Stihl Kombi LIVES!

[chim]

Sorry if this is old news to those of you with more life experience. It's something that I've never heard of in my 76 years. Guess I haven't gotten out much.

My Stihl 94R went from running fine to barely running yesterday till it finished cutting the weeds along the creek banks. I removed and cleaned the filter, cleaned and gapped the little spark plug and scratched my head. It wouldn't even rev up at that point.

Mentioned this to my BIL last night and he said he had the same thing happen to his Echo trimmer. He took it to a shop for repair. They fixed it while he waited - less than 5 minutes. The fix was to remove the spark arrestor, zap it with a propane torch to burn off the carbon and that's all. He told me he's done his a few times since then. I did mine this morning and after putting the spark arrestor back in it ran like new.

It couldn't be more convenient. The only things that need to be removed are a single screw and the arrestor itself. Pull the screen out with a long-nosed pliers, grab the torch and you're done in no time.

 

[drygulch]

Handy tip

We'll see if I can remember it when I need it!

 

[OntheRidge]

Old school, we would take those out as soon as we got a new saw. Now, doing that will blow up your saw/trimmer/etc. So, yes, clean it, reinstall.

 

[Hugo Habicht]

Thank you very much for the tip !

I had three small engines that stopped working recently, a Stihl chainsaw, a Stihl strimmer and a whacker plate with a Honda engine. In all cases the problem was the spark plug. Put new ones in, ran fine. Checked the old ones: gap too small. Widened it, put in old spark plugs, everything back to normal.

So can anybody explain to me how the spark plug gap can get smaller??? I always thought the electrode burns off, hence the gap getting wider.

 

[MOOTS]

That’s one of the first things I check when any 2 stroke comes across my bench.

 

[lynnmor]

Sorry if this is old news to those of you with more life experience. It's something that I've never heard of in my 76 years. Guess I haven't gotten out much.

My Stihl 94R went from running fine to barely running yesterday till it finished cutting the weeds along the creek banks. I removed and cleaned the filter, cleaned and gapped the little spark plug and scratched my head. It wouldn't even rev up at that point.

Mentioned this to my BIL last night and he said he had the same thing happen to his Echo trimmer. He took it to a shop for repair. They fixed it while he waited - less than 5 minutes. The fix was to remove the spark arrestor, zap it with a propane torch to burn off the carbon and that's all. He told me he's done his a few times since then. I did mine this morning and after putting the spark arrestor back in it ran like new.

It couldn't be more convenient. The only things that need to be removed are a single screw and the arrestor itself. Pull the screen out with a long-nosed pliers, grab the torch and you're done in no time.

This video will explain it. I solved my clogging problems by using Ace Hardware oil.

 

[Brad M]

Thank you very much for the tip !

I had three small engines that stopped working recently, a Stihl chainsaw, a Stihl strimmer and a whacker plate with a Honda engine. In all cases the problem was the spark plug. Put new ones in, ran fine. Checked the old ones: gap too small. Widened it, put in old spark plugs, everything back to normal.

So can anybody explain to me how the spark plug gap can get smaller??? I always thought the electrode burns off, hence the gap getting wider.

The only way Ive seen gaps get smaller is when an engine has detonation or pre-ignition.