O&R 13B. (Groomer trimmer)

[Brian Lynch 19]

Did some looking around in my shop and located the other O&R engine I have. This came off a Groomer trimmer. See the pics. It runs wide open all the time. It was built with a Tillotson HU that has no throttle shaft. Never had one. No choke either, just the primer button. The only thing to impede air flow into the engine is a screw that holds the base and reed plate in place. Installed a new diaphragms in the carb. I had this hooked up to a remote tank to run it. It sounds like an irritated bumblebee!

[Wallfish 698]

Interesting! @Webhead Joe may be able to give some info on those carbs. I've never had one. Didn't have any knowledge about that tool either until now.

Typically you won't need a choke if there's a primer button or bulb but going by the the decal, one would think the "trigger" is a throttle but...  Guess the trigger was the kill switch LoL

Yeah, they scream at 6300 rpm and without any load it will stumble a little.

Too bad you don't have the rest of it.

[Brian Lynch 19]

From what I found about these, the "Trigger" was hooked by a cable to the trimmer head. Pulling the trigger let more plastic line out of the cutter head.

[CNew 404]

That’s really cool!  I have a similar model with the HU carb. I was able to find a carb kit on eBay.  I haven’t tried to run the engine yet. 

[Webhead 95]

I've got a bunch of these carbs if needed...

[factory 487]

13 hours ago, Brian Lynch said:

Did some looking around in my shop and located the other O&R engine I have. This came off a Groomer trimmer. See the pics. It runs wide open all the time. It was built with a Tillotson HU that has no throttle shaft. Never had one. No choke either, just the primer button. The only thing to impede air flow into the engine is a screw that holds the base and reed plate in place. Installed a new diaphragms in the carb. I had this hooked up to a remote tank to run it. It sounds like an irritated bumblebee!

 

The Groomer string trimmers (weed wacker) were made in the late 1970's by Advanced Engine Products Incorporated (formerly known as O&R), this was towards the end of AEP (O&R) as the company was dissolved in 1978. Hopefully someone will find a complete trimmer one day.

 

As you've noticed the 13B427 is a constant speed engine using the Tillotson HU38A carb, this is pre-calibrated for constant speed operation only and has no fuel/speed adjustments. The added primer button is for easier starting and the extra tube to the crankcase is to pulse the fuel pump.

 

I don't recommend looking at a standard parts diagram for the Tillotson carbs as they show all the bits not used on the HU38A, the diagram below is from the book "Small Air-Cooled Engines" 16th edition from Intertec Publishing, which has a small section for O&R/AEP engines, I don't want to add the rest as the current version of this book is still available and I don't want copyright problems.

 

The air filter would have been on the end of the tubing that made up the pole & handle for these trimmers, the engine stop/kill switch would have been on this handle too. Some models had another tube with handle used as the gas tank and others had a gas tank attached to the starter housing.

 

The trigger mentioned on the decal is indeed for releasing more cutting line on the trimmer head, they called this a "Touch-n-go" trigger. Other models had a "Bounce-N-Feed" trimmer head, this version released more cutting line when lightly bumped on the ground.

 

David

[CNew 404]

1 hour ago, factory said:

 

The Groomer string trimmers (weed wacker) were made in the late 1970's by Advanced Engine Products Incorporated (formerly known as O&R), this was towards the end of AEP (O&R) as the company was dissolved in 1978. Hopefully someone will find a complete trimmer one day.

 

 

I found one and got all excited but the owner wasn’t interested in selling it.

[Brian Lynch 19]

I have some of the parts to the trimmer but not much. I have the aluminum intake tube that slips over the air intake adapter. Also a clamp that possibly held two aluminum tubes together. One was a fuel tank I'm guessing. I'd love to find another. There has to be one out there in good shape, or with a bad engine I could put my engine on.

[Wallfish 698]

5 minutes ago, Brian Lynch said:

There has to be one out there in good shape, or with a bad engine I could put my engine on.

Think we hooked another one. Let the searching begin

Half the fun is hunting is this down

[factory 487]

17 minutes ago, CNew said:

I found one and got all excited but the owner wasn’t interested in selling it.

 

Do you have a link to that one, or save any pictures?

 

David

[CNew 404]

https://www.smokstak.com/forum/threads/how-many-ohlsson-rice-tools-are-out-there.186270/#post-1568709

[factory 487]

Thanks Clint, I'm a bit surprised no-one has added a link to here in that thread.

 

David

[factory 487]

3 hours ago, Brian Lynch said:

I have some of the parts to the trimmer but not much. I have the aluminum intake tube that slips over the air intake adapter. Also a clamp that possibly held two aluminum tubes together. One was a fuel tank I'm guessing. I'd love to find another. There has to be one out there in good shape, or with a bad engine I could put my engine on.

 

Here is what the Groomer Estate 400 in this thread would have looked like, sorry the picture isn't very good quality, I don't have any original documents for the majority of the AEP powered string trimmers.

