My grandfather bought this new, I haven’t figured out the year yet, but I would guess late 70s or early 80s. He gave it to my dad, and he used it until about 15 years ago. The last time he tried to use it it wouldn’t run right. We don’t remember why, but it probably was something simple like needing the carb cleaned, but instead of fixing it, he went and bought a tiller attachment for his weedwacker and pushed this outside. I don’t really like the weedwacker attachment and wanted a regular tiller. Before I go buy one, I wanted to see if I could resurrect this one.
Based on this sticker, it looks like it was made by a company called Parmi for Agway. I couldn’t find anything online about it under either brand, so they must not have made a lot of these.
It has a 2 stroke Tecumseh TC200 engine.
Just about everything was stuck on it, including the motor. A few days soaking with PB Blaster got it all freed up. The air cleaner was full of ants. Some carburetor cleaner took care of them quick. Luckily they didn’t get past the carburetor and into the engine.
The carburetor looked surprisingly clean inside except the throttle was rusted stuck. I was able to free it up. I ordered a new one off Amazon, which also came with fuel lines, filters, and a spark plug. The carb looked like the original, but everything was backwards, like mirrored, and it had no choke. Maybe it would have worked, but I just used the parts from that one to rebuild the original. I ordered a new air filter too.
I put it back together and it runs. It won’t idle without the choke closed, but it runs good at full throttle. The adjustment screw on the carburetor doesn’t seem to do anything. I’m going to try cleaning it again, maybe I missed something the first time. I was able to till my garden, and it did a good job. Much better than the weedwacker attachment. It digs down deeper, and is a little easier to use.
The worse part is probably the pulley that drives the tines. It is rotted through. I cleaned it up with a wire wheel on a grinder as good as I can for now. I wanted to make sure it was going to run and actually be usable before spending anymore money on it. Now that I know it runs, I can get a new pulley and belt.
Based on this sticker, it looks like it was made by a company called Parmi for Agway. I couldn’t find anything online about it under either brand, so they must not have made a lot of these.
It has a 2 stroke Tecumseh TC200 engine.
Just about everything was stuck on it, including the motor. A few days soaking with PB Blaster got it all freed up. The air cleaner was full of ants. Some carburetor cleaner took care of them quick. Luckily they didn’t get past the carburetor and into the engine.
The carburetor looked surprisingly clean inside except the throttle was rusted stuck. I was able to free it up. I ordered a new one off Amazon, which also came with fuel lines, filters, and a spark plug. The carb looked like the original, but everything was backwards, like mirrored, and it had no choke. Maybe it would have worked, but I just used the parts from that one to rebuild the original. I ordered a new air filter too.
I put it back together and it runs. It won’t idle without the choke closed, but it runs good at full throttle. The adjustment screw on the carburetor doesn’t seem to do anything. I’m going to try cleaning it again, maybe I missed something the first time. I was able to till my garden, and it did a good job. Much better than the weedwacker attachment. It digs down deeper, and is a little easier to use.
The worse part is probably the pulley that drives the tines. It is rotted through. I cleaned it up with a wire wheel on a grinder as good as I can for now. I wanted to make sure it was going to run and actually be usable before spending anymore money on it. Now that I know it runs, I can get a new pulley and belt.