Small engine guys, any suggestions on this trimmer?

[Brian]

Have a John Deere line trimmer. S1400, made by homelite. Has been in the garage for years unused because it had cracked fuel lines and other issues. Decided to try and get it running again, for "fun" with my son.

Fuel lines and gas filter have been replaced, they seem tight with no leaks.
New spark plug installed, spark tester used and is showing spark just to be sure
Compression just at or over 90psi which is supposed to be in range.
Using fresh non-ethanol pre-mix 1:50 in a can. The old gas years ago was standard from-the-pump gas manually mixed in a plastic jug that lasted forever (so old, nasty gas) but it ran for years like that
Found a carb kit, soaked in carb cleaner, blew out a couple bits of gunk and rebuilt the carb with the new kit. Carb is C1U-H46 style, kit was RB-82.

I didn't replace the tiny screen as part of the carb rebuild. The old one had some gunk on it that clearly was a problem but I cleaned it out and it looks fine now. There was also a tiny oval welch plug that I also did not replace.

Trimmer won't catch and start, won't even sputter. Leaks a little fuel out the air filter when choked and pull-started 5-10 times (probably flooded at that point I'd assume?)
At one point mid-troubleshooting, it leaked the entire gas contents out overnight, but haven't filled it up completely since then. I'm assuming it must have had some suction or something to drain it completely.

Where should I look next? Maybe the needle isn't seating correctly? Maybe that's why it's leaking too?? Any ideas?

[Mazin]

Have you tore off the head and checked the piston and valve movement? Maybe the jet or a float is sticking, also check your throttle cable. That's all I got it sounds like you have rebuilt the whole thing.

[Jamnanc]

Gotta be the float maybe some buildup there.

[SideShow Bob]

Did you try a little starting fluid into the intake to see if it will fire & run for a short time ? If it doesn't run then, you may have pinched and shorted out the wire from the kill switch when you reassembled everything.

Once you have it firing and running a short time, then you can start working out why the fuel is flooding out.

[Lurch]

What Bob said WD40 will work too

[Great-Kazoo]

Pull the carb, remove needle and inspect for any pitting, then wipe it down with some brake kleen. An AL carb sitting that long has corrosion issues, carb cleaner will not remove. That needle and seat are probably worn enough it's allowing fuel to leak. Have you checked the float? One sitting that long, if your rebuild kit didn't include one should be replaced.

With that many years lying dormant it may have been cheaper to replace it.

[rondog]

With that many years lying dormant it may have been cheaper to replace it.

Truth. Try to find someone that will work on it - good luck.

[Great-Kazoo]

Truth. Try to find someone that will work on it - good luck.

If he was closer i would go through it. . After he does another go through, he should turn the mixture screw in till it stops, then out 1 turn and go from there. Those Zama carbs run around $30-40 new, at least they use to.

[laportecharlie]

Been down this path with a couple of small engines. Best bet is to go to E-Bay or Amazon and buy a replacement carb. They are not expensive. Those little carbs have some really tiny passages in them that are nearly impossible to get clean.

[Brian]

Thanks all. Yep, the carbs are only $30 or so and I might go ahead and just grab another one. But since this was more a chance to teach my son about fixing something yourself vs. trashing something and buying a new one, I wanted to exhaust our options first.
I know we tried a little carb cleaner in the intake early on and it wouldn't spark/sputter but maybe I'll try one more soak with the existing carb and then try that again too tonight. If it doesn't work, I'll just order a new one and swap it out.

Hadn't thought about the kill switch. Didn't touch it on purpose but that doesn't mean we didn't do something on accident.

Side note - anybody have any glove recommendations that don't get eaten up by solvents (carb cleaner). I know many just go bare handed, but I figure for my kid I'll go extra careful, especially when he's young. Ate right through the basic gloves I have in the garage. I'm going to try some of the thicker black nitrile gloves I've got stashed away somewhere.

[Brian]

If he was closer i would go through it. . After he does another go through, he should turn the mixture screw in till it stops, then out 1 turn and go from there. Those Zama carbs run around $30-40 new, at least they use to.

I need to chop those annoying plastic EPA set locks off first. Grumble grumble.

[MarkCO]

The HD, purple or black Nitrile ones hold up to Carb cleaner and brake parts cleaner.

My 13 year old bought a rebuilt mower this summer to make some lawn mowing money. The old guy he bought it from said 90% of problems are from gas sitting in aluminum carbs and going bad. I would nto bet against him. :)