 

 

David

[Brian Lynch 19]

Factory, I think that is what this trimmer looked like. Did some more scrounging in the other shop this af'noon for a Stover engine ring set and found the other aluminum tube, which is the fuel tank! I guess I have more to this than I had thought. It's been around here for 35 years or so and I never paid much attention to it. I'm thinking my son tore it apart in the mid 90's. I don't remember it ever having the cutter head, cover or shield though.

[factory 487]

Nice to hear you found more parts from the trimmer, I have some of the small parts for those but sadly no cutter head, I intend to try & build one using a spare engine, will need to make a lot of the larger parts and see if I can find a modern cutter head that could be used with it, this is a long term project of mine.

It would be helpful to know the length of the aluminium tube(s), please could you let me know the size.

 

I do have this parts diagram for an earlier variant of the trimmer (known as the Power Whip), I can't see a trigger control on this version, but the diagram may help identify more parts you may still have.

 

Forget to mention before, looking at the first three digits of the serial number I can tell you that the engine from your trimmer was made in April 1977.

 

David

[Brian Lynch 19]

Dave, I will get some dimensions for the tubes later this week. The trimmer you posted the exploded diagram of is similar to the one in the Smokstak link.

[Brian Lynch 19]

Dave, the pipes measure 1" O.D. they are thin wall aluminum. The air intake tube is around 39" in length. The fuel tank tube is 32" long. Not sure of the radius used, I need to bring my radius gauges home from work to get exacts. -Brian

[factory 487]

Thanks for measuring those Brian, I will see if I can find a supplier of 1" aluminium pipe.

 

David

[Brian Lynch 19]

A few pic of the state of my Groomer Estate 400 trimmer. I have assembled the parts I have found. I need the trimmer head, guards, trigger & cable, and air filter to complete it. The pic of the upper tube  clamp shows the engine ignition kill switch. -very basic. The lower clamp is shown. Both clamps are of the same cast aluminum design. The boss on each clamp with the holes must have been where the head trigger cable went. Without pictures of an original or a manual, it's conjecture as to what went where and why. That's why I like my old engines and equipment.

[CNew 404]

That’s really cool, nice job with the puzzle...

[factory 487]

5 hours ago, Brian Lynch said:

A few pic of the state of my Groomer Estate 400 trimmer. I have assembled the parts I have found. I need the trimmer head, guards, trigger & cable, and air filter to complete it. The pic of the upper tube  clamp shows the engine ignition kill switch. -very basic. The lower clamp is shown. Both clamps are of the same cast aluminum design. The boss on each clamp with the holes must have been where the head trigger cable went. Without pictures of an original or a manual, it's conjecture as to what went where and why. That's why I like my old engines and equipment.

 

Sadly I don't have a manual for the Estate 400 (only that low-res picture), but can help with pictures of some of the parts, including the trigger & cable, I have a few little trimmer head parts but none of the bigger pieces of the trimmer head.

The stop/kill switch on most of the these engines has always been a simple shorting switch, either the brass strip type or a bought in switch, some of the chainsaws have a more complicated switch mechanism in the handle.

 

David

[Brian Lynch 19]

David,

 What parts to the trimmer head do you have?

Can you take some pics of the parts and the trigger/cable for me? That way I'll know what I'm looking for when I run across them.

 I think this little trimmer will be a nice display item.

Thanks, Brian.

[factory 487]

I meant to add these last night but got distracted.

 

Here are parts which look to be for holding the trimmer head on, I'm missing the shaft that goes between the 201254 shaft part and the PTO shaft on the engine. Part 400642 is a cap that fits on the end of this second shaft which has internal spring clips.

 

And here are the parts that make up the air cleaner assembly, the first two parts 87-4 & 122-1 were previously used as exhaust parts, part 200946 is a modified version of the standard air cleaner part without the raised edge (see comparison with standard part) and the last part is a typical fixing rod for the air cleaner assembly (minus nuts & washers).

 

And the last part is the complete trigger cable assembly part 400611, I've no idea if there are different lengths of this for the various models of string trimmers they made, I put the loose parts on the end of the cable, they look to be fitted & soldered during assembly.

 

David

 

P.S. there are a few more small parts, a bronze bearing, various spacers & fixings that I haven't pictured yet, not even sure if they are for these.

[Brian Lynch 19]

Great pix! Now I know what to look for. thanks so much for posting them. The search is on!

[factory 487]

I've been sorting all the various boxes of incomplete engines & parts over the weekend, I came across the remains of what I think was a chainsaw engine, with a crankcase that will be very useful for building the trimmer engine from the spares I have.

Someone had tried to fill in the crankcase port with a solder blob , I soon got rid of that, something that may not be obvious from the pictures is that the port goes in at an angle to avoid the crankcase mounting holes.

 

 

David