Anyone familiar with weed eater motor maintenance/repair?

"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake) 10/23/2013 at 22:10 • Filed to: None

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I've got a problem. I have this airplane powered by a weed eater motor. I'm new to this whole gas plane biz, and I've never used a weed eater, so I'm in a bind.

I've had experienced guys trying to get this thing to start, and we are having problems. It fired up almost immediately day one, but died pretty quickly. Primer bulb was cracked, thought that was the problem, replaced that and the spark plug. Tried today, got a brief second of life then nothing. They thought it wasn't sparking, but I checked tonight and it is definitely sparking, and with a blue spark, so all should be good.

I haven't taken the whole carb off, but checking the two diaphragms they look fine, and the screen looks clear too. I think I'm going to try to replace those 3 parts next, I believe the motors been sitting and the fuel membrane or whatever you call it (diaphragm that sits under the primer and over the screen) seemed a little stiff. If that doesn't work, I don't know what to do.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks.

Frank Grimes > Jayhawk Jake 10/23/2013 at 22:16

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LS swap.

Slant6 > Jayhawk Jake 10/23/2013 at 22:20

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I have a little bit of experience with these two stroke weed eater motors. Most of them are cheaply built and can die if abused or just slightly neglected. I would try rebuilding the carb and if that doesn't work find a cheap weed eater off craigslist for $50 and find someway to get it on your plane. They're all pretty cheap. You can buy a new one in the $130 neighborhood.

This is just my personal experience. They're too cheap to bother repairing most of the time. You might have a simple fix.

Birddog > Jayhawk Jake 10/23/2013 at 22:24

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Do you know what the engine came out of?
If not you may have to pull the carb and bring it to a mower shop to ID it. And get a rebuild kit.
Check the fuel lines too. They like to crack as they age just like the primer bulb.

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > Jayhawk Jake 10/23/2013 at 22:26

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Maybe your float is stuck?

doodon2whls > Jayhawk Jake 10/23/2013 at 22:51

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Those engines' carpotatos are finicky. Definitely get the carb rebuild kit. You'll need to either bring the carb to a mower shop for ID or find the numbers on it and search the interwebz.

A stiff diaphram might explain fuel starvation. I assume it's case induction, so check the reed valve(s) to ensure they are not brittle/broken.

Agrajag > Jayhawk Jake 10/24/2013 at 00:52

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While I don't work on them myself, where I work we have a small engine shop. Almost everyone we fix(seriously about 90% of them) has a carb issue from one of two things stale gas or water in the gas. They are incredibly temperamental egarding fuel quality. Our guys take off the carb and clean it and that's bout it. They are also prone to loss of compression. Remove the muffler and spark plug cap and pull the cord while shining a light inside to inspect the piston. Any scoring and that might be your issue. We refuse to work on any with scoring because it might be running at the moment, but you don't know how much longer you have. You can look up parts on this site http://www.partstree.com/parts/ but I don't know if you can order from there or not.

Jayhawk Jake > Agrajag 10/24/2013 at 08:41

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I took the carb off this morning, I'm going to go to a local shop and pick up a rebuild kit and some carb cleaner. Worth a shot at least.

I don't think it's fuel quality, the plane came to me empty and I've filled it with fresh gas and oil.

I'll look at the piston tonight, I hope that's not it because I really don't want to buy a new motor.

Jayhawk Jake > doodon2whls 10/24/2013 at 08:45

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I took the carb off to get the right kit, I found the ID on it but I can't find the number on the makers website, probably an old discontinued carb so hopefully I can find something.

Jayhawk Jake > The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 10/24/2013 at 08:45

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It doesn't have a float, it's a carb for a handheld motor so it uses a diaphragm instead.

The needle valve seemed to be working fine when we opened it up the other day, but I'm going to go ahead and get a rebuild kit and replace it all anyways.

Jayhawk Jake > Birddog 10/24/2013 at 08:47

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It came off of a weed eater, I've ID'd the carb but can't find the model number on the manufacturer's website. Hopefully the shop I'm going to will have a rebuild kit that will work.

The fuel lines are fine, no visible cracking or leaking.

Jayhawk Jake > Slant6 10/24/2013 at 08:48

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Yeah, hopefully rebuilding the carb does the trick, otherwise I'll try looking for a new motor.

Although if I have to pull the motor off and do something else, I'll probably do an electric conversion...

Jayhawk Jake > Frank Grimes 10/24/2013 at 08:48

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If only...the plane weighs 15 pounds, I don't think it would fit.

Agrajag > Jayhawk Jake 10/24/2013 at 10:32

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Good luck.