Shaking the cobwebs out of the garden tools this year, I ran into two problems. The trusty old leaf Homelite leaf blower that has been working faithfully since we moved out into the trees ran for about 3 minutes and then died suddenly. As I pulled the cord to start it again, I noticed the head and spark plug wore seemed to be moving more than I would expect. On closer inspection, I found one of the the three (YES THREE) head bolts snapped and the cylinder head was lose. No compression, no engine.
If you haven't found it already, check out http://www.ereplacementparts.com (I have not received any compensation for their mention). They actually have useful repair diagrams for a lot of tools and usually have reasonable prices and decent shipping. Well, a look for the blower and I find new head bolts are $0.99 each, one broke, order three new and replace them all!!!
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| Cover removed, crankcase cover open, missing (snapped) head bolt just below the crankcase. |
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| Snapped head bolt, they're only M5! |
So, about a 30 minute job later (and luckily the head bolt snapped where I could turn it out with needle nose pliers without a whole tear down, bolt it all back together and it fired right up!
The other one for the power tool closet, the pressure washer. OK, so it was giving me some fits to keep running last fall and I kinda winterized and forgot about it. After 45 minutes of pulling, purging the fuel bowl on the carburetor, and using starting ether, I couldn't keep it running longer than about 10 seconds, and only then with the choke full on... Grrrr....
Once again (the same order actually), ereplacementparts did it. This time an ENTIRE new carburetor for a Homelite pressure washer was $23 (and this is a $250 pressure washer about two years old). Other than the fact you had to unbolt the engine and plastic facade from the frame, this would have been a 5 minute job to replace, as it was, it ended up being about 25 minutes. It looked from the old carburetor that the fuel jet was damaged (or not protruding into the intake far enough to get into the venturi stream) somehow and not putting enough fuel in, makes sense it would run on choke, eh?
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| Note the hemostats to clamp the fuel artery. |
Button it all up, five pulls (three after I remembered to attach the spark plug wire again!) later, and ran like it was new.
Fix it, don't throw it out!
