Fixing A Craftsman Trimmer That Someone Gave Up On.

it used to not happen all that much but because these are now desperate times it seems like more and more people are making an attempt to try and fix their own equipment but what happens when you run out of experience well it turns out someone like me might just pick it up and then have a go at fixing it only to realize that I now have the daunting task of overcoming the issue they couldn't solve hopefully they're just a little bit more persistent than the other person otherwise someone else is gonna have to try and fix it in today's video we're going to look at this Craftsman string trimmer and the problem is that according to the online ad this trimmer is not starting now I found this trimmer by using a website where people give stuff away for free all you have to do is post up your ad with or without an address with whatever it is you're wanting to get rid of put it by the curb or somewhere where you can pick it up at and it won't be there much longer now I'm going to try and repair this trimmer but yours might be a little different so this might not work on yours so if things are not working out for you like in the video please ask about it and I'll be glad to answer your questions now most times when I find these trimmers they're typically in pretty rough shape they'll typically have dirt and grime around the carb area or there might be some fresh fuel leaking from the tank or the engine so this one is not pristine in any way but the weird thing is that it's a lot cleaner than most of the other ones I've found before which makes me a bit suspicious about it and you'll understand why as we look at this trimmer more now is it a crime to have a clean machine no not at all but it does make me wonder though the good part about this one is that in general it would appear that this trimmer is in really good shape so either they didn't use it all that much or they were very critical in its care and maintenance which is a good thing take care of them and they'll take care of you so there is a fuel in the tank and even though I don't have an idea if it's good I'm going to purge the fuel system of any air and try starting it and see what it does and doesn't do now even though it didn't start and run it did at least try that would confirm that the ignition system is working somewhat and that the engine does seem to have some compression now since this trimmer has an electric start option I think I'm going to try it and use it and maybe we'll have a different result [Applause] well for some reason using the electric start was a lot more promising than using the pull rope alone which is a clue as to what's wrong with this engine at least we know that it does start and run but it only seems to work when using the starter now after looking at the fuel it doesn't seem like there's any issues with it which means there might be something going on with the engine or the car but I still need to confirm there's nothing wrong with the fuel that was in it so I'm just going to put some of the fuel I use in the tank and see if it's any better or worse I'm also going to use a starter since it seems to work a lot better with it all right so it's basically doing the same thing as before it only seems to start and run when I have the starter on the engine now for some of you who are watching you may be quick enough to realize what the issue really is with this engine but as for me I'm still going to go through all my normal checks before I find out what the real answer is to our problem so at this point I think there's a carb issue and using the starter seems to help pull air and fuel into the engine better than just pulling on the rope alone so my first idea is to at least inspect the carb and see if there's an issue with it and why not right 99 of the time the carb is typically at fault now even though this trimmer is fairly clean I'm going to spend about one minute cleaning it and then I'll continue working on it so is the fact that it's mostly clean somewhat concerning yes it is and I'll tell you why if I went to go look at a car for sale from an individual I'd want to see a mostly dirty and dusty engine bay what that tells me is that the engine has not been messed with but if it was cleaned and detailed I'd be concerned that the seller was trying to hide the fact they had tried to fix an issue with it that may or may not have been successful people so for this one I wanted to see some caked on dirt around the carb and the fuel tank but there's hardly anything on it the other thing I noticed was that the air filter looked clean as well the other parts that seemed out of place were the fuel lines now normally I'd have to peel off the lines like a banana from the ports but these came off in one piece now after looking in the tank that pretty much confirmed what I was already thinking these fuel lines air filter and more than likely the carb are all new someone had tried to service this trimmer trying to get to work but left it for dead instead now the other reason why the carb might be new is that the purge bulb looks fairly new as well but they could have just replaced the bulb and not touch the carb we won't know until we take it apart and see what it looks like in there so here's the pumping side of the carb and right off the bat I see something that has me confused the pocket for the endless green looks strange mainly because it doesn't look right but after taking a closer look I soon realized someone had been in here and they were up to no good I'll tell you more about it here in a bit now the rest of the pumping section along with the diaphragm is in perfect shape so I have no concerns about using it again the next part we're going to look at is the metering diaphragm which is underneath this metal plate it needs to be soft and flexible that way it can work the rocker arm that's underneath it now this one is not bad at all and if I had to rate it I'd say it was good and I have no issues reusing it but since I have a lot of these on hand I'm going to change it out anyways now if you buy these in bulk these only end up being about a dollar a piece so back to the screen it looks as though someone had pushed on the screen so it's not sitting in its pocket the way it should and it's allowing the carb to pass fuel through it without the safety net of the screen now this is only a real issue when the fuel filter breaks off from the fuel line but it's still important that it's there I'm just going to reseat the screen and then I'll test if any fuel will pass through it unfortunately it looks as though I should have considered cleaning the screen while it was out of the carb because fuel is not passing through it so now I've got to clean the screen with carb cleaner and to do that safely I need to remove the needle and rocker arm now after doing this more times than I can count this routine is not that difficult to do however for someone with little to no experience this could be a risky thing to do and the reason is because it's very easy to lose these tiny pieces if you do lose one of them I consider just replacing the carb this carb is not