Fixing A Ryobi Trimmer That Won't Start

so if you wanted your two-stroke equipment to last what's the best possible thing you can do wouldn't it be to use pre-mixed fuel from a can I had an echo edger with two-year-old cam fuel sitting on its tank start and run after more than two years of being in the garage mind you this was not the can that was bought in but in the fuel tank that's the best benefit of using canned fuel but does that guarantee that you're never gonna have a fuel issue in today's video we're going to be looking at this Ryobi branded string trimmer and the problem is that according to my co-worker who bought it from me last year says it'll start and run but it won't stay running the worst part is that from the day they bought it from me they've been using true fuel which is a pre-mixed fuel in a can and the idea that the issue it's having is fuel related it simply blows my mind how is it even impossible 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 I'll be glad to answer your questions so the best part about this project is the amount of information I have at my disposal however what I've found so far simply does not make any sense to me the whole idea of using canned fuel is to take the guesswork out of sourcing 100 gasoline and mixing the correct amount of two-stroke oil you buy it you open it you pour it into your machine run it for a bit and you can literally leave it alone in the garage for two years and it'll still be good to use you shouldn't have to worry about any fuel related issues so the idea that there's a carb issue simply doesn't make any sense to me the only other item that needs to be addressed is that this was being used commercially last year but yet again it's only been one year so I can't see this being an issue at this point unfortunately the fuel tank was empty when I picked it up from them which I thought was kind of strange but it's not a concern at least not yet now after giving it a light misting from my favorite degreaser and a final rinse the first thing I need to do is to see the issue it's having firsthand the only problem is that I'm fresh out of mixed fuel so I'll have to make some now you might find this somewhat interesting but I do not mix more than 40 ounces of mixed fuel at a time now you would think that with all the equipment I use that I would mix my two-stroke oil a gallon at a time but I don't like the idea of committing a large quantity of my 100 gasoline to my mixed equipment instead I only mix it when I need it after pouring in one ounce of oil into a glass jar followed by about 40 ounces of gasoline I can then look at the color of the fuel to confirm that yes there's oil in it and it looked just like it should now some would say that doing it this way in small quantities and using a glass jar is for simpletons but then again I never said I was a genius after pouring some of the fuel into my fuel container I'll pour the rest of it in the fuel tank of my trimmer in preparation for a test start but before we do a test start I need to confirm fuel flow through the lines first now the fuel flow through the lines are not consistent between carbs so yours might not be the same now after pressing the bulb several times I can see fuel coming in one of the fuel lines filling the bulb and then leaving the carb through the other line after looking inside the fuel tank I did confirm that the fuel coming from the tank was indeed the filter line which is very important otherwise the inlet screen in the carb will clog with debris which could cause the issues this trimmer is having all right foreign so it kind of struggled to get started but once it did it performed just like I was told now my first impression tells me it's not getting enough fuel so to test that I'm gonna try and start it again except this time I'm gonna put the carbs choke lever somewhere between full and partial choke instead of completely impartial choke uh unfortunately it didn't do any better this time however by the way it's acting I'm still going to guess it wants more fuel now there's only one fuel adjustment screw on this carb and because of the way this carb is designed it's in the middle of the barrel but before I do anything else I want to try and increase the idle speed first just to see if it has any effect on the amount of time the engine stays running the only issue I have with adjusting the carb is that I need to confirm the screen inside the carb is not clogged otherwise it's not going to be very effective so this time I wasn't able to get the engine to start now since the engine did not start I have to make sure that it's not flooded with fuel the process to unflood the engine is to move the choke lever to the Run position and Pull the Rope several times watching for any smoke or fuel to come out of the muffler foreign so after pulling on the rope quite a few times it did absolutely nothing and more than likely the carb is definitely having an issue getting fuel to the engine that means we must have an issue inside the carb and the best thing we need to do is to remove the carb and take it apart for the inspection I had to go back to the video where I originally tried to fix this trimmer to see what I had done to it and it turns out I did go through the carb and serviced it but I was still having issues so I ended up just replacing the carb that means this carb has never been taken apart and I'm very interested in seeing just what happened to it so here's a quick tip if you don't want a lot of fuel to spill out of the car but when you open it remove the filter line from the car but leaving the return line still connected and then press the bulb several times now this will pull fuel out of the carb and return it back into the tank there's probably less than an ounce in there but it's a lot less messy if you do it this way it's also very surprising just how much The Bulb Has Changed color even when using canned fuel the strange part is that the fuel isn't even this dark color but it still changed at the same shade as mixed fuel would have done so here's the metering diaphragm and it's meant to control fuel flow through the carb it's supposed to be extremely flexible and this one still is so that means we need to keep looking further down after taking off the middle section we finally come to the main body of the carb I do want to apologize but the inlet screen was in the middle part and I forgot to show that it was clear of any debris that means the issue might be at the brass jet in the middle of the carb now not all carbs have one of these so just don't expect to see one each time you open one up the jet is opposite to the screw in the middle of the barrel so when you adjust the screw it basically allows more or less fuel to flow through this jet now you can remove the