On 10/18/2020 9:32 AM, J wrote:
So, this is due to my own stupidity, but I believe I've seized (or mostly seized) the engine on my leaf blower. This group seems about 90% off topic these days, but maybe some of y'all are still answering repair questions, so I've come to find out if it's possibly salvageable.

Because of back problems, I hadn't used my leaf blower in a couple of years, but was feeling up to it this year. Due to a fit of stupidity and just not thinking, for some reason I believed it took straight gas instead of a mixture of gas/oil. And for some even dumber reason, I didn't bother to confirm this suspicion.

After a couple of (small) tankfuls of gas, it conked out. I left it to cool down for a while and came back to it and the pull-cord would not pull at all. I took it partially apart and was able to spin the engine by hand, which loosened up the pull-cord. Now I can pull the cord and it will spin, but not start. The spinning is not smooth, it catches a little at one point in the rotation.

It was at about this point that it dawned on me what I had done (not too quick on the uptake). My question is, is it junk at this point and should I list this in the column of lessons learned the hard way, or since it will rotate and slightly catch at one place, is there a way to lubricate the engine and get it going again (and fill it with the proper mixture of gas/oil this time)?

It''s a green Hitachi (RB24EAP I think), maybe about 3 years old. Thanks

-J


That hard spot in the rotation might be where the piston ring seized
.... if it was me (and I love to resurrect lost causes) and I couldn't
get it to fire after putting some gas in the spark plug hole I'd toss it
and get another . Especially if original cost was less than a hundred
bucks . My new line trimmer is a Stihl , entry level commercial unit . A
little over 300 bucks but it's probably going to be the last one I buy .
I was buying cheap every other year so if this lasts 8 years I come out
even .
--
Snag