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Post by rowdy235 on Sept 21, 2018 9:56:08 GMT -5
I would guess the ceramic on the plug is bad. A plug is about two bucks, I'd just replace it and see if the problem persists. Oh and maybe get a feeler gauge
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 21, 2018 10:35:54 GMT -5
It looks like the plug’s gap is a little less than 1/16th or .062” and maybe even about .040". Do you like my Feeler Gauge? Pretty nice, huh? The plug's firing end and upper end parts all look to be in good shape too. So why would it be streaming the sparks down the outside of the plug sometimes but not always, which then makes it die? A bad cap? It looks good too. View AttachmentView Attachment
I posted saying what the gap is and a photo of the boot after you'd said not to change the gap. Are you OK with what you see & my gap? I hadn't been saying that I should change the gap just to fool it somehow. My only reason for having asked about the gap had been if I'd discovered that maybe it was huge or something weird. How tricky is replacing a sparkplug wire boot? I don't think I've ever done that. Does it just twist ON or OFF of the wire?
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 21, 2018 10:41:45 GMT -5
I would guess the ceramic on the plug is bad. A plug is about two bucks, I'd just replace it and see if the problem persists. Oh and maybe get a feeler gauge Thanks. I'd already planned to pick up a new plug at ACE today. That's way easier than finding & installing a new sparkplug boot. As far as getting a feeler gauge, my days of being a small business owner and a car racer with my own team are now behind me. My toolbox is better than your average homeowner's but I really can't see the need to have a feeler gauge anymore.
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 21, 2018 10:53:01 GMT -5
I would guess the ceramic on the plug is bad. A plug is about two bucks, I'd just replace it and see if the problem persists. Oh and maybe get a feeler gauge I was wondering, if the ceramic is bad, could that cause it to mess up & kill the engine sometimes but not others based on how how it got? If so, that could explain why this blower usually runs OK for 5-10 or 15 minutes and then it dies and can't be restarted no matter what I try.
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 21, 2018 10:59:54 GMT -5
The plug in it is a Champion DJ7Y Do you think ACE will have those or is there some newer plug that's compatible?
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Post by rowdy235 on Sept 21, 2018 11:29:49 GMT -5
Yes to both. Spark looks for the easiest path to ground. If it's grounding through the ceramic that spark is not making it to the cylinder.
I think that's a common plug, should be available almost anywhere
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 21, 2018 11:50:15 GMT -5
No, I wasn't kidding about anything except for my saying "What do you think about my Feeler Gauge?". If that's not what you're referring to, then what?
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Post by 1975 Super XL on Sept 21, 2018 12:28:40 GMT -5
It's pretty easy to replace a spark plug boot. You just slide the boot up the wire until you can see the coiled spring that pokes into the wire, pull the spring out, then slide the boot off. Installation is the reverse of removal. With some boots it may be easier to slide it off the wire first and then remove the spring. To make installation easier and to help avoid ripping the new boot, you should apply a film of lubricant (like dielectric grease) to the wire and spring before installing the new boot. I think the "Twist ON-OFF" refers more to removing the boot from the plug than from the wire. Instead of buying a feeler gauge you could get one of those coin-size spark plug gap gauges from an auto parts store, they are pretty inexpensive.
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 22, 2018 0:47:30 GMT -5
I went & got a silly Spark Plug Gauge for $2.75 at ACE. ;-) I say “silly” because sparkplugs are surely a dying breed. My next car, mower, blower & weed eater will probably all be battery powered. Now I've got to get a new spark plug and get that blower behaving. ;-) I got a Champion CJ7Y at Pep Boys for $2.75 also even though I'd had a DJ7Y. Pep Boys told me that they no longer carry the DJ7Y plugs or that Champion no longer makes them and the only diff is that the C has a little shorter ceramic top for the boot than the D used to have. I actually think it looks like the opposite is true. Anyway, this is what I've got. I hope that's the right plug. They couldn't even find my DJ7Y in their cross-reference guide. I hope they were being honest.
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Post by undee70ss on Sept 22, 2018 5:14:01 GMT -5
I went & got a silly Spark Plug Gauge for $2.75 at ACE. ;-) I say “silly” because sparkplugs are surely a dying breed. My next car, mower, blower & weed eater will surely be battery powered. Now I've got to get a new spark plug and get that blower behaving. ;-) I got a Champion CJ7Y at Pep Boys for $2.75 also even though I'd had a DJ7Y. Pep Boys told me that they no longer carry the DJ7Y plugs or that Champion no longer makes them and the only diff is that the C has a little shorter ceramic top for the boot than the D used to have. I actually think it looks like the opposite is true. Anyway, this is what I've got. I hope that's the right plug. They couldn't even find my DJ7Y in their cross-reference guide. I hope they were being honest
If your blower takes a DJ7Y, you really should use one of those. (or a different brand equivalent) DJ7Y has a taper seat, CJ7Y is a flat seat. If you can't find one locally, there's a ton of DJ7Y's on ebay.
