Worth Fixing? Or Trash?

[SierraMtns]

So my friend knows how much I love orange things that are 2-stroke. So he thought of me when he saw this blower in the dumpster at his work. It starts but wont stay running but has great compression. It might need a carb kit. So far it needs fuel lines, filter and part that goes into the tank, shoulder strap and back pad. All those parts are discontinued.

So do you guys think its worth fixing up? Or put it back where I found it?

Thanks

 

[Conquistador3]

It's not worth fixing but... check if it has spark and if the piston is not scored. If so dismantle for parts, otherwise put it back where you found it minus the starter. I always keep those around because you never know when you'll need them.
There's always a market for used ignition modules (especially for equipment with little or no AM parts available) and second-hand leafblower short blocks usually sell well if still in working shape.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Sadly I have had to throw away tons of equipment that now has no value. Buy new and move on. Thanks

 

[diezelsmoke]

As a person who made a living and retired as a mechanic after 40 years, I have a different perspective. If you are a hobbyist and or learning and want to sharpen your skills, these are perfect projects for working on. I sit here and shake my head at folks buying new parts to replace something that just needs to be cleaned up or a little filing or sanding, etc. and listen to them talk about replacing everything since they have it torn down, yada, yada yada. At least take them apart and diagnose what happened, clean up a scratched cylinder, clean up a scratched piston, if it's a 2 stroke practice porting, practice pressure testing, the list goes on. Put it back together with an new set of rings and run it and see what you can get away with!, that is what makes you a great mechanic, knowing what you can get away with, anybody can by new parts and or go buy a new one. If you own a shop ya move on you cant afford to monkey with it, but the hobbyist your gona have a blast!

 

[Gaspowered]

I have that same model blower, it was given to me free about 2 years ago. It was missing the plug boot, air filter cover and all of the blower tubes. Those use Kawasaki 70cc engines and parts are a pain to find. Yours is missing the blower tubes and those are always difficult to acquire. Maybe you could get the carb rebuilt and get it running and sell it as a parts unit.

 

[rarefish383]

My friends dad was a mechanic and parts hoarder. He had a 60X90 garage packed with tractors and FEL’s. When he passed, John started cleaning up and tossed an old Stihl back pack blower out side. Weeds and vines eventually covered it up. A few years later we were cleaning up out side and uncovered it. It had weeds growing out of the foam in the pads. I pulled the starter and it pulled over with good felt compression.. he told me to take it but I figured it was too far gone with weeds growing out of it. Tossed it back on the scrap pile. A few years later a big Poplar fell across his back yard. I milled the log and cut up the wood for a guy at his work. Next time I came over the blower was gone. He said the guy that got the firewood took it. The guy found pads off another junker rebuilt the carb and it ran like new. I know that thing sat in weeds and the scrap pile, outside for ten years, and he resurrected it.

 

[Matt_Ellerbee]

Saved this from dumpster at work, along with a br600. 600 was roached so I made the tube and trigger fit the husky. Gutted the muffler out. It’s no 600, and only marginally better than a handheld, but it does run nice.

 

[Gaspowered]

I like that Uni air filter mod! I will have to try that sometime. I actually find trashed equipment all the time, that's the reason i'm on this site. I found a vintage Troy-Bilt "Mini" cultivator with a Tecumseh TC200 32cc 2-stroke, just sitting underneath a tarp near my house. Sitting next to it was a Bolens MTD/Ryobi BL410 31cc 2 stroke cultivator. They were both frozen solid and the Troy-Bilt was missing its fuel tank. I completely tore down the Troy and all it wasn't terribly corroded, all I did was dump some MMO down the cylinder and broke it free. I did disassemble it though to run everything on the wire wheel. The tank was missing, and believe it or not, I found it buried in the mud about 3 feet from where it lied. I opened it up, and I'll tell you, I get old equipment running all the time, maybe stuff that's sat for 20+ years, and I have NEVER smelled stale fuel like this before. It was so bad I had to take it outside and flush it out. Turns out it was still an okay tank that would hold, so there was 40 bucks I didn't have to spend. The carb was there too, and this thing was a major PITA. It was one of those small Tillotson HU series that are similar to modern Walbro WT carbs, and made made it strange was that it had a "sail governor" to monitor the RPMs, like the ones you see on Briggs engines mounted on generators and air compressors. Had to buy all the tiny little meticulous springs for that. Rebuilt that funky carb, new fuel line and plug, and off it went! The Bolens was extremely corroded, so bad that it rotted out a hole in the crankcase. Same story as the Troy, I got it running too, but I ended up replacing the engine with a Craftsman 31cc Brushcutter engine. Both of these were apparently bought at a yard sale probably 17 years ago, and they just sat there, and I never noticed them. There's free junk everywhere! Try to grab as much of it as you can!

 

[Justin Taylor]

Saved this from dumpster at work, along with a br600. 600 was roached so I made the tube and trigger fit the husky. Gutted the muffler out. It’s no 600, and only marginally better than a handheld, but it does run nice.

still got the broken 600?

 

[Matt_Ellerbee]

still got the broken 600?

Yes.