It was all going so well

After my last post about repairing my trailer I tried buying epoxy resin and fibreglass mat locally, but after driving around everywhere I eventually gave up. It seems that such items are unknown in this part of the world, or as rare as hens’ teeth anyway. Some places sold fibreglass mat but I couldn’t find anywhere selling either fibreglass (polyester) or epoxy resin, so it seems the sellers (or the buyers at least) at those places have no clue how it’s used.

As usual I ended up ordering what I wanted on the internet – from Germany for goodness sake as no suitable French supplier could be found – so it’ll be days before I get the materials and am able to finish my trailer repair. As this wasn’t wholly unexpected, I already had my next job identified – to hack my grass down to a manageable level so I can use my ride-on mower on it, which is impossible right now as it’s up to thigh height at least ie my waist height, in places!

For this I needed my ‘débroussailleuse’ (brush cutter) which has been waiting to be used again in my tool shed ever since I last used it when I first came onto my land in mid-2021 – I think that was the last time I used it, anyway. And it all started off so well.

I originally bought the machine when I was in my old house and as I knew it was going to get a pasting doing some heavy grass and weed cutting, I didn’t pay a huge amount for it – around 100€ I think at the time. It worked as well as you expect these cheap Chinese machines to ie OK until it stops, and began to prove difficult to start. That was until I swapped out the Chinese spark plug for a high quality one after which the machine actually ran extraordinarily (and unexpectedly) well.

Even today, after putting fresh fuel in its tank and priming its carburettor, it sprang into life after surprisingly few pulls on the starter cord and I spent longer trying to sort out my over-the-shoulder carrying harness than I did getting the engine to run. In no time at all I’d done a fairish area at the bottom of my land adjacent to the caravan and was well pleased with my efforts when I stopped for some lunch.

After lunch I thought that I’d do the area in front of the house facing the road just to make the site look tidier and I’d just started when the machine suddenly and unexpectedly stopped. When I took a closer look I could see that its carburettor was hanging off and that one of its securing screws was missing. That’s the trouble with these high-revving Chinese 2-stroke machines – they don’t Loctite their securing screws and the machines end up shaking themselves to bits.

The first thing that I had to do was remove the air cleaner and the associated parts that covered the screws holding the carburettor on.

Then I could get to the carburettor itself and the one securing screw that remained.

Temporarily I nicked a screw out of the machine’s handlebars just so I could get it back together and ensure that it was still running OK. It all went back together perfectly and soon I was ready to restart it. But would you believe it, when I pulled the starter cord the machine was as solid as a rock. I thought that it had probably seized up from running too lean when the carburettor was in the process of falling off, or that a piston ring had broken.

In any case, I took it all apart again and from the limited amount that I could see through the inlet port, nothing in the cylinder looked to be amiss.

So I put it all back together again and gave the starter cord another pull, but with the same result. The machine was still locked up. Now what to do? Nobody is interested in repairing these cheapoe machines and after what, eight or nine years at least, it didn’t owe me much, so I went into the caravan, did an internet search and ordered another one, this time from a German manufacturer (at least they say so). Trouble is, it’ll take at least a week to be delivered so I’m scuppered with my grass cutting until then.

Afterwards I went back to my existing machine and decided to see if I could turn its crank using a socket on the crankshaft bolt. To do that I had to remove the pull cord mechanism which I noted had also lost two of its securing screws. And what did I find? The crank turned easily and smoothly in both directions and there was also compression.

I couldn’t try starting it as by then I’d drained its tank ready to dispose of the machine at the ‘déchetterie’ but I will do of course, before taking such drastic action. The first thing though, is that I’ll have to get hold of some allen screws of the right size.

Then, who knows, I might be able to continue using it until the new machine arrives. It’ll be handy if I can but I won’t then need to have two of them. I’ll just give this one a clean up and put it up for sale on LeBonCoin where it’ll sell pretty quickly if it’s in full working order as it still looks great for its age 😉