GardenKit

I respect your opinion, but the gears only come as a set at £161plus vat and there are no pattern parts as far as I know. Unless you have an alternative supply its really not worth doing, an extra £30 gets you a new unit.

Are you sure its not the clutch spring thats gone, preventing the centrifugal clutch from disengaging?

Absolutely. Total waste of time and money.

Putting a grease nipple in place of a plug is fair enough, but be very careful not to over grease. A brushcutter gearbox has sealed bearings and the seals will pop out very easily under gun pressure. They do not need greasing often. Some of the newer Stihl's do not have a grease point at all, as has been mentioned. But a nipple in the bottom of a hedgecutter will not last long against the floor.

Thats right. Some machines need retuning between different brands of petrol. I recently heard of a mower that just would not run on a particular brand of supermarket fuel. Apparently all the dealer did was to change the petrol and it was fine. I have changed thousands of machines over to Aspen and the vast majority have needed no retuning.

But you might not!

Good to hear this Steve. What was the verdict on the hedgecutter that packed up shortly after converting to Aspen?

Cool Jon, just PM me when you are ready. We can send you some, or maybe bring some up next time we are at the churchyard. And, it may be a good incentive for me to get to the Tuckers this year!

Nice one Jon. Do you have a local supplier?

Any update on this one Steve? (or Steve?)

Bad news for East Devon Aspen users! I have sold right out of Aspen 2 for the first time ever. There will be a new delivery with us on monday though.

Or, could it be that the extra bit of power and higher engine revs achieved by porting exceeded the design strength of the big end?

I know what you mean, I reckon the top ring spread the load on the piston and drove the pin up the bore.

I thought I might share this. A 4yr old Tanaka 27cc brushcutter from a local garden centre came in for what they thought was a simple recoil repair. But the engine was siezed tight. A couple of minutes the exhaust off for piston inspection, but the piston looked fine, so another 5 minutes and the pot was off (these tanakas are so easy to work on) It appears that a needle roller from the big end bearing had come out and found its way up the transfer port. It was then picked up by the piston and pushed up to the top of the cylinder. At this point the piston wedged tight. This is the first mechanical failure of a Tanaka engine (i.e not fuel or oil related) that I have ever seen in 25 years of selling and servicing the product. The engine has gone away to Tanaka for warranty investigation.

You have a short memory Steve, you also asked my advice on the best places to visit in East Devon:biggrin:

The Echo will cost a bit more than the 181, but is a far superior saw. It also carries a 2 year Pro User warranty (5 year domestic) Starts easier as well.

It would be interesting to know how much more air velocity was produced by porting. The backward curving centrifugal fan consumes most power producing air volume, but volume does not move leaves well. We need velocity, so we narrow down the spout at the end and the velocity increases, but the volume starts to decrease with the back pressure so the engine revs increase with the reduction in load. (put your hand over the nozzle to prove this, you can stop the velocity completely and the engine revs its nuts off under no load) There is an optimum point which at which air velocity and flow is at its best. This is why the spout is designed as it is. If more power is supplied then the volume will increase on a straight pipe, but put the nozzle on and the backpressure will increase and the load decrease allowing the engine revs to increase even more. So its possible that adding more power to a standard fan will not actually result in more blow unless you change the size of the nozzle. At least, thats my theory.

I was thinking that I could send the payments to you to help fund your efforts Steve:biggrin:

Some flyers and posters will be good Steve. We may possibly decide to register customers new kit for them at the point of sale, but they may of course not wish us to do it for them for privacy reasons. I wonder if a small charge for this service would be in order? The day may come when we can check machines that are brought in for service against this register, especially ones that have been bought secondhand off the bay.

Sorry I did not get back to you a few weeks ago with my comments Steve, but was rather busy at the time. However, I do see this as a major asset, but only if it becomes the one and only site for registration of kit, and this requires the site to be known beyond the Arbtalk Community. As a dealer I can see the benefit to my customers, both commercial and domestic, of registration. We could possibly provide customers with the details of the site when they purchase a new machine. We would need some counter top advertising and flyers to achieve this.

I saw two cyclists who were pushing their bikes DOWN the pass, presumably too scared to ride. Maybe they share my phobia of steep drops.

Don't mix it with cider Jon, it will make you fly.

The thought had crossed my mind Hodge, but we were on our way back from the north west highlands so we would have had to carry it for 1700 miles before we got to the lakes! We needed the space for Scottish shortbread, Haggis, Butterfudge, Grasmere Gingerbread and of course, some of that Mint Cake stuff.

I was in the lakes at the weekend and took a shortcut from the coast to Coniston. We ended up on the Hardknot Pass. The trouble was that I have a real phobia of heights, and by heck, that pass is steep! I was bricking myself in my CRV whilst little old ladies were happily driving over in old fiestas. Well worth a visit though if you don't mind heights, which I guess most of you don't!

Exactly, but just remember to only wind then in very gently until they just stop. Do not force them all the way in or needle and seat damage can result