Hey all,



Cliff Notes: I have a Homelite 25 cc ST-175 trimmer motor, on which I broke the piston ring, and as such, need a new one, but have no places nearby who sell HomeLite parts, and want to find a place which can sell me the ring at a reasonable price.



I'm not actually in to building model RC planes, or otherwise, however, I have found this site to be most informative as far as the HomeLite 25 and 30cc motors go.

Where I live, in Ottawa, Canada, unfortunately, I have called around, and everyone seems to have something against HomeLite, and does not carry any parts for HomeLite products anymore.

I'm mounting this motor to a scooter (one of the kind with 10" air-filled tires), and before doing so, I had the good idea of tearing down the motor. There was lots of carbon build-up in it, and in my opinion, it definately needed cleaning.

I'm not too experienced with 2-stroke motors, although I currently have a Weed-Eater Featherlite motor on my scooter (which I've torn down twice), however, it is wearing out quickly.

I thought the Homelite ST-175 string trimmer (25 cc I believe) motor would be appropriate for my application, and have heard good things about this motor from these forums I believe. It is the model with a bridge running vertical in the head where the exhaust port is, which as far as I am aware, denotes that it is a 25cc model.

My problem is that when tearing down the HomeLite 25cc motor, I broke the piston ring. This essentially renders the motor useless to me, as there appears to be no support for the motor in my city.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to let me know of any shops which I would be able to get the piston rings from (I would presume they wouldn't be too expensive), or, if I'm replacing that, if there were any suitable aftermarket parts which would allow me to extract more power out of the motor, and the websites or locations where I could get in touch with someone who could get me the piston ring, or, I've heard of there being a dual-ring piston being available, and if that would work without problems, I would even consider opting for that, if it wasn't much more expensive.

Lastly, I was wondering what are indicators you should be checking your piston ring. On the motor, when I tore it down, there was (and still is) carbon buildup slightly on the side walls of the piston (although there is no scoring on the piston), and the piston ring was compressed into the piston, and wasn't movable at all -- it simply conformed to shape of the piston, which I presumed would provide me no compression. Was I correct in trying to remove it? Some of the small-engine shops in my area told me I should not have removed the head from the motor, unless I was positive there were problems.


Thanks for all your help!
Khany2002