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 22, 2018 9:08:39 GMT -5
I went & got a silly Spark Plug Gauge for $2.75 at ACE. ;-) I say “silly” because sparkplugs are surely a dying breed. My next car, mower, blower & weed eater will surely be battery powered. Now I've got to get a new spark plug and get that blower behaving. ;-) I got a Champion CJ7Y at Pep Boys for $2.75 also even though I'd had a DJ7Y. Pep Boys told me that they no longer carry the DJ7Y plugs or that Champion no longer makes them and the only diff is that the C has a little shorter ceramic top for the boot than the D used to have. I actually think it looks like the opposite is true. Anyway, this is what I've got. I hope that's the right plug. They couldn't even find my DJ7Y in their cross-reference guide. I hope they were being honest
If your blower takes a DJ7Y, you really should use one of those. (or a different brand equivalent) DJ7Y has a taper seat, CJ7Y is a flat seat. If you can't find one locally, there's a ton of DJ7Y's on ebay. Thanks. I'll return this one and get the right one.I'm glad I hadn't opened the package yet & I guess I'll waste some time to go get my $2.75 back from Pep Boys. Those jerks. Then I'll need to track down a DJ7Y somewhere. Should I check the gap on a new one before I put it in & what should the gap be? Also since you're a Moderator hopefully you can tell me how to fix my Profile so that I get emails of Replies to my Questions. I thought I'd fixed it yesterday finally by setting it on the Notifications tab for ALL POSTING to Instant. But still no email when you posted this one a few hours ago. I found a Notification Settings tab on my Profile and there wasn't one to always get Notified on my own Question. Isn't that supposed to happen automatically? All I know is that I've got it set in there to be Notified on All Postings but that one starts sending me junk that I don't want. So all this time, I've had to just keep checking this Question to see if you or anyone has Replied. That's not good.
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Post by undee70ss on Sept 22, 2018 13:56:02 GMT -5
If your blower takes a DJ7Y, you really should use one of those. (or a different brand equivalent) DJ7Y has a taper seat, CJ7Y is a flat seat. If you can't find one locally, there's a ton of DJ7Y's on ebay. Thanks. I'll return this one and get the right one.I'm glad I hadn't opened the package yet & I guess I'll waste some time to go get my $2.75 back from Pep Boys. Those jerks. Then I'll need to track down a DJ7Y somewhere. Should I check the gap on a new one before I put it in & what should the gap be? Also since you're a Moderator hopefully you can tell me how to fix my Profile so that I get emails of Replies to my Questions. I thought I'd fixed it yesterday finally by setting it on the Notifications tab for ALL POSTING to Instant. But still no email when you posted this one a few hours ago. I found a Notification Settings tab on my Profile and there wasn't one to always get Notified on my own Question. Isn't that supposed to happen automatically? All I know is that I've got it set in there to be Notified on All Postings but that one starts sending me junk that I don't want. So all this time, I've had to just keep checking this Question to see if you or anyone has Replied. That's not good. Do you have threads you participated in checked, and set to email? I don’t know how fast proboards sends the emails, I have most everything set to never as I check in several times a day anyways and I don’t want any more emails than I already get.
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 22, 2018 23:34:40 GMT -5
If your blower takes a DJ7Y, you really should use one of those (or a different brand equivalent).The DJ7Y has a taper seat and a CJ7Y has a flat seat. If you can't find one locally, there's a ton of DJ7Y's on ebay. Thanks. I took that CJ7Y back to Pep Boys today and got a $2.75 refund. I think the only reason she sold me that wrong CJ7Y when I'd asked for a DJ7Y was since they didn't have any DJ7Y plugs. She was there again today and she said that she'd told me that they didn't even have any of the other brand plugs that cross-reference to that Champion plug. So, I got a refund. Then I called another Pep Boys and they were out of them too and the closest one is at a Pep Boys 25 miles away. They're ordering me one. They're only $2.75 at Pep Boys but at walmart.com they are $4.01 or $6.75 for some Gold Plated DJ7Y (?) So, I'll get my plug to try in a few days. I can't wait to see if this solves my blower's problems. I bet it will. I hope I don't need to mess with getting & installing a new spark plug boot. I've never done that before but from what was said earlier here, it doesn't sound too tricky at all. I can handle it if that's what it takes. ;-) I don't think that I've heard from anyone here yet, what should the gap be now that I've got a Gap Gauge?
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Post by undee70ss on Sept 23, 2018 0:59:50 GMT -5
.025. That’s what most Homelite products are.
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 24, 2018 13:28:13 GMT -5
.025. That’s what most Homelite products are. Thanks. I'll check the gap tomorrow when Pep Boys finally has a DJ7Y plug shipped to a nearby store. None of their places near me had any Champion DJ7Y or the newer Champion 855 or even any E3 brand E3.16 which they said is a popular and trustworthy brand. They're bringing in a Champion DJ7Y like I had. I sure hope this is what my poor blower has been needing all along and not any carb rebuilding or tuning. Now that I've got that Gap Gauge, I can gap her before I plug it in & fire it up. ;-) www.sparkplug-crossreference.com/convert/CHAMP_PN/DJ7Y
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Post by rowdy235 on Sept 24, 2018 18:37:39 GMT -5
Sounds like you are well on your way. I am hoping that this solves your issues. Spark issues at least in my experience always seem to fool you. At least this way you'll have a good platform to start with.
