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Post by rowdy235 on Oct 12, 2018 18:23:12 GMT -5
Yes, running at low throttle is probably the most common reason of buildup on the spark arrestor!
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Post by vankjeff on Oct 12, 2018 18:47:44 GMT -5
I should have mentioned that I'd stopped using the blower at lower RPMs as a broom in my shop back in 2005 when I sold my business. After that it mostly sat unused since I paid to have my lawn care done.After that, I only used it a few times like blowing off the patio or the cul-de-sac of sparkler sticks on July 5th a few times. Then I had a bad MX wreck and was so badly hurt that the blower sat unused from about 2007 - 2014. At that point, it wouldn't start when I finally tried it. I found this site and asked for help. I ended up figuring out on my own, that as the fuel had evaporated over the years, it had left the oil which clogged the input filter so even with new pre-mix, it wouldn't start. I solved that by putting straight gas in it, letting it sit for a few days to loosen the grime, shake the heck out of it & dump the tank dry. I was jazzed when I put pre-mix in, pumped the primer, choked it & it fired right up. That got me to this point. I've been fighting this dying problem ever since. So I'd have to blame a blocked fuel pickup or maybe a bad carb gasket and not a blockage in the muffler. Don't ya think?
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Post by rowdy235 on Oct 12, 2018 19:04:45 GMT -5
Yes, I think your problem is definitely fuel related, but never hurts to check the spark arrestor too. Sometimes problems can exacerbate other problems.
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Post by vankjeff on Oct 13, 2018 15:48:29 GMT -5
It has been troubling me when I see all of that grime around the base of the carb and where it runs from there down onto the fuel tank. That and how it seems to me like I feel too much heated air coming from around the carb area as it is running after it warms up. I've just doused it with GUNK and I'll spray that off with carb or brake cleaner. Then I'll get back to work on it and I'll be better able to see where any new oily junk appears so I can hopefully figure out what is happening. That along with getting it to keep running as long as I want it to so I can finish my lawn work everytime. 😎
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Post by vankjeff on Oct 15, 2018 2:23:50 GMT -5
With all the hot air that I feel blowing near the carb on this blower, it makes me wonder if I have a problem where it is overheating the carb like my ‘46 Willy's CJ2-a Jeep had where the gasoline pump couldn’t override the pressure of the boiling gas in the carb’s float bowl on long trips. So about every hour or 2, this would cause it to vapor lock and the float-bowl would run dry of gas, thus the engine would starve & died. The Willy’s flathead 4 had the intake manifold with the carb sitting on the same side of the engine as the exhaust manifold, right above it. CRAZY. I suppose that might have been a standard configuration but it sure didn't work for me on really long trips. It was fine around town or even on hour long interstate trips. But it didn't seem to like running for 2 or 3 hours at 65-70 MPH in 1976 back when the speed limit on all interstates was always 70 MPH (I lived in Indiana) (maybe I should have slowed down a little? But I was 17). 😉 I always just had to coast to a stop on the side of the road with a dead engine, lift the hood and let the engine cool for awhile & then get going again.
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Post by vankjeff on Apr 13, 2019 1:02:10 GMT -5
I got a carb rebuild kit awhile ago and I'm just trying to get myself motivated to clean the thing up with my GUNK and Carb Cleaner before I pull the carb off and send the gasket kit and carb to Leon to rebuild. After watching a few You Tube videos, I got concerned that I might miss cleaning something in there that was important and one video was talking about making sure that something was set to the proper level, so I asked Leon if I could send the carb and the kit to him to go through for me. I don't know why I'm being such a wimp about as I've rebuilt plenty of 2-cycle go-kart carbs over the years but it has been awhile. He's also going to send me a new fuel filter and a fuel line kit which I guess is 1 piece that you use to make both lines that hang into the tank. So what the heck. Wish me the best. I need some good luck for once. ;-) Not that it matters to all of this but I don't know it I'd mentioned earlier that I was carrying the blower in my garage and I lost my balance and almost fell flat on my back with the blower hitting my chest. Luckily as I fell, I knew that I didn't want to crack my head open on the concrete so I arched my back and I think I busted my tailbone on the concrete. It was pretty sore for a month but it's all better now. My wife had known that there's nothing they can do for that so you just have to live thru the pain. It made it pretty darn painful to sit up out of a chair or from laying in bed. I'm all better now. I'm back to mowing the lawn without a problem. Our yard is so tiny that it only takes me about 15 minutes. I even found a $20 plug-in weedeater that does the job OK even though I hate messing with cords and I had tons of straight stick gas Green Machines back when I was going thru college in Indiana with a commercial mowing company that I built up called Lawnicure, Inc. We mowed tons of grass, including 5 apartment complexes and a bunch of smaller businesses and residential. We even bought out an experimental lawn maintenance division of Chemlawn that they'd tried for a few years in Indianapolis. Then they decided they wanted to just stick with spraying their stuff on grass to make it grow like crazy. I bought their 4 1-ton Chevy utility bodied trucks, trailers for each of them and lots of mowing equipment. THAT sure changed my life a whole bunch. I plowed snow off lots of driveways and small parking lots in the winter too.
