GardenKit

I too, am not too old to learn it seems. I have never found a blocked vent to have such a quick effect as it takes a little while to build up a vacuum, especially as fuel which shakes about expands as it evaporates, causing pressure in the tank. It is this pressure which is vented by the breather as an imbalance between fuel pressure and atmospheric pressure acting on the carb will cause problems with fuel flow. I wonder if this 230 problem will turn out to be something else, or will I have to eat my hat!

I have checked on this. The Tillotson carb is now obsolete according to my carb specialist. Neither can he supply the metering body. Stihl list two Bing carbs, and a Zama, but no Tillotsons. The Zama retails at £106 plus vat. Sorry this has not been much help. These plastic components in carbs ar getting a hammering from the Ethanol content of current petrol, hence the swing away from plastic to aluminium.

Let me know the ID of the Tillotson ( the code stamped into the carb body) and I can check to see what alternatives are available.

In short, no it wont fit. And, as its a Ryobi, you will need a 2lb hammer to service it.

I usually use a bigger hammer:lol:

Modern tractors with oil immersed (wet ) brakes, and complex gearboxes and hydraulics, need more additives in the oil to preserve the brakes than can be added to a universal oil which will be used in the engine as well. hence the modern trend away from universal oil, to dedicated oil. Failure to use the correct oil in these situations will lead to rapid brake wear with the worn material passing around the hydraulic system causing expensive failure. Older tractors with dry brakes could usually use Universal Tractor Oil, whist the early wet brake tractors with simple hydraulic systems and manual transmissions needed Super Universal which had more wet brake additive. Any of the systems and oils are ok with the logsplitter.

If its the exhaust blocked then its usually worth getting a new exhaust, they are not usually expensive, and its difficult to clean them out properly. While the exhaust is off, have a look in the exhaust port too, they are sometimes blocked or semi blocked with carbon. If so, then put the piston on TDC and scrape the carbon deposits out. Use an awl, or small sharp screwdriver. Be careful not to touch the piston though, and blow out the port before lowering the piston. Excess carbon build up is normally down to the quality of the 2T oil and the ratio. Low smoke synthetic, or semi synthetics are best and keep the ratio to 50:1. Dont give it a 'dash' for safe measure. Also keep the engine revving, two strokes like to be revved. Hedecutters are particularly prone to carbon build up as the dont rev hard or continuously. Strimmers used on low revs, as well as on and off throttle suffer the same.

I lost a customer (domestic) once because I turned his bar. He said I obviuosly was no good as I had returned the saw to him after service and could not even manage to put the bar on the right way.

Disconnect the small lucar terminal from the dynamo ( usually called the 'f' terminal) Using a length of wire, connect this terminal of the dynamo to the battery live terminal for just a few seconds. This polarises the field windings, allowing the regulator to control output.

An ordinary Multi purpose lithium grease is sufficient for the needle roller bearings. Loads cheaper than the Eco grease.

Sadly her body was recovered from the landslip last night. R.I.P. It appears that her family witnessed her being trapped, how traumatic for them. And respect to those members of the emegency services who put themselves in danger to recover her, many of whom will be volunteers. Let us hope there is no one else unaccounted for.

Its really sad news that someone may have been caught under the cliff fall, but I am always amazed that people will put themselves in danger under unstable cliffs. Here, in East Devon we get many falls, and signs are up warning of the danger, but we always see people walking, or even sitting on the beach under the cliff. I have even seen a whole family sitting having their picnic on a large fall that was only two hours old. As a member of the Lifeboat crew, I have had to search around these falls on several occasions and believe me, its a scary place to be. I guess this fall is just as unstable and the emergency services will be in very real danger. Lets hope that the reported missing woman turns up safe and sound somewhere else.

The Mill Marquis front loaders that I first used in the 70's were indeed old fashioned by modern standards, but were cutting edge at the time. They were heavily built and swines to fit if the ground was not level or the stands were bent. The buckets were tripped with a spring loaded pin in the centre which you retracted by pulling a lever mounted on the RH post. This pulled a cable which ran up the RH boom to a bell crank which pulled the pin. They had to be kept well greased and even then your right biceps developed incredibly. The bucket or fork should relatch on the rebound swing after tipping, but often missed and then just hung down, so you had to flick it onto the ground or the trailer side etc to get it to latch back. The good old days.... shifted thousands of tons (yes, 'tons'. 'tonnes' were'nt invented!) of FYM with one on a MF35 from old cowsheds which were so low we I to remove the exhaust and keep my head down . HSE would throw a wobbly these days.

In theory, as Aspen is so pure and is chemically 'stable' it will stay fresh indefinately. But to be safe it is advertised as having a shelf life of 3 to 5 years.

