hotgemini
ArboristSite Lurker
First up, a thanks to the regulars here on AS. Reading back through a few dozen threads played a big part in convincing the M-I-L to buy the F-I-L a pro grade MS260 rather than a homeowner spec saw (MS250 etc) and he's over the moon with his new toy.
Now to my problem, I've got an FS 350 stihl brushcutter and generally it's a fantastic thing but of late it's developed an intermittent problem. It'll be cutting fine for 5 to 50 minutes but will then lose power, sputter and drop basically back to idle revs and usually then die. If I back off the throttle it'll idle for a bit and then I can give it a short rev but it pretty quickly dies again.
Now for my money it felt like something starving for fuel, so I popped out the fuel strainer/inlet, it was covered in muck and clearly past it's best so I replaced it and put a new spark plug and air cleaner element in at the same time.
Unfortunately the problem hasn't gone away and if anything the length of time it works before the problem starts is getting progressively shorter on average.
Thoughts? The green (silicone?) fuel line seemed okay. Garbage in the carburettor perhaps? If so how would I go about fixing it?
On the other hand, a rule of mine is "If it feels like a fuel problem, suspect spark and vice versa" so I guess I wonder if it's a spark problem? Would it be worth throwing a new spark plug lead on it? Do the ignition modules fail and if they do, does it match my symptoms?
It's a 40ish minute round trip two towns down the valley to the nearest stihl shop, so I'm happy to err towards replacing more parts rather than going one item at a time and spending all day driving back and forth.
Thanks in advance!
-Adam.
Now to my problem, I've got an FS 350 stihl brushcutter and generally it's a fantastic thing but of late it's developed an intermittent problem. It'll be cutting fine for 5 to 50 minutes but will then lose power, sputter and drop basically back to idle revs and usually then die. If I back off the throttle it'll idle for a bit and then I can give it a short rev but it pretty quickly dies again.
Now for my money it felt like something starving for fuel, so I popped out the fuel strainer/inlet, it was covered in muck and clearly past it's best so I replaced it and put a new spark plug and air cleaner element in at the same time.
Unfortunately the problem hasn't gone away and if anything the length of time it works before the problem starts is getting progressively shorter on average.
Thoughts? The green (silicone?) fuel line seemed okay. Garbage in the carburettor perhaps? If so how would I go about fixing it?
On the other hand, a rule of mine is "If it feels like a fuel problem, suspect spark and vice versa" so I guess I wonder if it's a spark problem? Would it be worth throwing a new spark plug lead on it? Do the ignition modules fail and if they do, does it match my symptoms?
It's a 40ish minute round trip two towns down the valley to the nearest stihl shop, so I'm happy to err towards replacing more parts rather than going one item at a time and spending all day driving back and forth.
Thanks in advance!
-Adam.