Help Needed With Weed Eater Motor

I've got the same question myself but so far it's looking like "yes, but not without access to some machining tools" because you would need a way to extend the shaft of the motor a bit to accept a clutch. I'm working on just such a thing for my yardman ym400. I've pulled the center shaft off and I'm trying to find stock that will work to build a new center shaft that will extend out another inch and 1/2 then add a clutch from a chainsaw.

Not sure how long it will take but let me konw if you come across anything.
 
All the trimmers i have ever seen have a centrifical clutch already on them,i have 4 i will be playing with shortly.
 
I'm also using a yardman weed eater motor. It's 31cc. I was weed eating earlier with a weed eater brand weed eater and noticed when it was idling it was still spinning. Is this going to cause a problem if my yardman motor does this on my friction drive set-up?
 
You could add a compression release valve, allowing you to turn the engine over without compression for just plain cycle-ing, and firing up the engine when needed. I think thats what wartime whizzers did.

BSA
 
I've found that indeed the YardMan ym400 and similar small and cheap motors do not have a clutch on them. Also, be aware that finding parts for the cheapies is not so easy. I tried getting piston rings for mine and they only want to sell the complete piston with rings on to the tune of about $45 shipped. Better off buying another motor.

I'm now looking at getting a similar sized but higher end motor liek a Ryobi or other with clutch already on it. These can be found on craigslist and eBay for around $40 and availability of parts is much higher.

Cheers,
 
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