Husqvarna 125L string trimmer.

[JTK]

I've had this trimmer for about 12yrs and it's been flawless for me. About mid season last year I noticed it would leave a little puddle of fuel at times and began to bog down and stall intermittently, but would restart.

First use this year, the stalling was obnoxious, but I didn't notice fuel leakage. Pulled the plug and it was very hot and dry. Yikes! I pulled and replaced the carb with a $12 eBay special. Buttoned it up today with the replacement carb and had fuel leakage when I primed it and it would barely run at all. Dry-ish sparkplug again..

Pulled the carb again to find a cracked fuel line, that was most likely my problem all along! This model uses a molded once piece black rubber fuel line/tank grommet assembly where the hoses are kind of ribbed/bellows style, so it hides small cracks if you don't inspect it closely.

Now waiting on a $15 fuel grommet assembly.

 

[andyd]

I had exactly the same experience with grommets and the primer bulb on my 322L. I don't really use the bulb. The Chinese carb has adjustable jets. The black fuel line has little resistance to E10. It turns to mush in a few yrs. Got the parts from E-bay.

 

[OneEyeJack]

I've switched to the canned fuel from Home Depot. My string trimmer uses so little that the higher cost per gallon does not amount to much.

My trimmer runs better and now I never have to adjust the carb. What's not to like about that.

 

[JTK]

For the past 3yrs or so, a gas station in town has offered an "ethanol free" pump which is a first for my area in like 30yrs. All these years we've had nothing but E10.

Regardless of what fuel you use, I still believe all soft rubber/plastic parts that are in contact with fuel, will degrade over time (fuel lines, primer bulbs, carb parts, etc). For OPE anyway.. Nothing you can do. Lots of nasties in gasoline of any flavor.

 

[BrianF]

Glad you figured it out and thanks for sharing!


I usually mix up 5 liters or 50:1 in the spring and have it used up by the fall. Dose it with stabil and it seems to run ok. I now just run canned fuel in my chainsaw as I now only need it periodically. Hopefully avoid those pesky carb problems.....

 

[boraticus]

JTK:

Is there any way you could have cut the line from the grommet and opened the hole in the grommet to take a piece of thin fuel line? Possibly stretching the hole open or drilling it out just enough to make a tight fit around the new piece of fuel line.

I've got similar set ups on various pieces of equipment all way out in the bush. When something goes wrong out there, one must improvise.

 

[JTK]

Yes, you sure could. Other trimmers I've worked on are designed as such. I had no applicable fuel line at home at the time to try it. In fact, the same day I ordered the replacement fuel line grommet assembly, I ordered a batch of various small OPE sized fuel line spools online to have on hand.

 

[AMC]

Originally Posted By: JTK
For the past 3yrs or so, a gas station in town has offered an "ethanol free" pump which is a first for my area in like 30yrs. All these years we've had nothing but E10.

Regardless of what fuel you use, I still believe all soft rubber/plastic parts that are in contact with fuel, will degrade over time (fuel lines, primer bulbs, carb parts, etc). For OPE anyway.. Nothing you can do. Lots of nasties in gasoline of any flavor.


I agree 100%.

Ethanol seems to degrade the rubber bits a little faster than ethanol free gas but it still happens either way.

I just got done replacing all the fuel lines on my Poulan Pro (made by husqvarna) chainsaw for the same reason. The factory fuel lines looked like regular clear, vinyl tubing and were all cloudy and split. I replaced all of them with Tygon 4040-A. That material should last longer than the measly two years I got out of the factory lines.