Had an old corded electric weedeater for probably over 20 years that is old and tired. I started looking for a gas powered trimmer and picked up a free Shindaiwa off FB marketplace. Was told it was
grandpa's old trimmer that's been sitting for a while. When I picked it up, the pull cord had compression, the head barely turned, and the engine was caked with grease and grime. Air filter foam disintegrated when I touched it. It had a Champion CJ8 spark plug. When I first got home I squirted some fuel into the carb throat and it ran briefly; a good sign! The fuel bulb was actually intact. I took things apart and cleaned out the tank and put fresh fuel but could not get to start even though it primed.
Did some research and it seems this Shindaiwa is a T230X from around 2007-2008 with an S230 EPA engine from probably the tail end of Shindaiwa production before their merger with Echo. It has a Walbro WYL-26A rotating barrel carb so I ordered a generic K20-WYL carb repair kit. Finally got a chance yesterday to tear down the carb. I recently rebuilt two ZAMA RB- K75/70 carbs from Echo SRM-210 trimmers and found those carbs were pretty simple to rebuild. This Walbro WYL carb is differently designed than the Zama. The carb separates into 3 sections: main body, fuel pump/metering, and the priming chamber. I used the 2 diaphrams and 3 gaskets from the kit, the new o-ring to the air cleaner/carb, new fuel inlet needle, and fuel screen. I soaked the main carb body in B-12 and carefully sprayed out the passages of the pump body with carb cleaner. Put everything back together and initially I was unsuccessful with getting it to run. After I squirted some fresh fuel into the throat and a few pulls, the engine finally fired and amazingly continued running! It was smoking a bit running the cheap Powercare 50:1 canned fuel from Home Cheapo. Switched over to E0 with Echo Red Armor oil 50:1 and it barely smokes and screams on WOT. My next task is to swap out the aluminum trimmer head. One difference is the Shindaiwa uses a female thread on the gearbox whereas the Echos have a male threaded gearbox output.
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