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Post by undee70ss on May 5, 2019 23:34:18 GMT -5
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Post by vankjeff on May 7, 2019 13:29:14 GMT -5
Leon, how cool to see your YouTube video of you working on my carb for my Homelite handheld blower 08035R and your explaining things as you went. I'm sure glad that I sent it to you for a few reasons: - I wouldn't have known that it was missing that little filter screen piece in the carb. I didn't know that was supposed to be in there & since I’ve never had it apart or even had it worked on by anyone since it was new some 20+ years ago, I don't know why it wasn't in there. I did carefully take the top & bottom of the carb off just to see if I could see anything obviously wrong but when I didn't, I carefully put it back together to send to you.
- I might not have noticed that the diaphragm had become too stiff from old age or ethanol but if I'd done the work myself, I'd have probably just replaced everything, including even the needle that you later found to be leaking badly. I would have used all the parts in the kit while I had it apart. I don't collect stuff like that.
- I hadn't ever replaced anything in that carb so that was the original primer bulb that you thought seemed pretty fresh. I wish that you'd have replaced it but I will right away and I'll probably toss the old one. If you still haven't boxed it up to ship it back to me, please just replace it and let me know that you did somehow that I for sure know that you put the new one in.
- I don't have a pressure tester and I wouldn't have known to test with one or to do a bucket test to find the leak. That makes sense though since that's how you can find a leak in a bicycle tire tube if you want to patch it, even though I'm not a bike riding fan.
So, in the end, if I'd have rebuilt the carb myself, since I'd probably have just replaced everything that I found in the carb that would come out with what was in the kit, it might have worked the same as you doing it but then it still wouldn't have had a filter screen in the carb. That might have been a problem down the road sometime. That or maybe I'd have seen the screen in the kit but since that kit had other unnecessary parts for other models, I'd probably just have thought that it was one of those parts and I'd have put it back in the bag and probably thrown it away with the rest of the other unneeded parts in that generic kit. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing that thing hum now. I wanted to mention that I'd never known about the ethanol in gas being bad on carbs issue until I started this thread and I was told to buy STA-BIL or something else that neutralizes the ethanol. I got some at Walmart and I’ll always use it from now on.
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Post by onlyhomelites on May 9, 2019 23:33:11 GMT -5
I'm glad you enjoyed the video Jeff! Based on the comments, it seems to be a popular subject. The carb is on it's way back to you (Friday's mail), so you should see it very soon. Thanks!
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Post by vankjeff on May 15, 2019 0:41:23 GMT -5
WOOHOO!! My blower started on the 4th pull and it runs great now after I tuned the carb. I put the carb back on in my combo workshop / laundry room. ;-) I just want to ask you guys instead of taking it apart to find out, is there an Idle Speed setting screw that I didn't notice? I see this oddball thing that seems to really be designed to hold it at part throttle or more for people that are lazy or who don't like trigger throttles. ;-)
I know you guys will know. Thanks everyone for all the help over the months that this thread has gone on and especially to Leon for helping me replace that kit since I wasn't too comfortable trying it myself for my very first time. I really just wanted the thing to work and now it does. I take it that there isn't a primer bubble in Carb Rebuild Kits since I don't see one? It doesn't seem to need one but I was sort of expecting to get one back since Leon had said in the video that mine seemed nice enough that he'd thought I’d changed it. I never have or at least not that I can remember. For sure not in the last 25+ years since it's sat totally unused. I was just going to put the new primer bulb on now so that I wouldn't need to worry about it until maybe 2050. That and I don't have a place that I keep spare little lawn equipment engine parts. That's not one of my hobbies. ;-) I only started mowing my own lawn again lately since money got tight when I was disabled in a MX accident and my wife got laid off again and can't find work.
