My weed eater has been in storage for around five years. Previous to that it was always a pain to start and wouldn't run full throttle without some careful playing with the choke. It's getting spark but I can't get it to fire. I'm not giving up though, so does anyone have any tips?
Weak coil is what I'd look at.
After five years? A gummed up carburetor and/or cracked fuel lines.
2nd the gummed up carb.
Now what's the easiest way to ungum it without tearing it apart?
Or clogged spark arrestor.
Gave up on my old one after constantly fighting it for a while and bought a new one. Old one was a Ryobi that I liked with a collection of attachments. New one is a Toro that uses the same attachments. And works great and starts easy.
Weed eaters? Probably a two stroke, so similar to a boat engine. Here's all you need, a little patience and perseverance.
They have the tiniest jets you have ever seen. We have crap gasoline that turns into chunks about twice the size of a jet.
drain the tank, fresh fuel/oil
then
use some starting fluid to get it fired and see if it will stay fired...
if it dosent, attack it with a spray can of carb cleaner and try again with the starting fluid.
perhaps try cleaning the spark plug?
works for most of mine.
It's not usually the carburetor jets, its the flappers in the vacuum fuel pump. They get just faintly gummy and stick. Then the engine either won't start, or will, but is gasoline starved.
A spray can of carburetor cleaner through the fuel line fitting and up into the pump/carburetor assembly often times will work. Then spraying about half a can of the carburetor cleaner into the fuel tank can do the rest of the job (also semi-rejuvinates stale gas).
But, it's only one screw that holds that fuel pump assembly together, and two that hold the entire assembly onto the engine. Usually getting the shrouding off is the worse part of the job.
It wouldn't run full throttle because it wasn't getting fuel. I doubt it's any better after sitting 5 years. 
Pull the carb apart and clean the gunk out, replacing any dead parts.
I know this girl that may be able to help you out.
Can't help, threw mine over a cliff because I was so sick of it not running.
I bought a new edger from Lowe's at the end of the season clearance last year. It runs like gangbusters for about 2-4 minutes, then it is pretty much done for the day. I hate little engines.
aussiesmg wrote:
Ditto!
There is a fine screen in the carb that often gets plugged.
As others have noted, the jets will get gummed up pretty bad, and they are small enough that even a grain of sand will clog them up. Tear into the carb and eliminate it as your problem before you try anything else.
I just spent 30 minutes the other day cleaning out my outboard's carb with a twist tie, q-tips and carb cleaner. It would run fine all the way up to half throttle, then it would choke itself out. The jets in in that (a 15 HP 2 stroke) are about .5mm each.
In reply to RX Reven':
I see what you did there.
Thorny: Do you know how fast you were going back there?
College Boy 1: Umm... 65?
Thorny: 63.
College Boy 1: But... isn't the speed limit 65?
Thorny: Yes, it is.
College Boy 3: [stoned] I'm freakin' out, man!
aussiesmg wrote:
Steve there's only one real big problem with going electric....... I would need ~ 300' of cord.... not many moving electrons at the end of a 300' cord.... + plus I need the power of a gas weed eater to run the blade that I have to use quite often
An electric weedwhacker would be like an electric lawnmower--Epic Fail.
And yes, I've used both. They suck.
Never a truer word spoken!!!
My wife thought she was doing me a favor when she picked up an electric weed whacker for me.
…beautiful Sunday afternoon, all the other guys in the neighborhood were out working on their yards so I felt obliged to at least give the thing a try. Yah, um, I flipped it over and fiound that it was so freakishly underpowered that it only had one cutting wire...can you believe that E36 M3!!!
I immediately hear about a dozen guys ROTFLTAO…ok, maybe that was just in my head but what I do know for certain is that my pee-pee shriveled up to nothing and I thought, this just isn’t worth it.
Anyway, I went and got my old 2-stroke problematic weed whacker and with the determination of John Henry, set out to bring it back to life.
My Mother in Law was in town at the time and I could clearly hear portions of her commentary coming through an open window…whah- whah-stuborn men-whan-whah-never get it started-whah-whah.
Wait for it...
rrrr..rrrr…rrrr…RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will go to my grave never hearing a sweeter sound.
Gas > Electric
In reply to RX Reven':
Well, now we know it was MIL's idea to get the electric.
Wow I missed alot here. Thanks all good advice and I'll be back at it this weekend. mtn; That was epic it's been so long since I've seen any Red Green. I had a big 'ol belly laugh when he said "and speaking of outboard motors".
Depends on how serious your weed whackin needs to be, but I've got a cordless Toro that needs to be charged a couple of times a summer, and keeps the lawn fine. Back alley weeds, maybe not so much.
If my old Honda mower ever dies, I'm gonna buy a cordless lawnmower and a solar panel.
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