Okay. I broke it where there is a half round notch to fit the pin in
the piston ring groove. The ring fits quite well as broken of course
but without the springiness of a complete ring. Is it Okay if I run
the engine with a broken piston ring? I am having a problem sourcing
the piston ring Weedeater model TE400 CXL.

I originally bought a returned new Weedeater at $40 off. The clutch
was stuck and that's easy to fix. Thereafter it ran with difficulty,
cutting out unless the mixture was rich and it ran at full throttle.
Cleaned it but after that it won't even start unless there was excess
two stroke oil and it leaked the gas/oil bad. Now I see why the last
owner had a stuck clutch. There isn't much to a two stroke engine so
I took it fully apart this time. I found the problem. Somewhere
during assembly the cylinder head wasn't screwed down tight to the
crankcase. The gasket seal had loosened and not enough fuel mix was
fed to the combustion chamber. During reassembly, it was late at
night and the garage light was poor, I tightened a hose ring to wrap
the piston ring flush so that I could slip it back into the cyliner
head. I didn't notice that the ring had slipped so that it rested on
the groove's locating pin. Snapped it.

If you find a source, I'd sure like to know. I have been through
this with Target and Stihl. They will only sell a full kit with
a new piston, ring, and cylinder. Both times I would have been
happy to gamble on a ring(s) only to get an old beast running. Of
course the cost of the kit exceeds the value of the used tool. I
don't even know that it would be cost beneficial on a fairly new
tool.

--
______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"PaPaPeng" wrote in message
...


Okay. I broke it where there is a half round notch to fit the
pin in
the piston ring groove. The ring fits quite well as broken of
course
but without the springiness of a complete ring. Is it Okay if I
run
the engine with a broken piston ring? I am having a problem
sourcing
the piston ring Weedeater model TE400 CXL.

I originally bought a returned new Weedeater at $40 off. The
clutch
was stuck and that's easy to fix. Thereafter it ran with
difficulty,
cutting out unless the mixture was rich and it ran at full
throttle.
Cleaned it but after that it won't even start unless there was
excess
two stroke oil and it leaked the gas/oil bad. Now I see why the
last
owner had a stuck clutch. There isn't much to a two stroke
engine so
I took it fully apart this time. I found the problem.
Somewhere
during assembly the cylinder head wasn't screwed down tight to
the
crankcase. The gasket seal had loosened and not enough fuel mix
was
fed to the combustion chamber. During reassembly, it was late
at
night and the garage light was poor, I tightened a hose ring to
wrap
the piston ring flush so that I could slip it back into the
cyliner
head. I didn't notice that the ring had slipped so that it
rested on
the groove's locating pin. Snapped it.

On Jul 6, 11:28 pm, PaPaPeng wrote:
Okay. I broke it where there is a half round notch to fit the pin in
the piston ring groove. The ring fits quite well as broken of course
but without the springiness of a complete ring. Is it Okay if I run
the engine with a broken piston ring? I am having a problem sourcing
the piston ring Weedeater model TE400 CXL.

I originally bought a returned new Weedeater at $40 off. The clutch
was stuck and that's easy to fix. Thereafter it ran with difficulty,
cutting out unless the mixture was rich and it ran at full throttle.
Cleaned it but after that it won't even start unless there was excess
two stroke oil and it leaked the gas/oil bad. Now I see why the last
owner had a stuck clutch. There isn't much to a two stroke engine so
I took it fully apart this time. I found the problem. Somewhere
during assembly the cylinder head wasn't screwed down tight to the
crankcase. The gasket seal had loosened and not enough fuel mix was
fed to the combustion chamber. During reassembly, it was late at
night and the garage light was poor, I tightened a hose ring to wrap
the piston ring flush so that I could slip it back into the cyliner
head. I didn't notice that the ring had slipped so that it rested on
the groove's locating pin. Snapped it.

I would suggest calling Poulan Weedeater & telling them your story
about buying areturn that was incorrectly assembled at the factory.

I'll bet they send you a piston ring.

But..........

checkout this page

http://www.ordertree.com/ModelInfo.asp

select Poulan Weedeater & work your way down through the model
number / part number selections

I got down to TE400 CXL but there were 4 different types

I selected type 1 & got a preice of $2.19 for a piston ring

cheers
Bob

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:35:38 -0400, Meat Plow
wrote:

Locate someone who repairs them and get a replacement. Why did you pull
the jug off if the bolts were just loose? Doesn't make sense.


To clean up the oi/gas mess in the recesses. Lawn work would soon
build up a thick crud otherwise. Also to remove the thick red-ish
deposit of sandpaper like oxide on the cylinder head. Did that with a
Dremel wire brush attachment. Lesson here is not to work on
unfamilair reassembly when the light is bad and I am tired. That was
an easily avoidable mistake.

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 09:06:54 -0000, BobK207
wrote:

On Jul 6, 11:28 pm, PaPaPeng wrote:
Okay. I broke it where there is a half round notch to fit the pin in
the piston ring groove. The ring fits quite well as broken of course
but without the springiness of a complete ring. Is it Okay if I run
the engine with a broken piston ring? I am having a problem sourcing
the piston ring Weedeater model TE400 CXL.

I originally bought a returned new Weedeater at $40 off. The clutch
was stuck and that's easy to fix. Thereafter it ran with difficulty,
cutting out unless the mixture was rich and it ran at full throttle.
Cleaned it but after that it won't even start unless there was excess
two stroke oil and it leaked the gas/oil bad. Now I see why the last
owner had a stuck clutch. There isn't much to a two stroke engine so
I took it fully apart this time. I found the problem. Somewhere
during assembly the cylinder head wasn't screwed down tight to the
crankcase. The gasket seal had loosened and not enough fuel mix was
fed to the combustion chamber. During reassembly, it was late at
night and the garage light was poor, I tightened a hose ring to wrap
the piston ring flush so that I could slip it back into the cyliner
head. I didn't notice that the ring had slipped so that it rested on
the groove's locating pin. Snapped it.

I would suggest calling Poulan Weedeater & telling them your story
about buying areturn that was incorrectly assembled at the factory.

I'll bet they send you a piston ring.

But..........

checkout this page

http://www.ordertree.com/ModelInfo.asp

select Poulan Weedeater & work your way down through the model
number / part number selections

I got down to TE400 CXL but there were 4 different types

I selected type 1 & got a preice of $2.19 for a piston ring

cheers
Bob


Thanks. I couldn't find the online OEM parts list because I didn't
know it was a Poulan. At under $10 its cheap enough to order online.
I'll try the local lawnmower repair shop first come Monday.