Weeeater piston ring.

[PaPaPeng]

Okay. I broke it where there is a half round notch to fit the pin in the piston ring groove. The ring fits quite well as broken of course but without the springiness of a complete ring. Is it Okay if I run the engine with a broken piston ring? I am having a problem sourcing the piston ring Weedeater model TE400 CXL.

I originally bought a returned new Weedeater at $40 off. The clutch was stuck and that's easy to fix. Thereafter it ran with difficulty, cutting out unless the mixture was rich and it ran at full throttle. Cleaned it but after that it won't even start unless there was excess two stroke oil and it leaked the gas/oil bad. Now I see why the last owner had a stuck clutch. There isn't much to a two stroke engine so I took it fully apart this time. I found the problem. Somewhere during assembly the cylinder head wasn't screwed down tight to the crankcase. The gasket seal had loosened and not enough fuel mix was fed to the combustion chamber. During reassembly, it was late at night and the garage light was poor, I tightened a hose ring to wrap the piston ring flush so that I could slip it back into the cyliner head. I didn't notice that the ring had slipped so that it rested on the groove's locating pin. Snapped it.

[DanG]

If you find a source, I'd sure like to know. I have been through this with Target and Stihl. They will only sell a full kit with a new piston, ring, and cylinder. Both times I would have been happy to gamble on a ring(s) only to get an old beast running. Of course the cost of the kit exceeds the value of the used tool. I don't even know that it would be cost beneficial on a fairly new tool.

[BobK207]

I would suggest calling Poulan Weedeater & telling them your story about buying areturn that was incorrectly assembled at the factory.

I'll bet they send you a piston ring.

But..........

checkout this page

select Poulan Weedeater & work your way down through the model number / part number selections

I got down to TE400 CXL but there were 4 different types

I selected type 1 & got a preice of $2.19 for a piston ring

cheers Bob

[Meat Plow]

Locate someone who repairs them and get a replacement. Why did you pull the jug off if the bolts were just loose? Doesn't make sense.

[PaPaPeng]

To clean up the oi/gas mess in the recesses. Lawn work would soon build up a thick crud otherwise. Also to remove the thick red-ish deposit of sandpaper like oxide on the cylinder head. Did that with a Dremel wire brush attachment. Lesson here is not to work on unfamilair reassembly when the light is bad and I am tired. That was an easily avoidable mistake.

[PaPaPeng]

Thanks. I couldn't find the online OEM parts list because I didn't know it was a Poulan. At under $10 its cheap enough to order online. I'll try the local lawnmower repair shop first come Monday.

[Meat Plow]

Not to nitpick but the head comes off without removing the jug and you could have cleaned the exterior without removing it either. And yes don't work on stuff without lots of light. By the way I've busted piston rings the same way before. Used to race dirt bikes (back when they were all 2 stroke) did all my own work except for cylinder wall honing.