Hello!

Newbie here.

Problem with a 4 year old Craftsman trimmer ... pull start seemed locked ..
not able to pull on it ... when I opened the casing it looked fine since I
am able to pull on it by itself ... now the part that it's connected to
(crankcase?), should you be able to turn that by hand? I am thinking
that the motor might have seized up.

Any thoughts? TIA!

oginide

Most likely seized up. What model (or CC) is it? If it's the 25cc motor we might be able to "fix" the seize without a lot of expense. Normally when the 32cc motors seize you have to rebuild them.

If it's a 25cc give this a try.

Before doing the below make sure both screws are still holding on the coil. They are somewhat known to break coil screws and then the screw gets caught in the flywheel. If both screws are there then proceed below.

Pull the spark plug and put 1/2 .oz or so of penetrating fuild in the cylinder.

Now get yourself a 1/4" socket extension and put the bigger end into the spark plug hole (it just barely fits).

Take a hammer and somewhat gently tap the end of the extension sticking out of the cylinder. Hopefully a few taps will get the piston unstick. If not, tap a little more vigorously ;) If you can free the piston pull the engine over a few times to make sure it is nice and free. If OK so far shoot a bit of carb cleaner into the cylinder.

Put the spark plug back and try and fire it up. Hopefully the cylinder isn't scored too bad and you still have some compression, the engine will fire and run.

If it fires, run the engine with half choke for about 5 minutes varying the speed.

Run the engine another 5 minutes with the choke off varying the speed again.

If all goes well, the engine should run normally and should last you a few more years.

If this doesn't work, then the only recourse is a rebuild.

Thank you so much for the reply!!

It's a 32cc motor ... so chances are it's seized.

Thanks again!!