Stihl FS56 strimmer won't start

[Brmorgan]

I know, it's not a saw, but it IS a Stihl!! Anyway, my brother took it as partial trade for a lawn job last summer, but ended up not needing it, so he gave it to me. I never got it to run well last year but honestly didn't try that hard. This year, I couldn't get it to start so I pulled the plug and dripped some gas into the cylinder and it fired right up, so I tuned it a bit and used it for almost an hour. I modded the muffler a bit and cleaned the exhaust port and it chewed through big weeds almost as well as my brother's big pro trimmer.

I shut it off and left it for a couple hours, and when I tried to restart it... NOTHING. It doesn't even want to run if I drip gas into the cylinder now, just burns up what I put in there. It has spark and great compression. I guess I'll have to rip the carb apart and then make sure the impulse is clear. Is there anything else I should look out for? I've never really worked on trimmers before.

 

[huskydave]

It could be just a stuck inlet needle. Take the carb apart clean everything well. Replace fuel filter reassemble carb and see if it will pump gas. if it still gives problems rebuild the carb.

 

[Brmorgan]

That's what I figure too, but I don't really understand why it ran like the wind, idled, and accelerated properly, but wouldn't restart or run after cooling down.

 

[Brmorgan]

Figured it out. I pulled the carb off and noticed that the hole for the intake port in the carb gasket was way too big - so big that it actually extended to the impulse line. I can't get a new gasket right now, though I guess I could fake one out of oiled cardboard as I have before, so I just removed the bad one. Runs great now, though it still isn't the easiest to start. The throttle cable's sheath is broken and it sticks so that needs to be replaced, but otherwise it's good as new.

EDIT: I just googled "Stihl FS56" and this thread was # 6 of 633! Not bad for 6 days.