GardenKit

Yeh yeh, but you and I are on different sides of the fence, I usually replace the carb, its too damn expensive on time to mess around with fixes. Respect to your skills though:thumbup:

Hahah, Steve. You would not tell me that for over a year ( good job I already knew). Are you getting soft?

Had to start on the pile of two strokes today and leave the mowers to build up for a while. First up was an MS180, non starter, after not being used for a couple of years. Checked it all over after a thorough clean. Every thing seemed good, good compression, good spark (did not check pressure and vac, as I always leave that as a last resort as it is seldom an issue) But would the flaming thing start? NO The petrol did not actually smell too bad and was not gummy, but it was drained anyway as normal and replaced with Aspen. I could not get it to even cough despite direct injection of fuel. So stripped carb, cleaned and rebuilt with new diaphragms, but the old ones looked good and it was clean. Of course it is one of the non adjustable carbs which I hate. After about 20 more pulls off it goes, with plenty of smoke as typical of a well flooded engine that has 'dried out' leaving loads of oil residue behind. Sigh of relief.... but then find its not oiling! God, I hate these small Stihls.

The 171 also has a 1.1 gauge bar and chain as opposed to the 1.3 on the 181. Pretty sure there are other differences too.

Carefull Ray, the cranks on a 170 and 180 are different. The small end on the 170 takes an 8mm pin but the 180 takes a 10mm, thats why the cranks have different numbers. The 171 and the 181 are however the same 1139-030-0401 crank as the 170. Edit, sorry, the 171 and 181 DO NOT have the same as the 170, that one is 1132-030-0401 as you said. My first statement is however still accurate.

Postage is a problem as has been said. We do very little distance business, but when we do it costs us a lot. If its something like a carb kit that can go in an ordinary envelope then thats fine, but when we have to pack in a small parcel then thats different. We use the online postage finder but as we do not use it often it takes about 10 minutes to find our way through it and print the postage, then, as the package does not fit in the victorian post box outside the estate, we have to divert on the way home to the village post office. No big sweat really, but time is money after all. Hence the true cost of postage is considerably more than the value on the stamp.

I had seen it there, but did not realise it was clickable. Duh! I am still trying to find out what the little coloured envelopes mean beside the threads

Ah, got it now Steve. I always use the gold tabs.

I am going to sound a bit thick, but where do find 'unread posts', I can,t see it anywhere?

And these used to leave little dents on the neighbours car because of the bit of lead wrapped round the front:biggrin:

Trying to think of something to make with my grandson and I remembered these from my childhood in the 60's. Mmmm now where can I find a wooden cotton reel these days?

I have been using Aspen in all my service work for the past two years, and in that time have had no engine failures at all. In fairness, there have been the odd instance of machines needing a retune after a tank or two of Aspen, and engines do indeed burn cleaner and stop laying down deposits of carbon, but the erosion of existing carbon deposits is a very slow process and and any eroded carbon will be so small that it will pass harmlessly through the exhaust. In those two years I have not seen, or had reported, any tendancy to run hotter than on pump fuel. There are unfortunately a lot of 'old wives tales' about Aspen, most of them spread by people who have little understanding of the product. I do quite happily run older machines on Aspen and have no hesitation in recommending it for vintage kit as well. If vintage kit survived the quite drastic change from leaded to unleaded fuel it will have no trouble at all in running on Aspen. The ethanol content of modern pump fuel is however of great concern, and when it changes from 5% to 10% within 3 years there are going to be great problems in this industry. Aspen will come into its own then.

Whilst it is true that oil does burn, it burns much more slowly than the fuel so it does not contribute to power. There would have been more power available from an equivalent volume of petrol. So if you overdo the oil you will lose power, as well as running lean on the air mix. And yes, you can retune the carb to compensate, but to be fair, very few operators have the skill or tools to do this, so the mixture remains incorrect whilst they blindly carry on in a cloud of smoke with a poorly running engine. Much better just to use a 50:1 mix of GOOD oil.

