So I bought a string trimmer for my crazy overgrown yard. It’s an Echo GT-255, recommended in Consumer Reports. Supposed to be an easy starter! Yeah, right - I tried starting it this morning, got my ex to give it a few pulls, and we couldn’t start it. (It isn’t a hard pull, to give it credit. But my shoulder is killing me now.) It’s too late today - already 95 or so, I’ve missed the morning - so I gave up and came in to ask the internet, as the troubleshooting guide in the manual spends more time telling me not to cut my damned fingers off than how to fix the thing.
I did everything it told me - moved the switch, did the purge valve thing, set the choke to cold start, held the trigger down, pulled. It made the “pulling an engine” sound but never started up. I really don’t know what else to do with it other than keep yanking on it.
You’ve got the correct fuel mix? Echo is what, 50:1?
I find that each of my power tools for the yard, the trimmer, edger, mower and blower, all have their own little idiosyncrasies, their own requirements for the starting protocol. Follow each and they start every time. Deviate a bit and they refuse to cooperate. And therein lies the rub, you gotta figure out just what sequence they each require.
For whatever it’s worth, with my Echo I give the gas bubble two medium presses, pull once with the choke on, switch the choke off and it starts on the next pull.
Do you think it might have flooded by now? You may have to pull the spark plug and let the cylinder evaporate.
I’m sure it’s flooded by now - that motherfucker has been roundly cursed at and relegated to the garage for the day. How do I pull the spark plug? (Also, the manual talked about a couple of tools that I didn’t find in the packaging - a little wrench for the string and such. It came assembled, though, and the manual said I’d have to assemble it. Where the hell would they have put the little wrench if not in the packet with the manual and extra string and goggles and stuff?)
I did the fuel mix as instructed - actually, I got the little premeasured oil thing for a 2.5 gallon can, so there’s not a lot of room for error. Of course, I also couldn’t figure out the goddamned gas can, and neither could my ex. The gas can! Seriously, who makes a gas can you can’t figure out? The spout had some kind of locked/unlocked thing going on, but when it was unlocked nothing came out either. I eventually had to downgrade a kitchen funnel and get gas all over my hands.
lieu says pretty exactly what I would say. The most important thing is not to flood the thing. One or two maximum pulls with choke . Once you go past that most 2 strokes are not going to start. So indeed, you get to pull the spark plug and dry it out. A full pulls with no plug in can help.
2 stoke engines are mostly the spawn of Beelzebub.
Without seeing it it’s impossible to know but my can has a ‘trigger’ at the spout base that must be pulled before any will flow.
The plug wrench should be fairly standard. If you have an old one, give it a try and see if it’ll fit. Otherwise ask at any Ace, HD, Lowes or local hardware store.
Just pull the wire off the plug, slip the wrench over the plug and turn counterclockwise.
You should have got a spark plug wrench with it. Very unusual not to. Just pull the lead off the top off the plug (it has a very simple clip) and use fit the wrench over the plug. Once loose you can unscrew it by hand.
But, no wrench, no remove. Go complain I guess. Don’t overtighten the plug when you put it back.
ETA, lots of parallel posting here I’m off to sleep, so best of luck.
See, there weren’t any damned tools with this thing unless I missed them - there was a little box cable-tied to the handle that had a manual, a safety manual, goggles, extra strings, and a little oil sample. That’s it! I’m going over it again as soon as I can stand to look at the bastard, but unless those little tools are somehow attached to the trimmer itself there is no wrench and no little cord replacement tool, although the manual said there was. I’ll check to make sure there isn’t anything taped to the box, but I looked and didn’t see anything. Didn’t look previously opened or anything, either.
As others have said, pulling the plug. you shouldn’t need their wrench. If it didn’t come with the wrench you should be able to use a regular deep well socket. That’s what I always use on spark plugs. The spark plug sockets are usually the same as a deep well socket, but it has a piece of rubber there to help hold the spark plug for installing in a car where the plug sits way down in a recess.
