[thedoc]

I fixed my Weed Eater today. Several years ago my wife brought home a Weed Eater to trim up some of the weeds that are growing up around the house, since years before, Gypsy Moths killed many of the big trees that were shading out the undergrowth. My wife brought it home and after a few days was getting antsy to use it. I was inside and I heard her outside starting the Weed Eater. Then I heard it going putt - putt - putt, and sure enough when I went and looked, here she was very slowly trimming the weeds with the Weed eater idling along. I asked her if I could try it and when she gave it to me I used the trigger to rev the engine up, cutting the weeds much faster. When I looked at her she gave me a dirty look and then I showed her the trigger for the throttle, She called me a smart ass.

Yesterday I was using it to trim some weeds along the driveway, and the head stopped spinning, the engine was still running, but it wasn't turning the head. I figured it was either a broken drive cable or stripped gears, so I let it cool down and then took the head apart. It had a pair of bevel gears and they were stripped, but I could see that if I cleaned them up and shimmed them closer together they would work OK. Today i cleaned up the gears with a file and went to the hardware store and bought several washers. First I put a brass washer in that was .055" thick, but that was too much, I couldn't start the engine. I measured the original steel washer and it was .060" so I kept the brass washer and substituted a steel washer that was .050" thick, and that was enough, I was able to start the engine and the Weed eater is working again.