I have a ryobi cs26 string trimmer and it's just over 3 years old. 2 weeks ago I tried starting it and I could not get it to start, it would attempt to start for a second and then died. It had sat for a few months without running, so I figured it might take a little bit of effort to get it started. I made sure to dispose of the old fuel in the gas tank and pour in some fresh fuel. After an hour of trying to get it to start and without success, I decided to run through everything on the motor. I pulled the carb and cleaned it out, put on new fuel lines because they were getting a little stiff, checked the fuel filter in the tank, made sure the air filter screen was clean, checked the spark arrestor, checked the spark plug and verified spark. After all of this, I still wasn't getting it to start, so I pulled the flywheel to make sure the key wasn't sheared to throw off timing..everything looked good. I then decided to put some fuel directly into the spark plug hole to bypass any issues with fuel getting thru the carb...still no start....not even an attempt. At this point I did a compression test and I'm getting 65 psi, I'm going to go ahead and assume that's too low, but I wanted to get some insight as to what is going on here from you guys.
Trucker, A sad commentary on today's products, but when my good 'ole Ryobi died I tried to fix it and the parts quickly added up to the fix/replace 50% level. They expect you to toss it. I went down kicking and screaming and bought a sears weedwacker for $120 with the same engine. Look at a piston $ and I think you will see.
Fortunately a buddy of mine had a spare motor for this trimmer sitting in his garage. The first thing I did with this motor was to check the compression before I possibly wasted any time on it, and it had 150 psi. After that checked out I began by doing all of the same things I did with my motor....checked the carb, spark, timing, spark arrestor. Yet again, I'm having the same no-start issue. I again put some fuel directly in the spark plug hole in an attempt to eliminate any issues with fuel delivery from the carb and no start. Even though I know this fuel is fresh, I also tried starter fluid and still a no go. I am so stumped as to what is going on here.
Trucker, Are you hip on 2 strokers vs 4 strokers? The crankcase pressure is as important as the firing pressure. It is what charges the power stroke. There are 2 stroke guys who can chime in here, but I think a good shop has a pressure gauge which will check crankcase. You may have bad gaskets. I still say if you go in you may soon be overcome with parts costs. (I can't tell from your post if your friend's engine runs or if you were merely comparing compression pressure). :thumbsup:
Thanks for the information. My friend gave me the engine to replace my worn out engine. I was saying that I thought I would be able to get this engine to run because it has good compression unlike my original motor, but I may as well have the same worn out engine because I cannot get it to start for the life of me. Very tempted to just go out and get an echo trimmer, but I would really like to know why I still can't get this engine to start. Someone had suggested possibly broken reed valve, but I was saying that doesn't seem like it would matter because I can't even get the engine to start pouring in a little gas or starter fluid in the spark plug hole.
I tested the spark on the unit with an inline spark tester and then i grounded the spark plug to the motor and checked to see if i was getting a visible blue spark...which i did
