Things were a little slow at work, so I decided to take some time off. I was planning on cutting the grass and rototilling the garden. Yes, I was going to rototill the garden. My hope was that the rototiller would cooperate.
I had a chance to print out the user manual for the tiller. In the manual it had instructions on how to adjust the carburetor. This was my first plan of action. With the manual in one hand, I proceeded to look over the carburetor to make sure I identified the right screws to adjust. I first adjusted the idle per the manual instructions. That was easy. Second, I needed to adjust the fuel mixture. While the manual suggested one thing the fuel mixture screws would not cooperate.
The fuel mixture screw had plastic stops that prevented me from turning the screw so it would bottom out. I was limited to one-half turn of the screw. So, I decide to turn the screw, so it was halfway between both stops. I was done with the adjustments. Time to crank it up.
I mixed up another bottle of gas and oil and poured it into the tank. The tank was full, so gas should not be an issue once I got it running. I went through the start up process. I made sure the switch was on “start.” The throttle was wide open as I held it in place with the bungee cord. First a couple of pulls with the “pre-choke.” It was encouraging as the engine tried to turn over. Now a couple pulls at “choke,” Pow! The tiller was running at full speed. I pulled the bungee cord off the throttle and turned the carburetor to “run.” The tiller would idle without me holding the throttle. I squeezed the throttle, and the engine revved up. No bogging down. With full throttle the tiller continued to run. I backed it off and walked it to the garden. I was not going to shut it off now.
When I got to the garden, I squeezed the throttle and pushed the tiller into the ground. Without any loss of power, the tiller was doing its job. I must admit, I was having fun. I went in all different directions making sure the whole garden was getting turned over. My neighbors probably were not happy, as that 2-cycle engine was screeching away as I opened up the throttle. I reached the point that I believe I was done. I shut off the tiller. However, there was a part of the garden that could have used a little bit more tilling. I tried to get the tiller to start, but it refused. I tried several things again with different settings, but no success. Well, I guess I was done. I did not like ending on that note, but I would wait until next year to see if this rusty old 2-cycle rototiller will run again.