Both good answers. A full description of Aspen Fuel can be found at Aspen Fuel :: Aspen Alkylate Petrol But, briefly, Aspen fuel is produced in an 'alkylation' process at a small number of refineries. Put very simply, the gases from the refinery are distilled to produce a very pure form of petrol. It is the same octane rating as normal unleaded fuel, but only contains aroun 10% of the chemicals. The 90% that have been distilled out are not needed. It was those surplus ingredients that are responsible for the chemical reactions that take place in pump fuel from the moment it is produced. They are the cause of fuel going 'stale' and forming residiues. A large proportion of those surplus ingredients are 'solvents', it is these that cause rubber, plastics and even aluminium alloy to slowly dissolve. And these chemicals are also responsible for most of the nasty emissions from the exhaust. As Aspen has none of these nasties, it is chemically stable and will last for years (3-5) without going off, so it can safely be left in the machine, or the can, with no deterioration. The exhaust gases are extremely clean in comparison to pump fuel, so operators feel better without the headaches, nausea, sore eyes, smelly clothes etc that you tend to get with pump petrol. Not to mention the long term helth damage that could be caused by the carcinogenic benzene and sulphur present in petrol, but absent from Aspen. Because of the 'clean burn' the engines stay clean, plugs do not foul, exhausts to not carbon up and a longer engine life can be expected. There are no claims of better performance, but many users report easier starting, very slightly higher revs under load, more even running and even that they get reduced consumption. Aspen is available as straight petrol (4 stroke) or with 2% high grade synthetic oil added (50:1) for 2 stroke use. As the fuel is stable, the oil does not seperate from the fuel as it does in degrading pump fuel, so maximum engine lubrication is ensured. Scan this thread from the beginning for examples of the problems caused by stale fuel. Happy reading!

Same type of chain, but a 14" 200t has 50 links but a 540 14" has 52 links

I had a 1989 commercial from new (rear leaf springs), then later a 97 commercial (independent). I regularly towed 3.5 tonne (sometimes more) as well as doing motorway trips solo. They were brilliant I sort of have a hankering after another if I could find a pristine late model.

I would personally advise against any oil from shed stores, garden centres, garages, supermarkets etc. Stick to main brands from specialist dealers and you know you will be OK.

As long as its a reputable oil you should be fine at 50:1

Modern brand name oils such as Stihl, Husqvarna, Aspen, Oregon,Rock etc, which are modern oils designed to run at 50:1. You can run these at 50:1 despite what is said in the book or on the cap. All main brand kit now states 50:1 If buying lesser known brands of oil it may be as well to play safe and run at higher concentrations. If you have smoke then you have too much oil, and as said above the air/fuel ratio will be leaner. It will not cause a lube (or lack of) seize, but COULD contribute to a lean seize. It is bad practice to 'just add that little bit more'

That is a very symetrical tree:biggrin:

Come on Spud, you know you want one really:biggrin:

Ah ha, my little gadget worked a treat, glad I spent the 5 minutes now.

Fitted some new ratchets to a Hayter mower today. Manly things, these Hayters.

Thats about right Steve, but this country can get pretty dry too, especially on the moors, mountains and forests. So, in these area it might be best to leave them in.

Not really so. You only have to look on gumtree or ebay to see that secondhand saws hold good money, in fact I sometimes wonder why people pay so much for secondhand than new. But those same buyers would not pay that sort of money for a used saw at a dealer, they would quickly 'sell themselves up' to a new saw. A used saw will need to be priced much lower than a new (discounted) saw. I, and I guess, most dealers will buy trade ins, but only at a price which allows the cost of a full service, new chain, profit margin, warranty reserve and VAT to be added to it and still sell at a competative price. Work that back and its not hard to see that the trade in 'offer' from the dealer is going to be pretty low. So low in fact that it may be considered an insult. There is insufficient profit in the sale of the new saw to 'inflate' the PX. As others have said, sell it privately. You can ask the same, or more than the dealer without any of the costs or liabilities the dealer has. You will be quids in.