I'm a little surprised you've had so much trouble finding the plug as it seems thats a fairly common item. I am a fan of NGK plugs for no reason other than that's what I've always run. My local NAPA has almost every NGK plug made, at least I've never run into one yet that they don't stock. My ST-145, which I believe has the same engine as your trimmer, runs NGK BPM7F, which I see listed as a cross-reference on the site you mentioned
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 26, 2018 22:41:11 GMT -5
I think maybe the Champion distributor in the soCal area is out of the DJ7Y plugs & it's newer equivalent, the Champion 855. I say that since I was at the local Walmart today and I thought that I'd look to see if they had any even though I've got one ordered already at a Pep Boys that is supposed to get there on Friday. Well, in Walmart, right above the 2-stroke oil and the STA-BIL that I bought the other day, they had 12 pegs of different Champion Small Engine sparkplugs and the only one that was empty was the one labeled DJ7Y $1.78. DARN, that's $1 cheaper than at Pep Boys. I had them check stock and they don't show any. They had me call around and I called 5 other local stores and none of them had a DJ7Y or an 855. So, I guess waiting until Friday for Pep Boys is my only answer or at least the easiest one at this point. :-(
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 28, 2018 22:22:15 GMT -5
OK this is weird. I need some professional help on this one. I got a new plug (a E3 brand E3.16 which is an equal to the Champion DJ7Y & new 855 plugs that seem to be nonexistent in southern California). I gapped it to .025" and it started right up. I tuned the carb a little better on the L and H. It ran great for a while, maybe 5-10 minutes and then, like it has in the past, once it heats up it wants to die. I would restart it, use it a little more & then it keeps wanting to die again. So just for the heck of it, I tried pushing the Choke down as I kept the other hand on the throttle and I figured out that by just momentarily Choking it, it would revive it enough to use is for a little bit more, maybe as much as a few minutes. This told me that it must need to be richened on High since that's where it had always been running when it would stumble and I'd need to Choke it momentarily to keep it running. I did that and it seemed to help but it soon went back to needing to be Choked momentarily to keep it running. Here's something that seems quite odd but very important that hopefully there's knowledge of what I experienced. Because I was constantly using both hands with one to hold it while gassing it & the other to play with the Choke, this had me holding my hand near the Choke lever a lot while it was running so that I could react fast enough and keep it from dying. Here's what I found odd. It seems like I feel some pretty warm air, I'd say hot, blowing out of the Air Cleaner's intake spout. That can't be right, can it? That seems like it would end up heating up the carb and the gas inside it and maybe vaporize some fuel which might somehow create pressure to keep fuel from feeding into the carb. Am I dreaming of weird stuff or is this even possible or is there another more obvious explanation for what I'm noticing and what's happening?
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Post by rowdy235 on Sept 28, 2018 23:05:58 GMT -5
Interesting.
The only thing I could think of that would cause warm/hot air to come out the carburetor would be bad reed valves, but I believe your blower is piston ported.
Have you tried testing without the air filter and cover on to see if the problem still exists? (want to do in a clean area of course). Can you feel any air coming directly out of the carburetor?
To me it still sounds like a carburetor issue. I went through the same thing with my ST-145 trimmer. I think what happens is the carburetor diaphragm either gets hard or leaks so the carburetor cannot keep up with fuel supply. It runs for a few minutes but then begins to cut out. When it does you choke it, which pulls a lot of vacuum on the fuel and helps to suck more fuel into the carb, until it runs out again.
I'd run without the air filter in place if you have not already just to rule an issue there out. Otherwise I think it is time to rebuild the carburetor.
PS I would not recommend running the blower as-is, at lest for very long, when it cuts out it is running lean which is very bad for a 2-stroke engine which relies solely on oil in the gas for lubrication.
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Post by vankjeff on Sept 28, 2018 23:45:10 GMT -5
Thanks. I'll try it without the filter element and without the cover on. I actually ran it that way a little a few months ago as I was trying to figure this thing out. I know to be careful with stuff in the air without a filter in place. Heck, everyone that races go-karts runs without air filters to get max air to make more HP. I'm a long-time kart racer, having owned the nation's leading manufacturer of spun aluminum wheels for the kart racing industry for 20+ years (see me near the top on the History tab on www.vankwheels.com ) I'm gonna bet that I'll be needing to rebuild the carb. I'll need your help finding the parts or a kit since I've seen it labeled as Discontinued of other Homelite sites that I've come across like www.ereplacementparts.com/homelite-hb25150v-ut08035ar-blower-parts-c-18807_18808_30328.html
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