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Pretty good episode.

Yes, the cheap residential consumer brands are pretty much throw away products. Echo is my personal choice. I do have an old Poulan Pro 220 (Husqvarna) chainsaw. I recently put new fuel lines, fuel filter, air filter, primer bulb, and carburetor mounting gasket on it. I was winding up my my clearing job and it started to surge. I dumped the fuel tank and was going to burn off any leftover fuel and it wouldn’t crank. I immediately knew the problem was with the coil. I ordered a new coil and spark plug. I replaced the coil and plug. It fired on the first pull. The cost for all of the parts was about $120 with shipping. When labor cost is added, you are well over $200. The cost of a new Echo residential chainsaw is going to be $350 minimum. If you don’t have the skill or knowledge to make those repairs, you are better off buying a new piece of equipment.

PTmowerMech said:

Pretty good episode.

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As of 2024, I only service Stihl, Husqvarna, Echo, and Redmax handheld equipment. Past experience working on other brands has shown me it is not worth it for several reasons.

Those are the major OEMs. Husqvarna, Poulan, and Redmax are basically the same equipment as they are owned by the Husqvarna Group. Echo and Shindaiwa are now the basically the same too since Echo now owns Shindaiwa. It is just like a lot mower brands names are all own by a few manufactures. They just dress them cosmetically different.

Matter of fact I worked on both an Echo and a Shindaiwa backpack blowers that used the exact same parts last year..PB-9010T and EB910RT.

About the only thing left afterwards is the TTI and MTD lines.

Most the very old stuff is no supported due companies either going out of business or being brought up by their competitors during bankruptcy fire sales.

It all depends on the customer for me. If it's a new customer, and their "throw away" is within a year or two, I'll put a little effort into it. But they know it won't be much.
I'll throw on a new plug, filter & lines. If the carb is bad, I'll put on a new Amazon carb. But I'm not going to rebuild one.
As far as the pull cord, it's got to be easy to replace. Not one of those that has to be completely disassembled first.

Way to go guys. This thread caused a guy to bring me a poulan chainsaw with the usual rotten fuel lines today.

Hammermechanicman said:

Way to go guys. This thread caused a guy to bring me a poulan chainsaw with the usual rotten fuel lines today.

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Just trying help you through these hard times, man. You're welcome.

Hammermechanicman said:

Way to go guys. This thread caused a guy to bring me a poulan chainsaw with the usual rotten fuel lines today.

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It’s not too bad if you have a couple of pair of hemostats or long bodied needle nose pliers.

PTmowerMech said:

View attachment 68141

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MParr said:

It’s not too bad if you have a couple of pair of hemostats or long bodied needle nose pliers.

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I have a half dozen hemostats. Getting line through the holes is easy. It's just the time to clean the saw up, put new diaphragm in the carb, replace fuel lines and filter, clean and dress the bar and sharpen the chain and clean the clutch. We are at $75 there. If saw doesn't run right how much more time does the cust want to put into the saw when a new one is less than $200? See why shops don't like some equipment? Only reason I am working on this one is because it is for a really good customer.

Hammermechanicman said:

I have a half dozen hemostats. Getting line through the holes is easy. It's just the time to clean the saw up, put new diaphragm in the carb, replace fuel lines and filter, clean and dress the bar and sharpen the chain and clean the clutch. We are at $75 there. If saw doesn't run right how much more time does the cust want to put into the saw when a new one is less than $200? See why shops don't like some equipment? Only reason I am working on this one is because it is for a really good customer.

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You saw what I put into my personal saw. Above ☝
The darned thing runs like a brand new saw.
I wasn’t going to give up on it yet. I just didn’t want to fork out $350+ on a new saw.

Why use the hemostats for two cycle fuel line replacement? I have been replacing these 2 cycle fuel since 2009 with only backbone razor blade and the wire from my repair tags.

Now I have small and large hemostats and a couple pair of surgical sponge type hemostats but I use them for other tasks.

I split the line about an inch and cut off half. I poke the cut end through the hole and grab it with hemostats. Just takes a few seconds to put a line into a tank.

StarTech said:

Why use the hemostats for two cycle fuel line replacement? I have been replacing these 2 cycle fuel since 2009 with only backbone razor blade and the wire from my repair tags.

Now I have small and large hemostats and a couple pair of surgical sponge type hemostats but I use them for other tasks.

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I thought of using monofilament fishing line to pull the fuel lines through.

