OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Trimmers and Brushcutters Two Stroke Trimmers & Brushcutters Kawasaki whipper snipper line replacement

Hi All,
I'm working on an old Kawasaki TG18 whipper snipper and I really can't work out how the head works.
The grove on the reel suggest that the line should be wound clockwise looking from the top.


It seems there is only one way to put the aluminium gear with spring back in the reel.



The last black piece of plastic goes in nicely..


All seems installed ok and the reel can be turned only in anticlockwise direction.. unfortunately this rewinds the line! I tried to wind the line in the other way around, but in doing this, the reel unfolds by itself when the whipper snipper in running without locking. Nothing can be pushed in/out when the head is installed back on the shaft. Only the reel turns and the small black plastic insert has groves allowing the rotation only in anticlockwise direction looking from the top.

Could anything be worn to the point that the head doesn't work how it is supposed to do?
Can anyone help please!

I know pretty much nothing about these heads Max, but isn't it usual for the head to only turn in the winding-on direction except when you loosen the large locking nut at the bottom of the head, to unlatch it so it can feed one notch, usually with a bit of juggling to make it do so? The main challenge is to get so good at the juggling part that you can get it to feed before the engine clogs itself up and stops. If he lived in modern times, Dante Alighieri would have added an eighth circle to his conception of hell, where poor benighted sinners struggled perpetually to get any useful work out of line trimmers.

You can tell I'm from Italy and this type of head was sold only for the Australian market! Yesterday I found a manual for this machine and everything I did was fine...the only problem is that I didn't realise that you are supposed to release the line by tapping the head on the ground! Quite a clever system actually, you don't need to switch the engine off and manually rotate the head when you need more line!

All of them are either manual unlock (loosen the nut on the bottom, which holds it all together, and rotate the spool with your thumbs in the feed direction) or bump feed like yours. In case you care, yours is the strongest-looking bump feed I've seen. Generally bump feeds are not very durable, but yours looks like an exception. Being a very amateurish user of trimmers, I prefer to use a bump feed - but I prefer to own a manual feed, because I don't expect bump feeds to last.

In general, the better machines have a clutch so that the reel stops when the engine is idling, and that enables you to feed manually without stopping the engine, if you choose.

Hi MaxGara.

I've just dug one of these great little machines out of a junk pile and am having a LOT of trouble with the line head as pictured above. Mine is red though (seems to be the only difference). I have closely looked at your pictures and pulled it apart and put it back together a bunch of times but i cannot get the line to come out either by itself or bumping it on the ground. You said you found a manual for it. Could you please scan the manual for me or at least take a picture of the page with the instructions about the head for me please? Hopefully from that I can understand what the hell I'm doing wrong.

Hi hermee,

Here is a parts list for the head assembly which might help.

I happened to get this video in my recommended the other day.

Yeah those SpeedFeed heads are the dog's bollocks. Was lucky enough that the Shindaiwa T230x that's my main trimmer came with one. Is a dream to use and I'm reminded how vastly superior it is whenever I use someone else's trimmer.

On a sidenote, must say Kawasaki make great trimmers, picked up an old KBL23A from an auction for $10, pulled it apart for basic servicing, started first pull like new. Jumps ahead of my old Echo as my 'backup'.

Hi MaxG

This is an automatic release bump feed head for straight shaft. The metal bit in the middle is the slider. When you bump the head while spinning, will momentarily drops the slider and disengages from the upper ratchet plate which in turns will free-up/slow down and unwind the reel and feed the string out. Possibly the slider 8 teeth doesn't engage with the top ratchet plate due to not enough spring compression/tension. Manually spin the top ratchet counter-clockwise (looking from the gearbox perspective) if it engages with the reel assembly. If not, stretch the spring just enough to engage the slider with the ratchet. Your winding of string and assembly is correct.

CM