all right we're coming up on fall i'm going to be breaking out my hedge
trimmer cleaning up my shrubs my hedges for probably one last time of the year
what do i need to do to make sure this thing is ready to go out and perform
flawlessly on my property to keep it looking its best
how long has it been sitting has it been sitting several months or has it been
sitting since last year that's the problem with the hedge
trimmer often they sit for months and months and months on end
so the first thing i would do is i'd pop my cap and drain my fuel
and i'd get some fresh fuel whether that's fresh fuel from the gas station
ethanol free mixed with the stihl hp ultra
or motomix me personally in a hedge trimmer i'm
probably gonna run moto mix so let's drain the fuel let's put in some motomix we've got fresh fuel in let's purge it
into the system by pumping the primer several times
that way it is at the carburetor now before we go to the next step
let's check the air filter i'm going to use the t27
torx to take off the air filter cover one screw here
bam pops the cover off what's this thing gonna look like
not bad but a little ugly so let's clean it off let's wipe it off
i don't think this one needs replace but if it were much worse than this
or if it's saturated and gas or oil i should
go pick up a new air filter i'm also going to make sure the intake is clean
and there's not debris that's gotten past the air filter
i'll wipe that out with a rag if it is there okay
let's put that cover back on the right way
okay and i'm probably gonna check the spark plug
that's located right in the front here this black boot will come off
like so take that tool here and loosen the spark plug i'm gonna be
looking for any carbon or or build up or seeing if it's
running rich which would be a black colored spark
plug
yeah this one's been running a little bit rich it's pretty pretty black on
here it probably would work fine but i've
taken it out let's throw a new spark plug in
so i've got fresh fuel i've cleaned my air filter i'm throwing in a new spark
plug what else do i need to do to a hedge trimmer
two things three things actually first would be lubrication of the
gearbox let's get this spark plug tight here
and good put the boot back on
stihl hedge trimmers feature a grease port right on the bottom of the gearbox
and they sell this nice little tube of grease
that threads in and give it a light squeeze so i would take this
plug out i would screw in the tube of grease
and think like toothpaste you know not a heavy squeeze just a nice light squeeze
probably you're putting a strip that's about an inch long in there
put the plug back in and good to go on greasing
the gearbox
what do my blades look like are they dull are they nicked are they rounded out
these things are very durable but they will definitely take some
damage when i hit a piece of rebar or some rocks if i'm cutting down low or
wire right i wired up that tree many many
years ago and now i forgot about it when i was out using
it last so should this be sharpened checking out
this one it is actually a nice shape i'm looking for
for square angles tight square angles if they're
starting to get rounded out it's time to get sharpened
that is the service we perform at carl's mower and saw
you can try to attempt it with a flat file it's a lot of work guys
so i would just pay the expert to get that sharp enough
if your blades look good and your gearbox is greased and all the other
stuff is good the last thing is lubricate your blades
we've got the resin remover
and i'm going to take this stuff and i'm simply going to spray them
along the blades i'm going to flip it over i want to get in this nice groove
right here these curves these screw slots
it's lubricated up the machine is always on
i'm going to choke it i've already primed it
we're good to go you've got your stihl hedge trimmer ready for fall cleanup