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Post by onlyhomelites on May 15, 2019 7:36:45 GMT -5
Glad to hear she's running! The button is exactly what you described: a throttle lock at high speed for extended runs. My Echo blower has a lever that achieves the same thing, but I rarely use it unless I've converted over to using it as a leak vac. That primer bulb literally looked and felt brand new, so there was no need to replace it. Enjoy the blower!
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Post by vankjeff on May 15, 2019 11:47:33 GMT -5
So, isn't there an Idle Speed screw? I just looked and I don't see one but everything I've ever messed with had one. Maybe it is hidden inside or under the air filter enclosure? Surely it isn't just a pre-set Idle Speed that's based on the size of a cut-out in the plate in the throat of the carb.
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Post by 5terrysupersaws on May 15, 2019 11:59:13 GMT -5
In the first photo right above the pull start handle it says : IDLE SPEED ADJUSTMENT with a curved arrow pointing to it.
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Post by vankjeff on May 15, 2019 18:45:26 GMT -5
In the first photo right above the pull start handle it says : IDLE SPEED ADJUSTMENT with a curved arrow pointing to it. I must be blind. Thanks man. Anyhow, that screw isn't working. I don't know why so I guess I'll need to take things apart tomorrow and figure it out. I screw it in or out a bunch and it doesn't change the Idle Speed a bit and the idle is too high. I could use the blower for lightweight cleanups at the speed it is idling at.
Maybe I should put on my reading glasses next time I work on something?
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Post by 5terrysupersaws on May 15, 2019 22:20:56 GMT -5
In the first photo right above the pull start handle it says : IDLE SPEED ADJUSTMENT with a curved arrow pointing to it. I must be blind. Thanks man. Anyhow, that screw isn't working. I don't know why so I guess I'll need to take things apart tomorrow and figure it out. I screw it in or out a bunch and it doesn't change the Idle Speed a bit and the idle is too high. I could use the blower for lightweight cleanups at the speed it is idling at. Maybe I should put on my reading glasses next time I work on something? Back on the bottom of page 3 of this thread, you mention that "blipping" the throttle would sometimes bring the idle speed back down. Try depressing the trigger and rotating the knob counterclockwise then clockwise(high idle) a few times to see if it helps with the issue. Good call on the reading glasses .. I'm 55 and without my 200% mag. specs viewing a 15.6 inch screen set to 125% magnification the text dang near ... disappears .
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Post by vankjeff on May 18, 2019 1:55:18 GMT -5
I guess I'll be taking a look inside this thing tomorrow. I've played with that knob that sets the Running Speed plenty of times when it is running and that's never had any affect on getting the thing to idle where it should be or to respond to the Idle Speed screw's setting. I suspect a frayed throttle cable that isn't always letting it go back down to Idle Speed. I suppose it could also be just a kinked outer cable housing or it could be routed in some weird way that is pulling the cable itself too tightly into the inner of the cable housing and not letting it return to where the Idle Speed setting screw is set to. I've thought about it enough and it's time to investigate. It doesn't look too tricky to just pull off that black box with slots protector grate and also the air filter box so that I can see why the blade in the carb doesn't seem to be shutting all the way even when I turn the Idle Speed screw out and play with the throttle trigger. Maybe just 6 or 8 screws, some are Torx heads and some Phillips heads. Luckily, unlike your average dude, I do have a set of Torx tips for a screwdriver handle. I guess I better take it outside and get the gas out of it first though, huh? Sure don't want to burn down the house fixing the old blower.
