This Craftsman blower stopped and now won't start. 

You did a brilliant job producing this video. I found one in the trash, and will follow the troubleshooting steps that you did. Thank you, will keep you abreast of my progress, getting it back to life.

I've rebuilt lawn equipment that's worth rebuilding such as any of the Stihl products. I rebuilt my Briggs & Stratton 3hp powered push mower for about $50 AUD over Christmas,it just needed new piston rings & it cuts grass much better now,my dads 6.5 hp Honda lawnmower is the next candidate for a rebuild !

Thanks so much for the video exactly what I needed. My fuel lines disintegrated and had to be replaced!!! Thank YOU!!

I have one of these vac/blowers from craftsman. I live by these, by using it as a vacuum instead of blower. I have a newer (craftsman) 2015 or so dedicated as a blower only. But for vacuuming, I use this older model. Why, cause it has a garbage disposal blades that chews small branches, acorns, little rocks, etc., and the newer blower vac's do not. Worth having two of these for me. I have had these taken apart for carb, gas lines, and pull start rope repairs. All info with diagrams are online with sears, and ereplacement.parts. Most of all the parts are interchangeable, too, from the year 2002 to 2006(models I have and had). If I knew a program that could join small avi.'s, I would do a video on a repair that I am now working on, the shroud on the muffler side knocked a hole in, from a rock intake. When vacuuming, it blows debris out(not safe for breathing or the eyes). My secondary unit has a low compression(will run on mid choke for a bit, then dies.) Now it won't start. Piston looks shinning and damage free(might be a ring or gasket or both). Sears sells the piston ring, but, not the head gasket?(diagram #9). I started with a new one of these back in 2006 or so, and have been using these (used) since. Right now I own model 358.7949639(2006yr) and 358.797342(2004yr.), and the parts are interchangeable(major components). If I had the one in this video, I would either get a used unit, or try and rebuild, and or keep for parts. I have purchased in the recent past, one of these for 25.00 craigslist. The carbs are pretty stout on these, as I have only repaired 1 of all the units I have had. Thanks for reading.

Well I would buy a new blower because I dont really work on the 2000s blowers anymore because there such a hassel, and u are right about it not being worth it to rebuild the old blower

I have the same blower and I really have enjoyed it when it is running. BUT I keep having to get carb work or fuel lines replaced. I always used at least 93 octane and mixed fuel exactly according to directions. When I learned about non-ethanol marine gas, I immediately switched. It has now been sitting unused a couple of years because the priming bulb is broken. But I just pulled on the rope and yep, it turns pretty easy like there is no compression. But even with its age, it really never got that much use.

I would rebuild the top end only because I enjoy that sort of thing. I would probably be more practice to buy a new one.

Yes i would rebuilt it ,I understand you are not keen on rebuilding is as its a old design, but i hate the throw away culture. Love your videos by the way, very informative

I took in 3 of these blowers as a project and I found that everyone I worked on had a loose head bolt and after I tightened the head bolt it ran no problem.

It's actually kinda tricky when something breaks down these days since everything is disposable and cheap. If you get a new machine and something breaks of course you buy new parts, but it's annoying when the machine is old enough to make you question whether it's worth buying parts just to keep it going the last few steps of its life. Expensive buy once cry once equipment is the way to go most of the time, but for nontechnical people, cheap equipment is a must so they can toss the old and buy new.

The problem with the gas engines can be related to ethanol content in gasoline. I have used a STIHL FS94R with gas/oil mix (which the gas had 10% ethanol in it), and all of the sudden, it pooped out while doing a customer's lawn. So I found out that the carb and the fuel filters needed replaced. And it the repair costed me almost a 100 bucks, thanks to the ethanol content in the gas. I just started using TruFuel in all of my stihl equipment, and will never go back to a gas station that doesnt sell ethanol free gas. I also use non-ethanol gas in my Honda push mower and my John Deere riding mower. The gas station I used to go to was Sheetz, plus I will never go back there again to buy gas for my equipment since the ethanol content had slowly ruined my job. It even ruined my craftsman push mower once, and it burned it out before I bought a Honda. Last time i will ever use E10 gasoline in any of the small engines. Even 10 percent or higher of the ethanol cotent in gasoline can also screw up any small engine.

Very nice work i feel it let’s have peace of mind and buy new one 😎

I would rebuild it just for the experience, knowing that, given my complete incompetence, the next step would be the purchase of a new one.

This may be my childhood blower (at least the older design with different style choke and throttle controls), but these surely aren't the best design, they don't last very long, even if religiously taken care of. They aren't worth rebuilding since how cheap of a machine they are, but if it's something more valuable, like a Stihl or Echo, I'd probably rebuild those.

I don't think I'd rebuild it. The old Craftsman had a good run.

I recently rebuilt this same Machine, top end, parts were cheap on ebay, runs absolutely like brand new

My crappie aunteek craftsman blower like that one was a pain till I took it apart and tightened the head bolts. Way to much trouble to take it apart again, so I made holes in the cover. T30 to tighten problem solved

I have one I've had for 4 years..i always used tru fuel..it ran great..one day i was using it and it started to lose power and then went dead it wouldn't start.it was hard to pull..I did the same thing you did..still no start..looking through the exhaust port i saw scoring..took the head off and the ring was missing a piece..the broken piece was lodged between the crank and the block..that's why it was hard to pull..no..i didn't fix it..bought a stihl ..haven't had any problems..the craftsman was just worn out..

