It's my hedge trimmer. A relatively new, lightly used, well maintained Husqvarna. I was doing the hedge at the MIL's and ran it out of gas. After filling, priming and restarting, when I open the throttle it bogs and turns off. It seems like fuel starvation; however, when I close the choke and open the throttle the same thing happens. I figured air so I primed some more. No luck. It will start fine, idle fine, and run with the slightest amount of throttle, but any more and it dies.


Any ideas?

 

sounds like carb adjustment to me

 

Were you at wide open throttle when you ran out of gas? It may have been running lean to start with and when you ran out of fuel it may scored the cylinder. Does it feel as though it has as much compression? I hope that is not it, I hope you just picked up some garbage on the fuel filter. You should be able to check the filter by draining the fuel out of the tank and reaching in the tank with a small wire with hook and pulling it out. The fuel filter is on the end of the pick up tube.

 

Could be the diaphragm in the carburetor (a common problem).

Have you been running gas with ethanol? I had to replace the fuel line/pickup in my Husqvarna string trimmer after ethanol digested them for me.

 

Ah, lean burn; great theory, but I think not as is starts and idles very easy. I never run it hard; just barely above idle.

I didn't think about a plugged fuel filter (what is that, a 'stone' at the end of the pickup?) but I'll pull it out and have a look.

As far as the ethanol goes, well yes - I'm too lazy to drive the miles to the station that has no alcohol in their gas. So there is a diaphragm pump in these carbs? I'll have to take it apart and see; however, I have much older Husky equipment that has been running on the same fuel for many more years.

So, I'll take these suggestions and come back with my findings. Thanks guys.

 

if its gravity feed fuel tank just pull line off carb 2 check,,,daphram carb buy the rebuild kit if your going to open the carb,,,some older carbs have idle adjustment screw and full throttle adjustment,,,,some newer carbs no adjustment ,,,doesnt cost anything to turn screw

 

Herman,
If it is something like your hedge trimmer that doesn't get used all day every day I would suggest using non ethanol premix like Husqvarna 50:1, Stihl MotoMix, Truefuel or VP Small Engine Fuel.

This stuff will last at least two years without gumming up, is high octane with low aromatics (smells a lot like toluene or benzene) blended with high quality synthetic oil.
You can get quarts for around $7 at the big box store or any power equipment dealer.

Yes, it is expensive compared to a gallon of gas and a splash of cheap outboard oil, but it is a lot less than buying new garden tools every year.
How much will you really use in your hedge clipper?

At the very least, I run this in all my power equipment at end of season, or my chainsaws at the end of a job.
I never have a problem getting the weed wacker started 5 months later.

As was said above, it is best to not to run a two stroke entirely out of gas.

 

Bad fuel is the cause. Buy a new one, $99 on Amazon. Hate to say it but they are another throwaway item in our throwaway society.

 

If you run it that low all the time, you should also check your spark arrester to make sure it isn't carboned up and plugged.

 

 

 

Outboard 2-strokes are the exception to this rule, water-cooled and running much cooler than little air-cooled 2-strokes the TCW-3 marine oil has much better residual properties in this instance and it is perfectly safe to run the fuel bowls dry on a outboard at idle speed while waiting to trailer the boat out of the lake........Which allows you to run the crappy ethanol gas without worry.........If it's not sitting in the carb between uses, it's not screwing things up.

 

i was on wrong page sorry folks

 

I guess I should have qualified my statment.
I thought this thread was about air cooled garden tools.

Watercooling does SO much to stabilize engine temperatures.
Going from an RD 400 to an RZ 350 was a revelation to me, back in the day...

I always thought everyone knows 2-strokes run their best right before they seize.

 

I just spend the extra 70 or 80 cents a gallon for 91 octane no ethanol gas for all my small engines, from the boat to the weed wacker.