Jet and check to see if it's clear and for some reason this one is blocked which is causing our issues now I have to wonder if the blockage is from the fuel or from some loose debris from inside the carb now the opening in the jet is very small and unless you have a small drill set or use a wire from a brush putting anything through the jet is almost impossible I'm going to let you know right now what I'm doing is very dangerous because these little micro drills can get stuck and break off in the openings in and if that happens there's almost no way to clear it at least without using a much bigger drill to open it up and if you do it'll cause the carb to give too much fuel to the engine and flood it and even though I was taking my time and being very cautious the needle still got stuck and broke off probably because of what was stuck in the opening now at this point I would just order a new car because I'm not going to try to get that piece of Steel out of that brass jet however I happen to have a different carb that had a jet in it and the good part is that as you can see it's already clear so we can continue with the rebuild now if I didn't have this spare part I would have gathered up all the parts for this trimmer packed up my tools ordered yet another carb and waited for it to come in the mail there are just some things that I can't fix at least with the tools I have here and if I had some specialized drill equipment I'd probably be able to fix it but I'm quite happy knowing what my limits are now this would have been a great time to service this carb if it needed it but considering that this carb is only one year old and was using good fuel it didn't need it but if you think your metering diaphragm is questionable than I would just replace it now a diet frame that's somewhat flexible will still work but it's not going to work the way it's supposed to so that's how the carb is going to act as well and what I mean by that is that the engine might start and run but it might want to stop running either at random times or when letting off the trigger now if you're okay with it then keep using it but I'd replace the diaphragm to make things work just a little bit better once the carb is back together I'll then install it back onto the engine now when connecting the fuel lines on this particular car but the fuel filter line will connect to the port closer to the primer bulb while the return line connects to the port further away from the bulb like I said this is not standard between carbs so please check once you have fuel in the tank if it's flowing through the lines correctly which is something we're going to do here in just a little bit so is it important for the fuel to be filtered going to the carb and the answer is yes it is if it's not depending upon how dirty your fuel is the inlet screen in the carb will clog up and restrict fuel flow through the carb and cause the engine to not receive enough fuel to run the reason I know this is because about a decade ago I made that mistake of swapping the lines on the carb and when I went to use the trimmer after about 10 minutes I noticed that it started to act very strange and eventually it stopped and I couldn't get it to start again after taking the carb apart I saw that even though the inlet screen was clean before it was now clogged with some interesting looking fibers that's when I realized that I had the line swapped on the carb and that the fibers must have been in the gasoline which I never realized so from that point on I now try the best I can to make sure the fuel lines are correct before I start the engine after making sure fuel is flowing through the lines like they should I'll then try and start the engine foreign [Music] so it looks like replacing the fuel jet with one that wasn't clogged it did the trick I was planning on using it just then but there's some twine or rope wrapped around the trimmer head so I'll just take care of it and then I'll start it back up and try to use it around the fence if it has any issues while it's running I'll make adjustments to the carb but from the very brief moment I had it running it sounded just fine so I'll doubt I'll make any changes I'm not sure what you think about this type of trimmer head where you load a single 18 or 20 inch piece of line at a time but I really do like these it's the same style I have on my own personal trimmer and even though it is a bit wasteful when you have to change it it's much easier to live with and that for me is more important foreign [Applause] well it seems to be working just like the day I fixed it over a year ago so I'm very happy with how it turned out now I still can't figure out how the car became clogged with that debris in the fuel jet but I don't think it was in the fuel the reason I say that is because it would have to get past the fuel filter first and eventually the fine screen and the carb which I find very impossible to do however I can't prove it the only thing I could think of is that the debris came loose from inside the carb which makes more sense to me now the inspection process and more than likely the tolerances are not as strict for an aftermarket carb so I can see how it's at least a possibility now this is not the best machine to use for commercial work but for the price you're paying for it I wouldn't mind having two or three of these on my trailer and as they fail just go grab the next one now is that a good plan nope not at all but when you're starting out it works well enough at least until you buy a commercial machine but accidents do happen so having a backup makes perfect sense so my question is would you use a trimmer like this one or any other entry level trimmer for commercial work whether as your main trimmer or just as a backup now I can understand if you want a quality machine for making money with but when running a small business sometimes you have to make choices based solely on money and for some having a couple of cheap trimmers is the best they can do at least until things can change 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 hope to see you in the next video

Channel: Home Garage

Views: 34,437

Keywords: stihl, husqvarna, echo, ryobi, troybilt, troy, troy-bilt, strimmer, trimmer, homelite, poulan, craftsman, craftsmen, weedeater, weed, eater, grass, trim, edge, edger, yard, yardman, will, not, start, won't, run, starting, running, starts, runs, work, working, works, fix, problem, solve, help, diy, garage, inside, house, home, spark, gas, fuel, line, mix, cycle, 2 cycle, 2 stroke, stroke, can't, why, my, carb, carburetor, rebuild, kit, rebilt, shaft, pull, rope, string, engine, kill, switch, rev, rpms, speed, head, on, off, worn, out, blown, broke

Id: uVVdck7Mf0E

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2023