My father has a hand held leaf blower that he can't start. It starts and runs fine, he just can't pull it fast enough to start it.

So he came up with an idea, it's the type you can also use to suck with. So he opened the plastic screen, attached his cordless drill to the crank bolt and can spin it up real fast. Only it wont start that way. Not a sputter or a cough. Rotation us correct, throttle held just like you would pull starting it etc. But no luck, which confused us.

We assume there's got to be something ekse happening mechanically when you pull start it that isn't happening when you spin it, but I don't know what.

Any input?

Kind of puzzling because my weedeater actually has an electric attachment to spin it up physically and start it.
I'd check other parts like spark and gas too.

Many of the small engines on blowers, weedeaters, and such, have a small screen around the spark plug. It's an EPA mandated thing. Those screens get blocked up with burned carbon and cause problems.

The reason I know is that I took my Stihl vac/blower in for poor idling and not going to full power. The tech cleaned it once by removing the screen, heating it, and knocking the carbon off. The next time it happened, the screen mysteriously went missing and I haven't had a problem since.

Don't know if this is your problem (maybe carb., or something else), but worth looking into.

No it starts and runs fine, my 84 year old father just can't pull it fast enough.

Outside of the normal things, plugs, screens, fuel line condition, 2 strokes can be hit and miss for starting reliably, at least for me sometimes they fire right up and others they take 10 or 20 pulls, jmo they can be a PIA to start.

If it has a good tune up, and he's having issues starting it because he can't pull it fast enough it might be time to consider selling it and getting an electric blower.

I dumped my 2 stroke trimmer/edger and blowers a year ago for the E-Go series of lithium powered 56V trimmer and blower.

It runs long enough to get my home done, and a bit of the street (4 houses worth of Live Oak crap) and has a ton of power, two speed trigger and an adjustable low speed trigger from a gentle breeze (sweeping up into a small pile) or full on Hurricane mode.

It has more power than the 2 stroke, it doesn't stink, I don't have to mix fuel anymore (got the edger/trimmer as well) and it starts every time with the press of a button. They come with fast chargers.

Click Here it's a link

It is possible that the ethanol in the gas has ruined the carburetor, it's not uncommon. I accidentally left some in my chain saw and it ate the gas lines out of it. I know others that didn't run them dry before storage and it eroded the carb and they wouldn't start.

Interesting problem. At electric drill speed, it might flood a little easier than normal. Have you tried starting it electrically with reduced or no choke?
Also, some of the small engines have a compression release arrangement for easier starting but I'm not sure that would cause problems starting it with electrical assist. I know that what you're trying to do is very common so it should work.

Good luck.

Maybe he should try some other speeds.

What he does now is drives to my house, I start it and he drives it back home running in the back of his pickup. lol


He's bought and returned several cordless ones unhappy with them, including and E-Go one just this past week.

Maybe there is a safety switch on the door so you can't hurt yourself by running it without the sucker / bagger etc tube attached and the door open.

Can you start it first then open the screen to check and see if it dies?

Or did i misunderstand what he is trying?

Recoil starters and electric starters have one way bearings or are designed so the engine can outrun the starter. It is likely the engine is forced to stay same speed as starter so it can never run on its own.

Is it possible it has some kind of start assist function, so when he hooks the drill up it's spinning that instead of the actual crank?

Is the drill spinning fast enough? I imagine the spin from the pull on the cord to be pretty fast.

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:
Is it possible it has some kind of start assist function, so when he hooks the drill up it's spinning that instead of the actual crank?

Interesting. I could pull the plug and make sure the piston really is turning.

I thought about a kill switch in the door, but it's a flimsy little nothing. so is the spring. I'll look at it better when I get a chance. I assumed he has a vaq tube for it, which mean it should run with the door open. But I don't know that we tried opening it while its running (to see if it shuts off)

It is likely there is a clutch so you would not be spinning the engine.

Bumping this back up because it's become a topic at home again. lol


There's no clutch, you spin it by hand and the piston goes up and down. I'm still wondering if there's something electrical not happening when you're not pulling the cord. Hmmm...

quote:

Originally posted by marksman41:
Many of the small engines on blowers, weedeaters, and such, have a small screen around the spark plug. It's an EPA mandated thing. Those screens get blocked up with burned carbon and cause problems.

The reason I know is that I took my Stihl vac/blower in for poor idling and not going to full power. The tech cleaned it once by removing the screen, heating it, and knocking the carbon off. The next time it happened, the screen mysteriously went missing and I haven't had a problem since.

Don't know if this is your problem (maybe carb., or something else), but worth looking into.

Where is this small screen? did a search and couldn't find a reference to it.

I bet carb is shot. My weedeater carb has a rubber gasket that went bad. Big flat that gut all out if shape. I bought another carb for 25.oo on eBay.

quote:

Originally posted by valkyrie1:

quote:

Originally posted by marksman41:
Many of the small engines on blowers, weedeaters, and such, have a small screen around the spark plug. It's an EPA mandated thing. Those screens get blocked up with burned carbon and cause problems.

The reason I know is that I took my Stihl vac/blower in for poor idling and not going to full power. The tech cleaned it once by removing the screen, heating it, and knocking the carbon off. The next time it happened, the screen mysteriously went missing and I haven't had a problem since.

Don't know if this is your problem (maybe carb., or something else), but worth looking into.

Where is this small screen? did a search and couldn't find a reference to it.

In the muffler . It's a spark arrester .

There may be a switch wired into the catch internally. Take a screwdriver to push in where it latches and try it again.

Have you tried starting it with the pull cord to see if it will run that way?