Reply To: Howard Rotavator 200 Spares

[sidevalve5]

Great you have a spark. The screeching sound is from the loose ball bearings inside the retractable starter. The fix is to take it apart, clean the dirt out and reassemble DRY. You may have done this already though. The dirt in one of mine has worn the aluminium tracks and balls. Cleaning did help a lot, but it still screeches sometimes and prevents the cord from going back in. A few gentle tugs on the cord and it does rewind. It used to do it after a few minutes work, the cord popped out too, which was a pain as I had to disengage the clutch, walk round to fiddle with it. But now, if it does it at all, it’s just after it has started.

A new diaphragm is a must for B&S engines if they do not start. After reassembly I would put your hand over the carb inlet and give it a few pulls. Then look inside the carb, you should see some petrol at the bottom. It shows the diaphragm has pulled up the fuel into the little reservoir in the tank and then the main jet has pulled it into the carb. Once the engine is warm, the coke off and the air filter refitted, you can tune it with the needle valve on the main jet. By ear you can find the ‘sweet spot’ between rich and weak. If you are going to use it for hard work, would screw the valve out by 1/8th turn.

Grahame