I've had this blower for years and had no problems. My spouse was using it last fall to shred some leaves and she kinked the entrance to the shredded leaf bag. So it was chopping up leaves to dust because they had nowhere to go and it was packing them around the side of the engine where the engine is. I cleaned everything out and and it would run ok shredding leaves for maybe 5 minutes then it would start bogging down and barely running and wouldn't accelerate. It did this several times. After a while it wouldn't start and I noticed there was no spark. I then replaced the ignition and it would start and work fine for a few minutes. But then it started running poorly and not accelerating 100% of the time. I have since replaced the spark plug (gapped to 0.026"), fuel filter, air filter and carb. I was going to rebuild the carb but I found a new OEM Zama RB-K71 carb for only $10 more than the rebuild kit. I also disassembled the muffler and found the exhaust port and spark arrestor screen were clean and there was no blockage.
When I look into the intake and exhaust ports I see no obvious issues with the visible portion of the piston. But I am completely out of ideas. Is there anything else I should consider?
This is a video of how it runs:
When I look into the intake and exhaust ports I see no obvious issues with the visible portion of the piston. But I am completely out of ideas. Is there anything else I should consider?
This is a video of how it runs: