Dirt Dauber

[w8ye]

A fellow gave me a 1995 Homelite Bandit weed whacker in 2004. He told me that he tried everything and couldn't get it to run.

It has set in the corner of the barn for the last seven years. I got inspired and thought I would get it going. The fuel lines had rotted and broken in two.

I put some gas in the carb throat and tried to see if it would fire. No deal.

I pulled the new spark plug the guy had put in (It was a CJ8 and the wrong plug but it still should run) and it had spark but it was dry with no gas in the combustion chamber.

I put the spark plug back in with some gas in the cylinder and tried to start it some more. It wouldn't fire. Muffler didn't sound right?

I removed the muffler and you couldn't blow through the outlet. It was the little square box muffler but it was a crimped together one and not the one that came apart. It had a screen inside and I couldn't tear it out. finally I stuck a screw driver down the muffler outlet and there was a mud dauber nest in the outlet. The little blue wasp has struck again?

I reassembled the whacker, and reverse flushed the fuel filter and installed new Tygon fuel lines and whacked some grass though it is a smallish whacker. The Walbro carb worked perfect after I adjusted the needles.

 

[Terry Syd]

Reminds me of a story about a used motorcycle. A fellow died and left his estate to be sold off. One item was a 350 Honda that he had been working on, all the carbs and stuff were there so it was complete. The engine wouldn't turn over, so everyone figured it was seized. A bloke bought it for $200 just for parts.

When he pulled the head, the cylinder was fine. In fact, it had a nice clean big bore kit in it and a stroker crank - 450cc! He looked at the cams and they were after market built up profiles. It was then he noticed the wasp nest under the oversize intake valve that kept the engine from turning over.

Back together and off for a very fast ride.