Got a free John Deere RCS400 trimmer

[volk06]

I got a free john deere RCS400 trimmer this past weekend. It starts after some trying but then idles rough and bogs down when I go to give it some throttle and will eventually die. There is a lot of oil on/around the engine so I'm willing to bet the PO went heavy on the oil/gas ratio. Looks like this is a homelite trimmer.

I'm getting a new spark plug, carb rebuild kit, air filter, a good deep cleaning and re-string the head. This is less than $20 so hopefully it make it good as new. I already a 1 year old stihl FS56 RC-E so not sure what I'm gonna do with this bad boy yet.

 

[simplistic]

Check the spark arrester in the muffler also. With that much oil coming out of the unit I would say the screen is carbon up severely witch would also cause the symptoms you are seeing. With the screen carboned up there is excessive back pressure slowly shutting the engine down.

 

[3800Series]

I remember once a few years back I had this old mower. Thing worked fine for the most part but it took along time to keep it running. It would stall out a few time every single time then eventually run find. Rare cases it would stall whole mowing but that's not the point.

I poured in a large amount (compared to the correct mix for the size of the tank) of Berryman b12 Chem tool.

It removed the rough start and stalling after a few tanks.

Might try the cheap and easy fix first

 

[tomcat27]

From your posting title I thought you were giving one away

 

[Smcatub]

Originally Posted By: tomcat27
From your posting title I thought you were giving one away


Me too! I opened this thread to claim my free trimmer!

 

[volk06]

Originally Posted By: simplistic
Check the spark arrester in the muffler also. With that much oil coming out of the unit I would say the screen is carbon up severely witch would also cause the symptoms you are seeing. With the screen carboned up there is excessive back pressure slowly shutting the engine down.


Yes indeed I'm planning on doing that during my deep cleaning. Should I just use carb/choke cleaner on it? Also what should i use to clean the piston/exhaust port if I see carbon build up?