My second question here today regarding re-assembly of a Ryobi/Homelite RY70113 (aka PLT-3043) trimmer.
The flywheel in these machines is a zinc casting. Where it sits down on the engine shaft, there is a steep taper and a cast-in shaft-key spline that sits in a keyway on the shaft. When I removed mine, the flywheel was seated into the shaft taper nice and firmly - it required a tap with a hammer on the end of the shaft to pop the flywheel off the taper.
Now that I come to reassembly, I can't seem to get that strong grip of the flywheel onto the shaft, as in, no matter I tighten the flywheel down onto the taper by screwing down the clutch plates, if I take off the clutch plates to check if the flywheel taper has grabbed onto the shaft taper, it actually hasn't grabbed - you can easily lift the flywheel back off. I'll confess that I'm paranoid now, because the first time I built up the machine, I tried pulling the starter rope a few times, great until all went slack - I had chewed off the little zinc spline on the flywheel, not because I didn't get it sitting right in the shaft keyway, but because the flywheel must have been able to lift slightly off the taper. Maybe the real cause is not getting the clutch plates yanked right down ultra-tight. But, since I'm on my second flywheel, I don't want this new one getting chewed up too. You know, I can't just keep buying dead RY70113 trimmers from the tip shop (landfill recycling business) - they want $10 for each one - too many and I should have just bought a new trimmer!
So, any good tips on getting the flywheel back on nice and tight?
