GardenKit

Not much point in relocating my business there then:biggrin:

Need to get the diameter just right though Eddy, both internal and external, as on these saws the impulse hose sits IN the pot end, and OVER the air box spigot.

Or a blocked idle jet.

never heard of Foley Rich. If you mean Fowey then you are a man after my own heart. Fowey is our favourite place. How are you keeping?

ha Bob. I did suggest we did a Silky type selfie, but i think we are both a bit camera shy:biggrin:

Not in this case though, the huskie impulse tube in question is a larger diameter.

Haha, it was this afternoon, but Spud followed his sat nav which brought him through the lanes. Normally that would have been a PITA but today it was a bonus for him. We were otherwise a bit light on the customer front though.

I was looking up some parts on the computer this afternoon when the shop door opened and in walked a complete stranger who seemed to know me. He said " Hi, I'm Steve" I then realised I was in the company of none other than the legend that is known as "Spud":thumbup1: It was a pleasure to meet the man himself after several years of Arbtalk banter. Also had a long chat on the phone with another Arbtalker, Mikerecike this morning. Another great guy:001_smile:

You will need to clean your carb.

thats the one. £4.39.

This one was a bit unusual. A little old ride on mower which suddenly stopped and refused to start. A suspicion of low comp was confirmed by a comp test. Zero pressure. So "off with the head" suspecting to see a valve stuck. Normally you free the valve up and have no idea what caused it to stick, but this was obvious! Where did the screw come from. It looks just like the one which fixes the throttle butterfly to the shaft, so off with the carb to check. But there are no screws missing from the carb. Now, I have looked after this machine for 12 years of its 16 yr life and have never changed the carb, so if a carb has been changed then it was done before that and this little screw has sat in the inlet manifold all that time before going through the inlet valve and sticking in the exhaust valve. No apparent damage to the valves or the piston and pot either. Popped the head back on and it runs sweet.

It may not be as severe as suggested. The most common cause of your symptons, and the easiest to fix, is a split impulse hose. This is extremely common as the hose is made of rubbish rubber which splits very easily as it decomposes. The fix has been covered many times on this forum, this is a link to just one of those fixes. (take no notice of the thread title) http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/chainsaws/52369-spark-arrestor.html#post799267

Haha, Stubby, thats just what I did too. All scratched very neatly into the plastic with the point of my dividers. Exam cheating, but it worked! Before the days of the calculator.

Bob, you have just convinced me to visit Mull this year! We are going to find that shop and sit on your bench:001_smile:

Your old blade would have been very out of balance, the new one would be perfect. But just suppose you hit a lump of metal in the grass and take a chunk off the blade on one side. When you sharpen it you must take the same off each side to maintain balance. You can balance reasonably accurately by hanging the blade horizontally over a thin bar clamped in a vise. The heavy side will drop, so grind a bit more off until it stays level. When the edge has receded 10mm from the original line it needs replacing.

genuine Tanaka parts are very reasonably priced. Model and ser no needed to identify parts correctly.

Keep strong mate. Our thoughts are with you.

Gee, thats an old mower, not many of those left that have not rusted away! Tecumseh engines have been out of production for years too.i guess yours is around 1998. Any plug cap will fit, all dealers stock some. Any dealer will also stock cheap universal throttle cables, but if you want an OE you will need to provide the type and serial number of your mower. If you have a primer type carb then you don't need a throttle cable. Just lock it off at full revs, but if it is a choke type then you will need one.

He certainly was an inspiration. Without his determination to live I doubt he would have had those 27 years. The traumatic times he went through certainly made him a stronger character, which I think is the point that Rich was trying to put across.

I could indeed do that, but as 95% of my work comes from within 6 miles and I always have more paying repairs than I can cope with, there would be little point. And as my sales are currently 95% up on last year I have no lost sales to replace. But then, as I have said before, I do not sell Stihl or Huskie except by request. Just trying to show the perspective of the small independant dealer.

Hahaha, Pete, I reckon we have known each other long enough for a few disagreements not to matter:biggrin: I understand what you say about all customers being treated equally, but I see it a little differently. I currently have a backlog of around 2 weeks for service work, mostly from loyal, regualar customers. Luckily I get very little warranty comeback on machines I have sold and PDI'd, but when I do get the odd problem I deal with it instantly. This sets the service work back a bit and is a little unfair on those in the queue. But all my loyal customers know that they will get prompt attention if they really need it, especially on warranty. So I am not going to delay my loyal customers even more by putting a complete stranger ahead of them for warranty on a machine that he has purchased elsewhere but brings to me for convenience. Sorry, but that sort of customer will go to the back of the queue, in the same way that a new customer will have to go on the end of the list. I do this out of fairness, not out of spite.

My brother in law lost his 27 year battle with cancer recently. 27 years ago, at 31 years of age he was given 2 weeks to live. But then he was offered some 'trial' chemo. One thing lead to another, but he survived and saw his young family grow up. He had several re-ocurrences over the years with more chemo and more ops, until eventually when, 16 months ago he was told it was back, he decided to have no more treatment. He was the bravest and strongest willed man I have ever known, not once did I hear him moan about his problems, he just remained positive and fought the cancer. I would moan about a cold, or a bad back, but Des never moaned about anything, and worked on the farm until 4 weeks before his death. He knew it would get him in the end, but he filled those 27 years with quality memories for his family.

Pete, some very valid comments there. I fully understand the value of internet sales to many of the posters on this thread, but I also see it from the side of SDS. It has been suggested by many that dealers have to adapt to the modern way and join the internet sales brigade. This will certainly work for some dealers but if every dealership (I think there are around 4000 in the UK) were to do this,the market would be very diluted. Margins would be so tight that natural selection would see the closure of 80% of those dealers. This would not matter to the internet purchaser of course, he would still get the service he was happy with. But from my own perspective as a dealer (I am not a Stihl or Huskie dealer) I would sooner concentrate on providing specialist, independant service to the very many local customers who have no wish to buy on the net, preferring the service and advice of the local dealer. (many of these are of course, domestic users, and they are happy to pay a higher price for the complete package.) So there are the two types of dealer emerging, those who wish to go down the internet sales route, and those who wish to retain the old values of local business. They are distinctly different, and each can be very good at what they do. There is a place, and a need, for both, as there are also two types of buyer. The problem that is emerging is the one highlighted in previous posts, and which SDS has been slated for. That of warranty. We have these two distinct dealer types emerging, and each promises to look after their own customers with loyalty. But then comes the crossover, when the internet buyer wants his warranty done by the local man who, like me, is working long hours keeping his very loyal customer base happy. In my business the majority of this stuff is domestic mowers, strimmers and saws, bought online or from the sheds. Is it any wonder that we tend to put the non loyal customer to the back of the queue, rather than work find an extra few hours in a crowded week, or put a loyal customer back? It is our loyal customer base that keeps us afloat, and we will always give them priority. Is this so wrong?

Blue smoke is oil smoke. Check your quality, or quantity, of 2t oil.

Try the Alko 42B It is far better than the Mountfield offerings. Has a Briggs engine rather than a chinese one and sells at £245, just a little over your budget but worth every penny.