2-Cycle Blower Motor - Seized?

[buckeye95]

All,

I've been in the market for a blower and happened to find a weedeater at a local garage sale for $10 (my best find that day). Anyway, I took it home and got it to fire up. I cleaned the filter and replaced the plug and ran it for about 2 minutes that day to blow off my deck. Tonight I finished with the string trimmer and got it out. It fired right up, but about 3-4 minutes into the run, the engine bogged a bit and then sputtered to a stop. When I tried to pull the cord again, it pulls out about 3 inches and then hits a hard stop.

My concern is that since I did not swap out the gas when I got it that it may have been either straight gas or a lower oil ratio then was required (40:1), which may have blown the motor. However, part of me finds it hard to believe that a 2-cycle would run close to 5 minutes with straight gas. Is this possible?

If it's blown, it's blown. At least I will have learned the lesson of draining out the gas, and so will some folks on this forum (unless I'm the only one who would not have done that ) Then it's on to plan B of getting a Stihl BG55 (much nicer, but $140 more).

Any thoughts?

Pete

[tommyt654]

I have seized up a lot of 2 stroke engines in my day. I,ll tell you right now you probably can salvage it. Take out the plug and remove the muffler assembly. Spray the top of the piston with WD-40. Now find a dowel just large enough to fit in the spark plug hole and lightly tap it to free up the piston. Once its loose clean out the exhaust port with a dremel tool making sure nothing goes into the crank area if possible. Replace muffler and spark plug ,put some correctly mixed gas into the tank and fire it up. If it runs without too much clatter your probably ok and it might actually run better. I,ve done this to dozens of 2 stroke engines even some Dirt Bikes in my heyday and I swear the were faster for a while.

[buckeye95]

Tommy,

Thanks for the advice - hopefully it can be salvaged. One question I have is what exactly I should be cleaning from the exhaust port?

Pete

[tommyt654]

Carbon buildup and any sludge. You are basically cleaning up the exhaust port to allow the air to flow out better. When you seized the motor more than likely the port will be glazed over w/carbon buildup from the excessive heat. It only takes using a dremel or some other rotary tool to clean out that port. I do it regularly on my 2 strokes as they are all subject to carbon builup which causes sluggish throttle response.Just use a small stone or wire brush. Position the piston(assuming you get it broke loose ) below the port and grind away,then use an air hose to blow it out .

[buckeye95]

Thanks Tommy, that did the trick. I emptied all of the gas first, removed the spark and muffler, and soaked the interior with WD-40. A few taps with my dowel (my only expense; $0.82 at Lowes) and the piston was moving again. I added new gas with the proper mix and she turned over fine, but would not fire up. I'm thinking she may be flooded, so will try again tomorrow.

Thanks again !

Pete

[leehljp]

I added new gas with the proper mix and she turned over fine, but would not fire up. I'm thinking she may be flooded, so will try again tomorrow.
Pete

If it is flooded, take the spark plug out and off of the wire and let it set for a minute. You can even pull the cord to turn the engine several times to clean out the residue/flooded condition. Let it set for a minute and replace the plug and wire.

It should be good to go then.

[tommyt654]

Make sure your getting fire to the plug. Leave it attached to the spark plug cap and ground it to the motor( A rubber band around the cyl. head to hold the plug with a metal part touching another metal part works and allow you to pull starter cord) to see if you are getting a spark. If your getting fire and she still won,t run make sure your getting fuel into the carb. Good Luck. P.S., You may have too much WD in there to get combustion. Flush it with some new fuel mix.

[buckeye95]

Still not running. I checked the plug, and the spark is good. Also cycled the piston several times to clean out the cylinder, but no luck. The cyclinder is definitely running free, but she just won't fire up.

I think the next step will be to try some new gas and maybe a new plug, as well as checking the hose from the tank to the carb as suggested above. Thanks for all the help.

Pete

[tommyt654]

If you can put a small amount of gas into the spark plug hole(bottlecap size) reinstall plug and see if she will fire. If so problem must be fuel line or carb possibly.

[leehljp]

There is one very remote possibility beside fuel line/carb problems - Muffler totally stopped up will not allow motor to start. Tell tell sign is that the motor will turn over about 3 to 5 times but not continue to run and there is no "exhaust" sound.

As mentioned above - Did you try adding four or five drops of fuel into the piston, replace the plug immediately and then pulling the starter rope? This should give you at least 5 to 7 revolutions as it fires.

[buckeye95]

Still won't fire.

I took the plug out and added some gas/oil mix and immediately tried to get it to run, but nothing. Checked the spark again - still good. I even pulled off the muffler and tried starting it, but still no go. I am seeing gas weep out of the exhaust port, so it appears that gas is getting into the cylinder.

Any other thoughts? If not, at least this was a good introduction to 2-cycle engine repair

Thanks in advance,

Pete

[tommyt654]

With the plug installed do you get compression, is their resistance on the pull cord when you try to crank it? If you getting fuel coming out the exhaust your flooding it with too much fuel. Try not priming it and see what happens.Also make sure your air filter is not clogged. You need air /fuel/ spark=combustion,exhaust

[cgallery]

Check the coil?

[LCHIEN]

Check the coil?

if he's getting spark then the coil must be good.
As tommy says, you need air fuel and spark.
sounds like you have spark and fuel, just need to check the air filter maybe?

[buckeye95]

Sorry for the delay - I was out of town for a couple days.

I checked the compression today and noticed it was harder to pull with the plug in. I also was able to actually check the compression with a compression gauge I have (another garage sale find). The scale units were not given, but it went from 0-300 (I assume psi), and with the gauge inserted it got to 60. Note that the gauge was not a screw in version, but rather had a tapered rubber boot at the end to seal the plug opening where it was inserted, so I'm not sure how accurate it was. I also swapped plugs with my trimmer (same spark plug model) and still no start. As a last resort, I bought a new gallon of gas tonight i will mix frsh and try in the morning. Another thing I will look at is it appears the spark plug wire has rubbed on the plastic to the point that a few strands of wire are showing. When plugged in, the wire is not touching any metal, but it may be possible that the spark is shorting from this fray point without firing the plug.

Thanks again for all the help.

Pete