My BR 600 let out a cough today and died. Now it will not start. It's getting spark and gas, but feels like it's got no compression. The valves were re-set at the dealer near the end of last season. Anyone else ever have this problem? I'm thinking the intake valve may have stuck open. I guess I'll have to try to find a repair manual for it.
Well if it's the valve, it should be underneath the valve cover...? Not trying to get smart with you, but I just had a similar issue with a brand new Kohler 15hp, and the valve cover is a bit interesting to locate if for no other reason than I haven't a clue (thou it's in your face), but once that came off it was about the same principle as a car. Being that a blower has that vertical turbofan, I would assume it uses a horizontal shaft engine, the spark plug being on top would confirm this, the piston thus moves straight up and down if the blower is sitting flat (as it normally sits) on the ground... Thus, the valve cover should be located near the spark plug, top of the engine, you'll have to remove that big orange cover first, take it from there. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the stupid rope coil start assembly, too (holds part of the cover), 3 bolts. Take your time, and be prepared to run off to a parts store to get some liquid gasket, I had to reseal mine with some heat-resistant pcv junk, but you won't know that until you're into it, either way it's not that bad, maybe 4-8 bolts or nuts, then pry it off carefully... In my case, one of the nuts that holds the rocker arm had come off... I put mine back together but it takes 24 hours for the junk to cure, so I'm not starting it till tomorrow, hopefully it will hold up. It just gets to that point you got nothing to lose, if you can't find anything out of place then put it back together or keep digging.
Sorry to hear about your blower. It seems that there are alot of posts like this about Stihl 4 mix...When you drop $400 or $500 for a piece of equipment, you want it to be reliable. My Shindaiwa eb630's are abused daily nearly year round...other than a few little inconveniences, they are trouble free.
If its about 1 1/2 years old get it to the dealer TODAY!!!!!! Mine did the same thing, and they had some trouble with the valves on some of the older ones. It broke a valve spring and wrecked the valve in the process. Anyway, they are sending me a brand new unit. It all depends if your serial number is included in this. Mine was out of warranty. But find out today because they arent doing this anymore after April 1st.
Got my new blower today. How can you beat that. Bought it 10/05, it blew up last week way out of warranty and I get a brand new one to slowly destroy.
Well, got the estimate of $335 to fix the BR 600 today. Seems the intake valve is carboned up and the flywheel key has screwed up. I told the shop to order the parts and I'll fix it myself. A new one costs $750 plus tax (remember, I'm in Canada, where they don't give these things away like they do in the U.S.) so I guess it's cheaper to fix this one. I just hope my other blower doesn't pull the same crap.
