Weed Wacker Engine Rebuild

So I got really ambitious and decided to tear apart the engine on my Craftsman Brushwacker. Not really much to it and now that I have the necessary gasket kit, piston ring and a few other things I am ready to put it back together. Here is the thing though. I realize now in my haste (unfortunately way too common for me) I did not do two things that would have really helped me now.

1. I did not pay attention to the the position of the piston in relevance to the position of the flywheel and more importantly which direction the magnets were facing at; for example where the magnets faced while the piston was at Top Dead Center. So here is my first question. Does anyone know how these two things should be positioned? I am quite certain that if they are not aligned correctly the timing could be way off.

2. I did not measure the distance between the ignition module and flywheel, the gap that is. So my second question is does anyone by chance know what the ignition gap on a Craftsman Bushwacker is? Does this vary from Craftsman weed wacker model to another?

I would like to thank in advance any potential help on these issues.

 

one side of your piston is cut out to allow the crankshaft counterweight to pass by. you'll need to flip it. not a huge problem.

the flywheel either has a keyway cut in it or a built in key, so make sure you put it into the slot in the crankshaft. be extra careful if it has a built in key, those are fragile and have a high potential to shear. im not sure of the flywheel nut torque specs but you'll be alright making it (pretty) tight.

to set the coil gap, take a credit card, or gift card, and place one under each of the coil "legs" and magnets. let the magnets squeeze the cards. tighten the bolts, and take them out.

apparently those cards are the perfect spark gap. i believe .030" is what youre looking for on a craftsman weedwacker, but its pretty much the same for all.

good luck