 weeks ago I got my "fleet" of 5 blowers: (craftsman, poulan, poulan pro, paramount, echo) and 6 string trimmers: (weedeater, shindawa, sthil, homelite, craftsman, lesco) going. All in need of at least carb work, some needed fuel line replacement.
In at least 4 I found symptoms similar to yours. They would all start and run to some degree. Then quit especially if given full throttle. In all cases the screen between the pump side of the carb going to the fuel chamber/reservoir, were not allowing enough fuel to pass. I either only changed the screen or in one case I soaked the screen in a carb soak overnight. They all ran after that.
The screens were so fine on the OEM ones you can NOT see light through them...dirty OR clean/new. I think the E-10 phasing scum almost seals them shut. Gas alone will not clean them. Only the carb soak tank worked or a new screen from the kit. Most of the repair kits were $4-$9, most were walbro, maybe one or two were tillotson. no zama
Needless to say I always empty them and run them dry after use. BAD E-10 your govt working for you....
Also FWIW every one of these was given to me as dead or pulled out of the trash.

[vankjeff]

Thanks guys!

Sweepleader, I want to tell you 2 things. I owned a lawn care business in Indiana 25 years ago and we used TONS of Green Machine weed eaters, Homelite blowers & Lawnboy mowers. So 2-cycles are a familiar toy.
I also owned a company called Van-K Wheels for 20+ years after that where we made wheels for racing go-karts and about 50% of those around the country are 2-cycle. I raced 2-cycle karts for a long time.
So I've been around that block. I sure don't think that it's too lean the way it will start right up easily after it quits on its own.
And I got the gas from my current landscaping guy when he was mowing my lawn and it came from the same stuff that he uses all the time. So I'd tend to think that would rule out and ethanol in the gas.
I'd be comfortable rebuilding the carb as I know that would be pretty simple after I got a kit for it.
DynoDave, what you're describing sounds just like what I've experienced where it quits after a few minutes at full throttle.
So it sounds as if I should take apart the carb and look for some screen/filter piece before the pump side of the carb so maybe fuel just can't flow thru it quick enough so the carb runs dry and starves the engine so that it shuts down but then once stopped, enough fuel can flow thru that screen to allow it to start.
I have noticed and I just realized that I didn't post this in my question originally, that the blower won't seem to EVER run up at full throttle. Maybe that too is since not enough fuel will flow thru that screen. This all sounds reasonable to me.

[vankjeff]

Here's one of the karts that I raced when I owned Van-K Wheels for 21 years. We made racing wheels for the nation's go-kart industry. I built that custom engine cover dome by learning to make the shape that I wanted with Styrofoam and the I learned how to lay figerglass sheets with resin. See their new site at www.vankwheels.com

[sweepleader]

I use photobucket, upload the photos there, it will write a link for the image, copy that and post it in here. I don't know what other methods will work, I am pretty sure you cannot paste an image directly here. Anyone else have suggestions? And no, I do not like the photobucket plan, it's just the only one I know of that works.

[vankjeff]

Hi. I finally figured out to just go back to the original posting and add it there. I just added a close-up shot of the carb. Before I take it apart, I was wondering if DynoDave can explain 3 things to me with this photo.
1. Where would the carb's serial # be?
2. Where would the fuel screen be that I should clean? I added a photo of the carb hoping that you could describe where I would look first without need to take too much of the thing apart.

3. Is it really OK for parts longevity to drain the fuel/oil mix out and leave it dry in the carb? I'd have thought that being dry would also hurt gasket material and even more so.
I wonder if I could just buy a new one or will it clean so easily that that would be a waste of time and money? Also, I wouldn't doubt that they've stopped selling aerosol carb cleaner out here in California. I haven't checked. I have some brake clean. I wonder if that would work. Also, is the screen metal or plastic?
I'm bummed right now. I KNOW that I'd come across a site where I could buy parts for this older blower straight from Homelite but some were already discontinued & Out Of Stock. But I've somehow lost the link to that. Their official site www.homelite.com/catalog/blowers/UT09525 seems to be a dead end even though it does seem to open with a PIC that looks really similar to my blower. But any searches for blower S/N 08025R which I think is what mine is come up EMPTY.
I don't know if it's on this site and this isn't the one I'd seen earlier. I don't really want to buy a bunch of parts that I don't need as a "kit" just to get what I need anyhow. www.repairclinic.com/Shop-For-Parts/a27b335-x63617262206b6974206761736b6574/Carb-Kit-Gasket-Homelite-Leaf-Blower-Parts

[dynodave]

You should pull the carb out of the blower. Then look for markings to determine the brand. My guess it will be a ZAMA... not walbro or tillotson. the carb series should be stamped on it. Then you know what carb kit to look for. The site you linked to has a kit for $20. I would expect under $10
The screen is AFTER the pump. It should be under valve diaphragm. under the metal cover closest to the brass fuel lines. You should change the pump valve diaphragm and accumulator diaphragm no mater what, if it's more than a few seasons old and been run on E-10.
Leaving E-10 out of poulan and pioneer saws allow swelled fuel caps to normalize and shrink back to size.
Even a walbro kit has parts for 2-3 different versions of carbs so you throw away half the stuff any way. If $6-10 is to much for you then.... .. .

[sweepleader]

My experience has been that the screen in question is usually located in the main body of the carb under the pump diaphragm, straight opposite of the metering needle valve that is controlled by the metering diaphragm. Usually you can see through the needle valve seat to the back of the screen. The screen is the last thing the fuel sees before getting to the metering needle valve. If you apply compressed air to the needle valve seat the screen will be launched to somewhere behind your work bench, never to be seen again.

[vankjeff]

Thanks for that tip on using Photobucket. I just got it and uploaded a few photos to it and then copied the URL link that was in the list next to the photos and they would upload into this site.