My 2-stroke weed wacker never starts on full choke… Try this… pump the primer, put it on full choke, with wide open throttle, pull it a couple times till you hear the “pulling an engine” sound, then move to half choke, wide open throttle, pull a couple more times. If it starts, let it run on full throttle while you feel the exhaust gasses (don’t touch the metal!). when they start getting hot, turn the choke off.
I abuse mowers, trimmers, chainsaws, etc horribly. Put them to bed in the winter with half a tank of gas, then expect them to start in the spring. And they do. My secret is a can of spray starting fluid. Do all the things the manual says, but then also spray a one second spritz of starter fluid into the air intake.
Your weed whacker is operating normally. Echo is a fairly good brand, but most weed whackers are virtually disposable. Some starter fluid or small engine carb cleaner might help. The spark plug gap tends to widen from the first few uses and may need replacing. Make sure you have fresh gas, mixed properly with 2stroke oil. You might have to yank that cord 50 times to get started up the first time if it’s been sitting all winter. I use a product called Sta-Bil for winterizing. It’s worked pretty well for me.
2 cycle devices are tricky. read the instructions carefully and follow them, then learn what really works for your device and do that. the directions given may need to be modified based on your situation, the temperature of the air and engine may affect the best starting procedure.
those locking can spouts are a great safety feature that is hard to use on small engines. you might need to twist the spout to the unlock position and push it towards the can, on a large device you would push the can into the fill hole to cause that spring valve to open.
not speaking to your device. directions vary with device; looking at a few i have, these seem to be common steps. there might be a given number of priming bulb pushes or fewer number of pulls between different devices.
priming bulb push until at least 1/2 full and twice more.
try to start with full choke until sounds like about to start but not more than 6 pulls (or 2 to 5).
move choke to half position and pull to start but not more than 6 pulls.
if not starting push priming bulb a couple times and go to full choke and do the above two line sequence series twice.
if no start then might be flooded. you can try to clear by putting to no choke and pulling a bunch of times, you might get it to start in no choke during this or it might just clear the gas to then try starting as above. you can remove plug to evaporate gas though need to replace it to correct tightness and not get anything into the cylinder.
If the thing came pre-assembled, it is conceivable that whoever did the assembly missed a step or did some thing wrong, can you go over the assembly instructions to confirmed every step was followed correctly. It could be as simple as the spark plug wire that is not connected to said spark plug.
Also, the weed whacker probably has a fuel shutoff valve located somewhere close or attached to the fuel tank, try to locate it if there is one and make sure it is openned.
Is there a safety device that must be depressed? When I went to start my lawn mower this year I totally forgot about it, pulled the starter many times with nothing. This lawnmower was bought almost at the end of last summer, so it’s pretty new. Was thinking that for it to have such a problem that early doesn’t seem good, but hopefully it has a 1 year warentee, went to check then remembered the safety handle and tried and it started right up.
My kids bought me a Yardworks 25cc trimmer for Fathers Day. I put it together and had a hard time getting it started, when it did start it ran pretty rough. It was late so I did not use it much but put it away for Monday. When I tried to start it I bet I pulled it 150 time and no way would it start. I gave up right after I bounced it off the wall in the garage. I grabbed the box and returned it to Canadian Tire. The girl there said it was the third one returned so I bought a cheaper WeedWacker instead, which runs much better.
The Yardworks is made by MTD, which I have always found to be reasonably good. The one thing I noticed on this one was the spark plug. The brand on the plug was Torch, which around here equates to Chinese garbage. If you have a Torch brand plug, the issue may be that the engine in an inferior Chinese model, if that’s the case I would return it and get something else. Actually if it is new and giving you that much trouble I would return it anyway.
How do I pull the spark plug? (Also, the manual talked about a couple of tools that I didn’t find in the packaging - a little wrench for the string and such. It came assembled, though, and the manual said I’d have to assemble it. Where the hell would they have put the little wrench if not in the packet with the manual and extra string and goggles and stuff?)