Hello. I'm going to rebuild one for the experience. Picked it up for 5bucks and knew it wasnt running. We shall see!

I would take the time to rebuild the engine to see if it works out , if it doesn't work after that, time for new blower. I bought a stihl bg75 off Ebay, all it needed was the carburetor which was tough to find but found it. I like to use genuine parts for premium equipment, cheaper ones are hit and miss.

Keep the ignition coil, carburetor and fuel cap. You would not believe how expensive those parts are.

I have one just like this and the ring is seized to the piston also the cylinder wall is pretty well scorched up , so i ordered another cylinder head , gasket and piston , will see how it turn out later .

Even before he fixes it Me: it ran out of gas.

I was just working on one of those types of leaf blower and it was a different brand and model. it seems like it has low compression but it runs. It might have a easy start but it did not say it. The leaf blower bogs down badly . I have no background info about the blower because it’s my grandpas.

I think the cylinder bolts are loose. Seems to be a very common problem with those blowers. It was mine. Easy fix

a very cheap replacement engine/device available locally may make it worth while.... a very good engine from years back that was almost unused may be at a brand new cheap-steel one from overseas thrown together in a factory.

I have a blower that is just like that one its a weedeater brand it has same issue bad top end I plan to rebuild it hope fully I can get parts if not I plan to steal a top end from a good used engine for it

I have a Craftsman blower/vac that's very similar to this model. It didn't come with the vacuum attachment, but since I only paid 25 dollars for it, I figured I would give it a shot. I brought it home and started it just fine. But during it's first use, the blower started slowing down after about five minutes of use and then came to a low idle until I turned it off. After that, it wouldn't start again. Over the course of the week, I took most of the blower apart, cleaned everything out, replaced one of the fuel lines, and put it all back together ready for my normal Saturday use again. When I started the blower on Saturday, it worked just fine, but again after about five minutes, it started slowing down until I turned down the engine speed and it died on me. I have not been able to start it since. Any ideas on what I've missed? I've rebuilt the carb several times, but it just doesn't want to start. What am I doing wrong?

If you look close there is beebe between ground strap and electroide no fire.

I did the compression on my craftsman. pressure was 75 lb. dry. 2 squirts of oil pressure 100. Has fuel and spark, no start.

I would consider it if I had a stock pile of parts lying around but not if I had to buy any

scored piston/ring/sidewalls are a clue to abandon it for parts only, if any. There are plenty of free blowers locally that just need correct fuel/oil and maybe a new fuel line to run well with adjustment. Wasting effort on a damaged engine is not worth the effort and loss of $

I would rebuild it as long as the parts are available and not over priced

I'd rebuild my Stihl 85 blower in a second because the 86's are a lot cheaper made and the 85 is a sweet rig compared to an 86. The Craftsman Probably not although it might run somewhat. Thanks and GBWYou.

Hello I've commented on a few of your videos. I got a question the guy who works on most of my equipment says if something doesn't have at least 100psi of compression it's not worth fixing but another guy told me they'll hit and run fine on at least 80 Just wondering if you could clear that up for me.

In my case: after fixing it still have problems,keep it for parts

Not worth rebuilding that one but if it was a top brand then i would. I notice a lot of people never rev up their 4 strokes when they use them my neighbor barley has it above idle and i wonder if that is why the carbon built up like that.

I have one just like this with the same issue. I watched another video about simply replacing the piston ring and restoring performance but the video was low quality. I was wondering if you ever considered doing a similar repair or fixing this one. A new ring for this blower is about $5 (Part #545154001) and might be all it takes... That RU-vidr is named daryl turcott and the video is titled "How to repair Sears Poulan leaf blower that won't start"

Don't know how old this video is but now with eBay and Amazon you can find parts for cheap

I would rebuild my stihl fs56 rc any day

that is exact same one i have

I'm rebuilding one now, rings, $6.00 for the rings

for me if that was my leaf blower yep i,d do the repair etc as it,s a dead easy to do repair plus bringing a non repairable leaf blower back to life as a good project and avoid them going in the scrap heap which is not good for our planet too.

That's enough compression. Mine is a Weed Eater. It feels the same and runs

I am pretty sure that mine is running too rich on oil, every 10 seconds I see a drop of oil come out the muffler, should I adjust the low or high screw, and I forgot which one is the low and which one is the high, is the low closer to the engine or away from the engine?

Where did you get that gauge?

What is the name of that muffler

Unless is worth to fix it, too much to invest. If has sentimental value, it has been with the family for many years or it cane from your father or grand parent yes

Yayyy

Poor thing :(

Huh, looks exactly like a Poulan Pro... weird.

Off it was a cheap enough part why not

I'd buy a new one if they top end was burnt out like that

I’d rebuild something If it costs over 150 new

If it were a good brand, then I would rebuild

We need to stop tossing everything into the trash. I'd rebuild. Makes sense if your concerned about the environment.

This is what happens when you don’t put mixed fuel in your machine

Buy new

Buy a new one I have been there too big of a headache and bad on nerves

If you like it, fix it . If not , buy something better

FOR WHAT THE HELL THE MONEY GRABBERS WANNAOAK YA FOR REBUILD PARTS BUY NEW! AT LEAST YOU'LL HAVE A WARRANTY WITH THAT! REPLACEMENT PARTS CAN BE JUNK OUT OF THE BOX AND YOUR SUNK!!!