[klaaar]

This blower is five years old at least. Last year it started acting up - after 10 minutes or so of running at full throttle, it would stall out. My local repair shop cleaned the carb and claimed they had fixed the problem, but they didn't.

We have been using it for the last year: the blower will run for 5 to 30 minutes perfectly, then stall out and can't be re-started unless it sits for 5 to 30 minutes, or more.

The other quirk is that now we can't start it at all, ever, without starting fluid.

Any ideas?

[scott C]

First thought was vapor lock. Check that the gas cap is still breathing. As far as it not starting w/o ether it can or can not be the problem

[trees]

Get a new one

[wcm21967]

Had a few echo products do the same thing my fix it guy said it was a bushing and not worth fixing. if it 5 yrs old you did good with it . if i was going to try any thing with it i would take the screen off the muffler not the whole muffler just the screen some times it just gets pluged up.

[cutntrim]

ditto on the screen

[klaaar]

I bought a new Husqvarna string trimmer years ago that became inoperable after 1 hour of use! Turns out the screen, or 'spark arrestor,' had clogged that quickly. I removed the screen, and the machine is still running today. The problem with my Echo PB has been mysterious- it sure didn't seem like a clogged screen.

Today I removed the fuel tank cap from another Echo backpack blower that is used for parts only. I used this cap to replace the cap on the malfunctioning blower, and I noticed that the replacement cap has a channel cut perpendicular to the threads, whereas the other did not. I'm thinking maybe I had already replaced the cap with a cap from another parts machine.

Anyway, with the replacement cap the blower started without fluid (although stubbornly) and then ran at full throttle for 45 minutes before I turned it off. It started right back up. Seems to me like the problem is solved, knock on wood.

Thanks for the input, guys, especially the vapor lock guess!