Strimmer petrol leak

[Tim Downie]

My McCulloch two-stroke strimmer has started leaking fuel though the breather in the filler cap.

It seems to have started whilst it was in storage over winter but I didn't really twig to the problem until I had to top up its tank and found it dripping continuously through the vent plug.

I guess I just need a new cap but any ideas as to why it should have started leaking in the first place? There are no cracks and the O-ring is intact. The fuel is definitely coming through the central breather plug.

Tim

[A.Clews]

Thus spake Tim Downie ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

Perhaps you should consider storing the strimmer such that the filler cap is pointing upwards. I would think it's asking for trouble to store it with the filler cap - and hence the breather - below the fuel. I have a McCulloch strimmer and I store it with the fuel tank topmost. No leakage problems here.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Tim Downie laid this down on his screen :

If this is while it is in use....

Could it be the fuel which is being agitated to the point where it is able to splash up and out of the vent. There should be some sort of baffle to prevent this and encourage the fuel to drain back down into the tank. Is the baffle missing?

[Tim Downie]

No. I happens if I just tip the strimmer so that the fuel covers the filler cap.

I had a quick google for McCulloch spares but could find filler caps. Anyone know of a site selling filler caps?

Tim

[Harry Bloomfield]

In that case I would suspect the filler itself is not sealing properly, I think the cap needs to seal to enable the breather to work as designed. We had a plastic filler cap on a plastic tank (lawnmower). The cap would tighten up, but binding on its threads due to distortion, it would not screw down all the way to the O ring seal.

[Tim Downie]

Nope. Please re-read.

Tim

[david.hamer2]

ther in the filler cap.It seems to have started whilst it was in storage ov er winter but I didn't really twig to the problem until I had to top up its tank and found it dripping continuously through the vent plug.I guess I ju st need a new cap but any ideas as to why it should have started leaking in the first place? There are no cracks and the O-ring is intact. The fuel is definitely coming through the central breather plug.Tim

hi if you take the cap off and have a look inside see if there is a rubber tea t in the middle of the cap i had the same thing somehow mine went missing.

[Bill]

In message , Phil L writes

Of course, one might expect someone on a d-i-y group to set about creating a web portal to the group that works, as opposed to letting some dubious operator somewhere beyond Timbuktu cream off advertising revenue on the backs of the worthy posters here.

[Tim+]

Having looked at one of these portals, it seems that the site randomly promotes an ancient thread as as "top question" or some other guff as a way of generating traffic out of old messages.

Sadly, these sites don't then rank threads by "most recent reply" but by date of first post which means that any of our responses are almost certainly lost in the mists of time as you need to go back to the date of the original post to see the response rather than seeing it as a recent post.

All in all, totally f***ed up and no use to man nor beast.

Well they do seem to be reducing in frequency so maybe it's working? ;-)

Tim

[Edwin Briggs]

replying to Tim Downie, Edwin Briggs wrote: I think you will find that the problem is with the fuel cap being a bad fit. I have great difficulty getting the cap to screw on properly.

[Davey]

I think he might have fixed it by now.

"posted on May 30, 2008, 10:51 pm"

[Tim+]

Indeed! Bought a new cap from ebay and it's been fine ever since.

Tim