freediver
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www.ozpolitic.com
Posts: 53186
At my desk.
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It seems I have been sold a real dud. A number of things have gone wrong with it even though I rarely use it. The guy at Bunnings was bagging it, but they sell ones with even more plastic on it where the talon has metal bits. Plastic in the drive train seems to be the major problem with the cheap models.
The fuel tank started leaking and dribbling petrol down my leg. I fixed this with some of that grey fuel tank cement and by emptying the tank and letting it dry after every use. I was told you had to use fresh fuel in it or it wrecks the engine, but I have not had any problems with that. I think this is just part of getting people to empty the fuel tank because it is not designed to contain fuel.
The bump stop broke after a few uses, so I was carrying a key or screwdriver with me to feed line out.
The line kept overheating and melting/sticking to itself.
Recently, a tiny bit of plastic broke off the bump stop mechanism so the whole thing stopped working. It was only about half a cm long. I spent an hour on the phone trying to track down a replacement head. Apparently Husqvarna bought them out, but Husqvarna won't sell direct to the public, even spare parts. So I had to call them back three times to get more phone numbers of stores that would supposedly sell the part. The people who sold it to me originally do not stock the parts, even though Husqvarna referred me to them. One store that Husqvarna referred me to had it on their 'do not service' list because there are supposedly no parts. Anyway, eventually I found a store in central QLD (Rolleston), but by the time you added on the markups and two sets of freight it was nearly the same price as a new line trimmer.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I bought a $15 head from Bunnings that fits with a few mods.
How to fit a $15 homelite trimmer head to a Talon line trimmer (model AT33583 AT335831 AT335832 AT335833 etc):
Take the head with you to the shop to check it matches the homelite model. The big hexagonal bit needs to fit as well as the long bit that sticks through the head. The thread on the homelite bolt that holds it in all place will be too big. Here is how to fix that:
Take the old Talon bolt with you and get one with a normal hex head and the same thread that looks about the right length. Also get a nut with the same size hex head as inside the bump stop of the homelite head. You need to destroy the homelite bump stop to check this, so you are on your own there.
Use a hammer to force out the bolt on the bump stop. The silver metal disc pushes out with a bit of encouragement. You need to make a bolt with a thread to match the talon and a hex head to metch the bump stop. Do this by attaching the nut you bought (or had lying around). To attach the nut, use glue, or I used solder as follows:
Put the nut on the bolt. It should slip over the threads. Hold it with a pair of needle nosed pliers, thread pointing up, with a few bits of solder in the gap. Hold it over a lit candle to heat it up until the solder melts. With another pair of needle nose pliers, wobble the nut a bit to get the solder to go into the gaps between the threads. When you are done, put it on ice to get it to cool down quicker.
This will almost work as is, but the bump stop won't work properly (even manually unless you unscrew it) because it won't go out far enough. You need to add the equivalent of the small split ring washer that you see on the old talon bolt (that you did not throw out). This needs to be small enough to fit inside the hole in the homelite, but big enough to fit over the thread, which is not possible unless you give it a lot of encouragement with pliers etc. Check that it still fits inside the homelite shafthole when you are done. Don't bother replacing the metal disc unless you want to keep the dirt out.
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