Sadly, although you guys are the trade, you are also the customers that this product is aimed at so the RRP is aimed at you. The vioilns will start playing when I say "there is very little margin for us dealers" but its true and it becomes unviable to stock and sell if we discount it. You can however buy at a 'pro user price' straight from Anglo American oil, and bypass us dealers. It only saves a pound or two per can, which is worth having, but unless you order 54 plus, cans there is a £20.00 delivery charge. Some dealers may offer a small discount for a quantity purchase over the counter.

This is an interesting thread which has posed a few questions that I can answer. Switching petween petrol and aspen is not a problem in most cases. Somes engines may need a slight tweak of the L screw for optimum performance but the majority of engines will need no adjustment whatsoever. No damage or problems will result from the use of Aspen, or from changing between Aspen and Petrol. The use of petrol is not ideal due to the current level of ethanol, which does degrade the inner surface of some plastic fuel tanks causing blockage of the gauze filter in the carb. Over time, petrol will also soak into the synthetic rubber items such as pick up hoses and carb diaphragms. This allows the solvents to destroy the chemicals in the rubber which keeps it supple. The solvents take over this task as they tend to partially dissolve the rubber, but when the petrol is removed, as in dry storage, or when replaced with Aspen, the rubber can shrink and crack causing leaks etc. Synthetic rubber exposed to Aspen from new is not attacked by the Aspen as it is with petrol and the rubber lasts much, much longer. Yes, the Aspen is premixed at 50:1 (2%) with high grade synthetic oil. The current retail of Aspen 2t is £18.15 inc vat for 5litres. Hope this answers some of the questions.

If you find one with 'BW luvs LB' engraved under the lid, I want it back!!

Well remember all the globs of water and flecks of rust in the carbs.... aahh, the good old days.

if Old Mill Trees bought it from a dealer then he is entitled to have everything working. Of course the problem may be proving that they were not working at the point of sale.

Most petrol rotary mowers are rated at 2800 or 2900 rpm. This is mostly due to noise legislation as most of the noise comes from the blade. The problem with this is that most mowers just wont perform at these low revs. They dont cut cleanly and wont collect well. They ideally need to be a bit faster. Most engines though, are happy to work at up to 3600 rpm, so its not unusual to see mowers set at around 3000 to 3200 rpm to achieve peak performance. As higher speed equals lower torque, the consumption of fuel on a revving engine should not be much greater than on a lower revving, labouring, engine. Sure, it may invalidate warranty to increase the revs, but only on a technicality, it wont harm the engine. Many mowers nowadays do not have a variable throttle control as there is no point in operating at reduced revs, they simply do not perform. Adjustments to top speed are made by increasing the load on the spring linking the throttle lever to the governor arm. The governor is constantly striving to shut the engine down, so the spring tension gives more load to the governor arm, keeping the revs up. Of course, I dont condone altering the engine speed from that on the rating plate

To be honest, I doubt you will get it out. If its coloured GRP then the colour may have faded due to UV light exposure over time, but the signwriting will have protected the pigment underneath, so that will be the original and no amount of effort will change that Heavy T cutting may cut sufficiently far into the service to bring some colour back on the faded GRP, but be careful not to cut through the Gel coat. I have spent hours on boats over the years trying to achieve the same thing, without success, but it does depend a little on the age of the material. Good luck

One of those things you notice after you've posted, Steve. Then you think 'naa' no one will read it that way. Guess I should have known you would:laugh1:

The stihl barstuds I have repaired have all been M8 x 1.25, the most common M8 thread, but best to check yours. The trouble with helicoils is that you need to buy a complete kit, consisting of the correct drill, tap, insertion tool and about a dozen helicoil inserts. These usually cost around £30, so its expensive just for repairing one thread. Your dealer will probably have a kit, just like I do, but as its cost needs to be recovered, along with the time to do the job, you will probably be looking at around £30 too. But the repair, once done is stronger than the original, as you now effectively have a 10mm thread in the aluminium, and your barstud screws into a steel thread.

Dead right, give me a 2 stroke any time. They sound better and have loads more power for the size.

I will second what ELG says. They are Jap machines, so OK as are most Jap products. The main strength of any machine is the quality of the supplying dealer, as any kit is no good without backup. A top quality machine sat in the shed waiting for parts is no good to anyone. maruyana spares are not the most readily available. I see very few of the machines in this area, but there may be more in areas of a strong dealer. Hayter introduced a range of hand held kit around 8 years ago, this was Maruyana, badged as Hayter. The sales never took off and the range was dropped after only a few years. Best to stick with a strong brand with a good dealer network. I have sold Tanaka since the early 90's and they have been brilliant, very reliable machines. Spares have never been a problem.