Could be a million things MF but often straight fuel is a problem. If it has spark and the plug looks ok try a bit of starter fluid to see if you can get a response out of it
I just got 4 out of the shed on Friday to look at, two ran good after cleaning the fuel tanks out.
Made in China.
My trimmers mostly are carby or fuel related problems , On top of the carby is a little Pac man that you need a special screw driver to adjust the fuel mixture screw if the motor doesn't rev out properly.
You can just put some fuel down the spark plug hole to see if it runs.
Norm should get two strokes from my area , hardly ever get straight fuelled ones.
Yet another example of the chinese junk Victa unloads to unwitting consumers.
I have no idea what supplier they used for these but how they managed to make a $220 trimmer worse that the pope and sanli ones you got for $99 is beyond me. its the same base engine.
The fuel cap is a massively common issue - replacement about $20 and it will last 5 years.
Have seen the results of a couple now where the flywheel physically exploded - taking out the starter, wiring, coil, starter cup (and presumably the operator needing a new pair of pants)
carby is standard knockoff walbro, plastics pretty nasty, pull starters weak
check for spark - the plug boots are crap and will partially short and conduct spark to the cylinder head (or your hand if you touch it - ask me how i know)
I can't be bothered with snippers these days unless it is a simple fix. If people bring one here I just say to them I will spend 5 mins on it and if it is not a simple obvious fix I just say to them sorry I can't fix it. Too easy to end up spending hours on them and still end up with no joy.
I'm the same Norm, the furthest I will go is throw on fuel lines and a carby diaphragm (20 mins). its all most are worth unless like new.
especially when you factor in the general quality of customer interested in cheap trimmers
I had 40 at one point and have thinned that down considerably. But the struggle in selling most of them is not worth the effort. I ended up telling half the people who i could tell a mile away were going to be a pain that it was sold, then take the ad down, put another trimmer up in a few days when I figured they would have already bought one.
Kept a few of the ones I like and bought a 322l husqvarna. Light as anything and you don't have to split the bloody thing in half to fix a lot of it like the 120 series
I have been busy with other stuff for the last few months but once I get time to get back to mowers I will only bother with Deutschers, Victa 24's and the occasional Ariens, the rest is just not worth wasting time on
I fitted this motor onto it. It starts and revs at first but then falters and stalls as it heats up. I tried turning out the screw pictured a quarter of a turn at a time which helped at half a turn but would then do the same thing. Is it a blocked jet?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF, thats the auxiliary top speed mix screw - you probably need to richen the idle and variable jet side up - if you look at the top of the carby, on the rotating part there will be a brass centre. deep down the hole is a little mixture screw. given the age of the machine it should be a plain flat head. if its a mini pacman head, you will need a tool. then they came out with mini single and double D heads and now they are using a-circle mini heads.
sometimes there is a rubber bung filling the hole - flick it out. sometime there is a plastic bung pressed deep down it - head up the tip of a jewellers screwdriver, plunge it into the plastic then let it cool and pull the bung out.
Other times its glued in with epoxy - remove the whole brass jet block (larger flat head around the small hole) soak it in petrol for a few days to melt the epoxy filling the screw head.
Sometimes the factory coats the threads in threadlocker as well so the fuel doesn't work, hold it in vicegrips and heat with a butane torch. with the epoxy liquid, unscrew the mix screw completely try to clean up the threads with carby cleaner and a brass brush.
the correct setting is around 12-14 turns from lightly seated
Righto Tyler, found this screw I turned it until I felt it start to stop. A total of 4 turns as seen on the counter I used to keep track.
Before this, I tried turning it out a little at a time from the original 4 turns out I found it in, but made it worse if anything by a complete turn anti clock wise (5 turns from seated).
What do I do now. Lucky this is an older model before all the restrictive nonsense.
Anything I should do with the auxilliary high speed screw as well?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I think I may have found the issue. The fuel line was badly creased so I set about replacing it. The tygon fuel line I had was a challenge to get through the holes in the tank grommet. I got there in the end after much wrestling.
I pumped some carby cleaner through the primer. Mistake as the bulb disintegrated and had to rummage for a spare that would fit.
Will try it out tomorrow.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I've watched people struggle to get the fuel hose into the tank before , the correct way is to cut the hose much longer than it needs to be or use a full length and cut the end of the hose on an angle before pushing it into the hole , then once the hose is in cut the end straight again and put the filter in the end of the hose from the fuel cap end ,then pull the hose so the filter is back in the tank and cut the hose to the correct length to fit the carby fuel pipe fitting.
unfortunately the spare length of line was pretty much the exact length required for the two pieces going into the tank, the one for the fuel draw had about a cm to spare. I did cut both to a point shape but the grommet fell into the tank as I tried pushing it through with pliers. Making the best of the situation, I tried pushing the lines through the grommet while it was out but they just wouldn't, so I thought up the idea of using a length of coathanger wire into the line and then gripping it with pliers and wrestling it through gradually. It was painstakingly slow but I got there on the end. It was a pig pushing the grommet back on, having to resort to trying to hammer it back in with a length of brass rod. Part of the rubber tore off the edge, but this served to allow me to finally push it in.
I happened to have a spare intake filter end for the fuel line so replaced the mangy looking original one.
The machine fired up but still displayed the hesitant behavior when I went to rev it, so I turned out the auxiliary high speed adjusting screw ¼ out and that did the trick and now it runs well. The idle needed some fine adjustments as it went to stall at one time.
I trimmed my front patio and a bit of the rear with flying colours. The manual change head says 3mm only but only had 2.5mm line and it worked well. Will I wear out the alloy using undersize line?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Yep it's always a bit of a problem when the new fuel line is about the same length as the old line and with some old fuel tank rubber grommets going hard and some rubber shrinking , sometimes you need to replace the grommet but probably not worth spending $10. for 5 grommets unless you're fixing a few snippers .The other way is to glue the old grommet in with some Stag Jointing Paste and block the holes in the grommet then drill 2 holes in the top of the tank.
Sometimes after cleaning the fuel tank out and using a clean filter they still run a little rough and just pushing the primer multiple times as the snipper is running is enough to clean the old gummed up fuel out of the carby and they run fine again with no adjustments and then some take a little more work to get running right.
"The manual change head says 3mm only but only had 2.5mm line and it worked well. Will I wear out the alloy using undersize line?"
I assume the 3mm only is for safety issues so the line doesn't flex too much if it's smaller than 3mm , just so it doesn't move around more if smaller and come loose and fly out of the cast alloy head. I'd say the 3mm line will lock in better in the alloy head.
I've got a few of these snippers and you can use an old Ryobi RCT2800A Grass Scorpion Whipper snipper cutting head on a bent shaft snipper that replaces the alloy head or just use the cutter half shaft from another snipper as these join in the middle then you can use a bump head.
The general rule with string trimmer line size is that the tougher the application, the thicker the line needs to be. A larger diameter line increases the power and durability of the line, which leads to less breakage and wear-out
Thinner string requires less power to spin up to speed, and for “just grass”, a . 080 ( 2mm ) is just fine. You can let more string out, and more of the engine's power is available for cutting, as less energy is needed to rotate it.
For light work, such as trimming grass, 0.065″-0.085″ should be sufficient. For thicker grass and weeds, a line in the 0.085″-0.110″ range will get the job done, and for thicker underbrush, anything thicker than 0.110″ will work.