special so buying a cheap aftermarket one isn't going to be an issue now after confirming that the carb cleaner is passing through the screen We cannot put the tiny Parts back in check that the rocker arm moves like it should and then perform another flow test as you can see this time the fuel I put into the pocket for the screen disappeared after pressing the rocker arm on the other side once that happens I'm going to start to put the car back together along with the new metering diaphragm like I said earlier I wouldn't have an issue reusing the old one but I'm taking this opportunity to replace it if you think yours might be bad I just replace it as well this would also be a good time to replace the purge bulb if yours is discolored or you can't see through it this one is practically new so I'm not going to touch it now after getting the carb in place and reconnecting the fuel lines make sure the filter line goes on the port further away from the bulb while the return line connects to the port closer to the bulb now with the fuel lines reconnected I'll then put some fuel into the tank that way we can test the flow through the lines if it doesn't flow through the system like it should there could be issues later on so when pressing the bulb fuel should come up the filter line into the carb and then partially fill the bulb and then leave the carb through the return line as you can see the bulb is filling and the fuel is returning back to the tank if your bulb is not filling then you might have a carb issue and you'll need to either take a look at it again or just replace it the next thing we need to do is to finalize the installation and then consider if we need to make any adjustments to the carb when we try and start the engine so on this carb there are two fuel adjustment screws the L screw is closer to the engine and is for low engine speed fuel adjustment basically for idling or Quick Throttle squeezes the H screw is closer to the air filter and it's for high engine speed fuel adjustment basically after you squeeze the throttle now for this carb I need to use the Pac-Man shape tool to be able to turn them but yours might be a little different if you want to learn more about these tools there's a link in the description foreign now that didn't go like it should have it should have at least tried to start but it didn't even do that now before I start making adjustments I'm going to use the electric starter and see how that goes [Applause] [Applause] so it starts and runs while the starter is on the back of the engine which is what it was doing before but that's when I noticed the oil leak at the back of the engine and on the table now in reality I thought it was some water coming off the cover from the cleaning but watch what happens next [Applause] now this time it started to spray even more out of the engine and this is when I start to realize what it was I was seeing this is fuel that's coming out of the engine and dripping down the back of the Plastics now this could be something very serious it could mean we have a leak at a seal a gasket or even worse yet a crack in the block now this crack would allow air to leak in the engine and that's one reason why the engine might not be starting we need to take off the plastics for a better look and you'll never guess where the leak was coming from when I started to loosen the bolt by the electric starter opening I soon realized that the bolt was in fact a loose I then went over to the one I didn't loosen yet and tightened it and sure enough it was a few turns loose once I get the cover off you'll be able to see why this is good news so the two bolts not only hold the cover to the engine they also hold the starter assembly to it as well now this part has a seal around it that keeps air from leaking into the engine but with the bolts loose it's allowing too much air to enter the engine where it shouldn't be that's why the engine would start and run when I used the starter I was pressing it against the back of the engine and that was helping the O-ring to seal against the block and that's why I wouldn't start and run when I used the pull rope now to test that out I'll just tighten these two bolts and more than likely the engine will start and run even while using the pull rope so it looks as though it now starts and runs and even though it stopped on its own I think we can fix it now since it stopped while the engine was idling I think the engine wants more fuel that means I'm going to turn the L screw counterclockwise and I'm going to start with a quarter turn foreign [Applause] so it starts and runs just fine now and even though the trimmer head would not stop spinning on the table after using it some more it finally stopped so initially I needed to add just a bit more fuel at idle to get it to stay running and while I was using it I didn't feel like it needed to make any adjustments to the H screw which I did confirm later on with a second test run now I was planning on using some thread Locker on the two bolts that came loose but I wasn't able to find any which is just fine I'll just use it later on in the end it would seem that the previous owner also thought the car but was the issue that's why the whole fuel system was brand new including the air filter unfortunately for them this time it wasn't the carb's fault now it's always nice to work on something different than just the car but although I still did it anyway but it turns out I needed to since it would seem that the previous owner had bypassed the endless screen as a possible blockage if I didn't look at the car but there was a good chance the internals of the carb would clog up over time now to be honest aside from the weight of this trimmer it's not bad if I could find a shaft that wasn't steel to swap out on this engine I might even consider using it personally but until then it's going to go into the garage sale pile so my question is have you ever seen anything like this issue before to be honest I don't recall if I've ever seen one quite like this one so this might be a rare occurrence but who knows maybe at some point the previous owner might have taken those two bolts loose and didn't tighten them down well enough and they eventually backed out so this may not be a factory issue but a consumer one thank you for watching I really do appreciate your time here please feel free to ask me any questions about this project or about your own projects and I hope to see you in the next video

Channel: INSIDE HOUSE GARAGE

Views: 42,778

Keywords: echo, blower, stihl, husqvarna, homelite, toro, troybilt, poulan, craftsman, won't, start, will, not, run, starting, running, work, working, easy, fix, carb, carburetor, rebuild, diaphram, needle, gas, gasoline, 2cycle, mix, spark, plug, air, filter, choke, home, garage, inside, house, quick, ryobi, backpack, back, pack, adjustment, simple, tool, pull, rope, string, handle, tube, go, all, the, way, issues, problem, starter, weed, eater, fuel, line, primer, bulb, 2 cycle, walbro, zama, ethanol, fall, yard, save, money, yourself, diy, trimmer, jumpstart

Id: cfw7vdtC7pU

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2023