Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Echo blower

I've been working on a problem with this machine and can't seem to locate the gremlin in it. The machine is a hand held two cycle leaf blower that idles extremly high. I adjusted the idle screw all the way out and no change. I rebuilt the carb. and still the same problem. I've adjusted the hi and low mixture screws every which way. No change, hi speed runs good, go to idle and it stays at half throttle. There are no linkage problem and as near as I can tell the throttle plate is going to the closed position.
Should I just put a new carb. on it?
Any suggestions!:confused:

Are there any air leaks anywhere? This would cause it to run lean and that would cause it to run fast.

Hello jlm!

I agree...a bad gasket at the carb intake, or a bad crankcase seal, etc... will cause this. Also if it is running too lean it will run high, but usually will die out after idling a few seconds, and will die when you try to throttle it up. Can you slow it down by manually pushing the throttle shaft closed by hand..to be sure it is closing all the way?

The throttle shaft is closing all the way. The rpm's do drop after a short while and the machine stalls. The high rpm does respond slowly but it will go to max rpm and run fine.
I haven't replaced the intake gasket but will do so.
Is there a way to check the crankcase seal? I haven't run into this situation yet on other machines but have heard of it.
Thanks for the help.:)

Sounds like you probably have carb problems, but hard to tell from my side of the monitor, lol. The only sure-fire way I know of to check the case seal is to pull it and look. Check the fuel lines to be sure they aren't cracked. It could be pulling air in through a crack enough to die or run away at idle, but not enough to affect high speed much.

Thanks for the info I'll try again this Saturday to fix this machine one way or another.

You were right! The machine has a rubber boot intake seal to the cylinder head which was cracked and that's where the air was getting in. I ordered new part and should see the results by end of this week.
Thanks for the info.:) :)

Great! Let us know how it goes!

The part did not come in yet, but I'm confident this will fix the problem.:)

Just an update! The part came in and the blower runs like brand new. Thanks for the input!:) :)

Good Job! I am impressed

Great! Glad we could help!