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Post by vankjeff on May 18, 2019 17:25:55 GMT -5
I just took things off to look at the throttle linkage. The long square rod that hangs down to move the carb's butterfly isn't even touching the round piece on the carb that would control the engine rpm. That's weird. I kept playing with the throttle trigger and it would never get stuck anywhere, even when it moves and makes contact.
I looked down the throat of the carb and the butterfly looks to be completely closed & it can't moved any with my finger pushing on that linkage. This is weird. I can't understand why it can so easily want to get stuck at too high of an idle RPM and yet I can't replicate it with the engine OFF and cold. Next I tried screwing the Idle Speed screw in all the way until it bottomed out and it never even touched that bar that hangs down. I'm confused. To lower the Idle Speed, that screw would need to be backed out to let the butterfly move further shut and yet it's not even ever touching it so that's obviously why backing the screw out doesn't do anything. On a side note, as I was taking things loose, I noticed that I'd accidentally pinched the primer pumper fuel feed line last week when I'd put it all together (see photo of damage). It looks like it's OK at least for now. Bummer though.
I don't know what to do other that to put it back together enough to start it and see if the throttle still keeps hanging like it always has been. Does anyone think that it might be that the shield piece that I removed was somehow putting enough stress on the throttle cable or linkage assembly to make it hang up since with it off, it sure doesn't seem to be doing anything bad to it? Also, from what I'm seeing, that Idle Speed screw can never even come in contact with the long bar to actually set the Idle Speed. That can't be right. The carb is securely in place with the 2 nuts that hold it on, so everything is as it should be.
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Post by vankjeff on May 19, 2019 0:32:28 GMT -5
Just in messing with it with those parts off, it seems as if the throttle trigger just stays a little stuck sometimes and if I just nudge it, it will drop back to an idle speed. This still doesn't explain why I'd found that the Idle Screw itself can't even be screwed in far enough to touch the long square arm to set an idle speed. Maybe someone at sometime in the life of this thing replaced the screw with a shorter one? I took it out and it looks to be a normal length screw. Does anyone know if that screw is supposed to be a little bit longer i.e. a special screw? I could measure it tomorrow if anyone has one of these same blowers and they could measure theirs but I can't imagine Homelite using some special screw. Why would they? They designed the that molded plastic housing that it screws into and they probably would have just made it to work with standard hardware, you'd think. Although their using Torx screws isn't what I would call "standard" in the least. Just like when Black and Decker put on those same silly type screws that most people don't have tools for on the Hedge Hog 22" Hedge Trimmer I have. I had to replace the bushing on the drive unit that makes the blades go in & out on that thing and those things are put together by a magician.
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Post by vankjeff on May 21, 2019 0:41:42 GMT -5
This thing is working awesome. Thanks everybody!! The throttle hanging is just something in the trigger mechanism and if I just pull it towards the back (the pivot point of the trigger), it goes free. This thin is running great. I think I made a mistake by trimming a little bit off both fuel lines to make them match the length of the pieces that had been in there. Nobody had told me that the tubing would come in 2 equal length pieces so I clipped about ¾” off the flat end of the primer’s tube. I also clipped about 2” off the flat end of the fuel line and struggled to get the filter on the end of it. But it's all in there now and it runs. It does seem like it starves for fuel way too soon when there's about 1/3 tank left, surely because of my clipping that line too short. But, that's life I guess. I’ll just need to keep the tank plenty full. My yard is tiny tiny so that's not a problem. 😉 Or Leon, can I buy just a pair of the hoses & not the whole Fuel Hose & Filter Kit ($6.29)? If I can get just the hoses, I think I would so that I could replace them since I shortened both of them which I maybe shouldn't have done and I even accidentally pinched one when I bolted the carb on, which seems to have permanently disfigured it partly flat, so even though it flows now without leaking, I could imagine it failing someday. If I can, I think you could just mail to me in a little envelope with a stamp to save me on shipping charges. Let me know either way. 👍
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Post by undee70ss on May 21, 2019 0:51:35 GMT -5
Your throttle linkage may be bent, or the trigger is rubbing on the case. You would just have to study where its hanging up if you want that corrected.
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