Homelite blower

[lefty]

A neighbor dropped off a homelite blower that was working fine until it didn't.

Homelite Model: UT09526
S/N: EU14062D010646

Not getting spark. There doesn't appear to be a kill wire attached to the ignition module on this one. My guess is that when you turn the throttle all the way down, it just chokes fuel off 100% to stop it? The last bit of throttle movement works against some spring pressure. I watched a video on disassembling it and did not see a kill wire going from the ignition coil to ground. And there's no switch on it anywhere or any starting instructions that specify a switch.

This is my first time tackling an ignition problem on this type of maching so this is new to me.

My guess is that if I have no spark, I have a bad ignition module?

Thanks

[Skywatcher]

Hi Lefty

This looks like an el-cheapo Chinese made unit and Partstree says a new coil is less than $15.00 US. My guess is it will be more in labor to change the coil than the coil actually costs. On a machine like this, the usual diagnostic procedure is to replace the module with a known good one and check for spark. Now you have to ask yourself and your neighbor if the unit is worth putting in the time to run the diagnostic. All the best,

Sky

[lefty]

Thank you.

[lefty]

I disassembled this today and it appears as if they must have sucked up some type of party favor through the intake fan. Maybe a mylar balloon or some streamers. They material was wrapped around the crank shaft under the flywheel as well as the shaft under the fan. It kind of welded itself to the spacer, which is like a 2 inch long busing that slips over the shaft.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s6S0K1Qirz6rO0jVHTJ2OJ6kRuhjKH54/view?usp=sharing

Since this material appears metalic in a way, could this have shorted out my ignition coil?

Thanks.

[Skywatcher]

Hi Again

In a word, no. The back half of the blower housing works like a firewall to protect the engine from anything the blower might ingest. The only way that anything like this could kill the ignition module is if the material worked its way along the spacer tube back to the flywheel, got through the fan blades on the flywheel and physically cut through the plastic module housing exposing and damaging the internal windings or cut through the sparkplug lead and lodged between the conductor and the cylinder. If there is no visible damage on the module, it simply failed.

There is a better chance of damaging the module by pulling the engine over with the plug lead disconnected or pulling the lead off the plug while the engine is running. This causes the high voltage surge of the spark impulse to back-feed into the coil, usually taking out the transistor rendering the module dead. Let us know what you find,

Sky

[lefty]

Thanks. The module and lead are not physically damaged so it must have just failed.