# Sears Craftsmen blower overheating, what gives?



## hevykevy420 (Feb 21, 2008)

Hi all, my first post, I hope the community can help me! I have a handheld craftsmen sears blower/vac about 1.5 years old. I haven't had any problems until recently. First, the pull cord started to not retract so good. Sometimes I'd have to rotate by hand (with the blower off) the fan blade to manually rotate the crankshaft and retract the pull cord. Then, after using the blower for awhile, I put a freshly mixed tank of gas in, and the blower totally seized up, I couldn't pull the cord at all. I've rebuilt and hotrodded motorcycle engines, so I started to disassemble and investigate.

I rewound the metal spring that retracts the cord, and cleaned out some crud in there, and the cord seemed to retract better. Next, I checked the crankshaft/piston/cylinder, and found that the piston was not seized, and after removing the sparkplug exhaust and carb and shooting a bit of lube in there it rotated fine, and I didn't notice any crankshaft play or issues.

So, I thought the mix I bought was bad, or maybe I mixed it too lean. I went out and bought a new bottle of mix and mixed exactly with 1 gallon of premium gas.

The blower continues to run, it has a little struggle to get up to full throttle, then it runs for 5-10 minutes, then it starts to bog down, and I can tell its going to seize so I shut it down. After shut down, I'm getting a little smoke out of the exhaust, and it smells like something is burning. I know this is not good.

So what is going on here? I believe I've ruled out bad gas, the air filter is OK, the spark plug isn't that old, what can I check or do? THANKS!!!


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## jsouth (Jan 31, 2008)

First take the muffler off and check the spark arrester screen in the muffler to see if it is clear,if it clear take your hand and see if you can wiggle the cylinder,to see if the bolts have come loose from the crankshaft housing, craftman blowers are known for this.

Jerry


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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

What model is it?


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## hevykevy420 (Feb 21, 2008)

jsouth said:


> First take the muffler off and check the spark arrester screen in the muffler to see if it is clear,if it clear take your hand and see if you can wiggle the cylinder,to see if the bolts have come loose from the crankshaft housing, craftman blowers are known for this.
> 
> Jerry


Thanks for responding Jerry! I did check the torque on the bolts attaching the cylinder to the housing, they were tight. I'll check the muffler, I didn't think to open it up, but I will check the screen.


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## hevykevy420 (Feb 21, 2008)

hankster said:


> What model is it?


Thanks for your reply Hankster! It is a Crafstman (or crapman : ). THe model number is 358.794963. It has a red plastic housing, and a black outlet tube that says "205mph" on it. Do you need a picture??? i tried to get the sears manual from the website but its asking for a password or something


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## justin3 (Apr 10, 2007)

Im going to come right out and tell you those craftsman blowers are not worth repairing or even working on in my opinion. You will be lucky to get 2 seasons out of them or maybe even 3. You will find many of them with frozen rings and massive exhaust side scoring due to carbon build up around the exhaust port. I've had over 10 of these units and only around 2 were repairable with only carb issues. The rest had low compression or were seized up.


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## geogrubb (Jul 28, 2006)

It looks like the normal Craftsman Blower which is a Poulan/Weedeater. Save yourself a lot of useless frustration and install new fuel lines and a new diaphram kit in the carb. When installing the new carb kit blow out all holes, cracks and crevases with brake parts cleaner. Also, if the carb kit you get has a new metering arm don't install it, use the old one since it has the proper height adjustment. I think your unit has a Walbro carb probably a WT-606(don't have the kit number handy).These engines are set very lean from the factory for EPA so you are better to error on a rich fuel mixture rather than the 40/50:1 recommended by the factory(I always suggest using Stihl oil). If the carb has been off before you may find the gasket behind the carb(looks like a rubber band circle) has gouges, if so you must replace it or you will have a vacuum leak and it will never run properly(Gasket kit #PP530071458). Have a good one. Geo


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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

Since it does start but bogs down after a few minutes I would guess it is running lean. You will need to open up the high and low end needle a bit, normally 1/4 to 1/2 turn will do.


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## hevykevy420 (Feb 21, 2008)

Thanks everyone! I followed the advice and opened up the high and low needle a bit (after cutting away the EPA protective housing around the needles with a dremel!) It ran better immediately. I was able to run the unit for awhile and it didn't overheat (i also mixed the gas a little richer).

I'm not sure if I damaged the piston/cylinder when I overheated it, I can't find my compression tester right now...

Thanks everyone, at least I can hopefully get another summer out of this POS!!!


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## hankster (Jan 1, 1998)

The problem with those blowers are they are set really lean from the factory due to EPA standards. After a year or two, with storage gum up and age drying out diaphrams, they run even leaner to the point of too lean. I have basically the same unit and have been using it pretty hard for the past 5 years with no problems. But then I opened up the carb a bit right off the bat when I got it. 

In the vast majority of cases, opening up the low and high end needles a bit will get them running fine if they haven't been damaged.

If yours starts normally you most likely are OK.


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## luckyvision (May 24, 2007)

and the starter not rewinding is due to the flimsy plastic housing pressing on the rope spool. shim the fan housing screws with some washers & don't overtighten

--Lucky


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