Hammermechanicman said:

I split the line about an inch and cut off half. I poke the cut end through the hole and grab it with hemostats. Just takes a few seconds to put a line into a tank.

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That’s pretty much how I did it. I angle cut the ends of the line. I then pushed enough through and grabbed it with the hemostats. It went pretty smoothly.

PTmowerMech said:

It all depends on the customer for me. If it's a new customer, and their "throw away" is within a year or two, I'll put a little effort into it. But they know it won't be much.
I'll throw on a new plug, filter & lines. If the carb is bad, I'll put on a new Amazon carb. But I'm not going to rebuild one.
As far as the pull cord, it's got to be easy to replace. Not one of those that has to be completely disassembled first.

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You take a $80-$100 (initially) older trimmer, blower, etc.and it needs a tune up and carburetor clean and new fuel lines. By the time you charge for labor you are around the initial cost, $80-$100. How is that cost effective when you are polishing a turd? Then you do all that and it sort of runs, but just isn’t right. Hard to start, etc. The customer is throwing good money after bad.

MParr said:

That’s pretty much how I did it. I angle cut the ends of the line. I then pushed enough through and grabbed it with the hemostats. It went pretty smoothly.

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The magic stuff is silicon spray makes it slide through so easily
When I break small twist drill I keep them and grind the drill bit off then polish up the shank
This gets poked into the end of the fuel line so there is something to grab on to and push into the tank
I bought 100 pack of grommets from CTS so If it is a real PIA then I just drill out the tank with a cork bore and fit a grommet
so much easier and you ten have an "improvement " you can show off & charge more for .
The 100 pack ended up being about 12¢ ( Aus) including freight & I charge the usual $ 15 retail price of OEM parts .

bertsmobile1 said:

The magic stuff is silicon spray makes it slide through so easily
When I break small twist drill I keep them and grind the drill bit off then polish up the shank
This gets poked into the end of the fuel line so there is something to grab on to and push into the tank
I bought 100 pack of grommets from CTS so If it is a real PIA then I just drill out the tank with a cork bore and fit a grommet
so much easier and you ten have an "improvement " you can show off & charge more for .
The 100 pack ended up being about 12¢ ( Aus) including freight & I charge the usual $ 15 retail price of OEM parts .

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Or, 2 cycle oil.

Tiger Small Engine said:

You take a $80-$100 (initially) older trimmer, blower, etc.and it needs a tune up and carburetor clean and new fuel lines. By the time you charge for labor you are around the initial cost, $80-$100. How is that cost effective when you are polishing a turd? Then you do all that and it sort of runs, but just isn’t right. Hard to start, etc. The customer is throwing good money after bad.

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It's probably a good practice to take in at least $30 for diagnostic fee for everything. Even 2cycle stuff. That pays for the tech to do initial checks, like compression, spark and fuel flow.
Obviously, it doesn't take more than about 10 minutes to check those things. If the equipment has more than 100lbs of compression and the cylinder isn't scarred, then it's usually worth fixing.
I found that a lot of times, the customer simply didn't realize that you have to prime the air out of the carb, or it's just something else pretty simple. Like a bad on/off switch or fuel lines.
The Amazon carbs (which aren't any worse than what they're putting on these cheap models) are usually about $20.

A cheap weed eater at Walmart is now $100 to $150. So if the customer can get theirs running for $50, they'll be satisfied. And you'll pocket $30 for 20 minutes labor.

But, If it's low on compression (less than 100lbs), or or some time consuming issue, most customers understand it's not going to be worth fixing.

What's your number? I will send you all my Ryobi, homelite, Ryan, poulan and craftman customers.
LOL.

Hammermechanicman said:

What's your number? I will send you all my Ryobi, homelite, Ryan, poulan and craftman customers.
LOL.

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There's no need in getting rude about it.

PTmowerMech said:

There's no need in getting rude about it.

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Just having some fun with ya

What you mean getting rude. Hammer just trying to you more business headaches. I can send a whole pickup load too but only for parts. Most are straight gassed.

StarTech said:

What you mean getting rude. Hammer just trying to you more business headaches. I can send a whole pickup load too but only for parts. Most are straight gassed.

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I don't want to headaches. That's why I'm single and not dating.

PTmowerMech said:

I don't want to headaches. That's why I'm single and not dating.

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So you haven't one those weddings and a double funerals yet? Nor have I and I now 65, single, and happy.