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McCulloch Gladiator 550 problem?

Hi my hedge trimmer starts poorly, won't rev & the blades won't work/turn. Also it won't tick over. My friend has the same model with identical problems, any ideas what I can do?
MarcR, June 2010
These machines are rubbish (I have learnt the hard way!). Just google search it and you will see what I mean - I am not the only one who has had the mis-future of buying one of these and living to regret it. The likely cause here is that the ignition timing ring has slipped and so the spark is not happening at the right time and hece the motor will just about start but will not rev. This is repairable if you want to strip the engine apart but the repair will last for only a short while and then it will happen again. My advise is throw the useless piece of rubbish in the bin and save yourself the hassle.

Blewitt, September 2013
The chances are its a fuel problem. The carb is made by Zama on them and I'm repairing one at the moment theres a needle missing on mine so I'm buying a new carb complete but you may just need to replace the diaphragm kit.
UK distributer is a company called Rowena Motors. Carb cost £37 inc postage

odd, July 2010
link Click here to see other fixes for McCulloch.