OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Trimmers and Brushcutters Two Stroke Trimmers & Brushcutters Partner B250

Hi all,
I have a Partner B250 brushcutter with a Kawasaki motor that is giving me some trouble. The motor is fine but the fuel tank leaks around the fuel line. I've had this unit for about 25 years and in the first 23 years only replaced this fuel line once. In the last 18 months I have now replaced it twice and still it leaks. I have just got it back from the repair shop where they were supposed to replace it again but when I filled the tank it continued to leak so I had a closer look and found the old line had been reinstalled with some "sealant" around the opening in the tank. Obviously this didn't work so I am now convinced I need to fix this myself.
Are parts still available for this make & model as if needed I will buy a new tank and fuel line assembly. This has been a great piece of equipment and really has done very little work for it's age.
Any advice you can give will be appreciated.
Bob

Bob, I've had the same problem with a chainsaw, and soon found that the only solution was to replace the grommet that seals between the tank and the fuel line. I bought a grommet and fuel line together as an aftermarket item. It fixed the problem and was still perfect when I gave the saw away a few years later. If you take the tank to a mower shop (preferably not the one that tried to fix it with gunk) they may have just the right part within arm's reach of the counter: they certainly did for my obsolete and unusual chainsaw. It didn't cost much, either.

Thanks grumpy,
Thats the part that I have been replacing. It is a single piece of small fuel line with the intank filter on one end and the sealing grommet on the other which pushes into the tank. The grommet has a flange on the inner end which is meant to seal against the inside surface of the tank, I think.
I can get the fuel line online or through the mower shop but they don't seal so I thought it may be a problem with the tank or poor quality material in the replacement part.
The problem is I can,t find any reference to the brand anywhere, so parts are not easy to source apart from the fuel line.
Is there a trick to installing the grommer end in the tank? Maybe I and the mower shop has been doing something wrong. Could it be that the fuel I am using has ethenol added even though we don't buy an ethanol blend for any of our power equippment. We normally use 95 octane for all 2 & 4 stroke engines with Valvoline oils, so don't use cheap home brands.
I'm sorry, I seem to be asking a lot of questions but I am at a loss to understand why I am having all these problems now.
Cheers
Bob

They are good questions, Bob. The nearest thing to a trick that I know of for getting those grommets to seal onto the tank, is to rotate the round ones, and wiggle the non-round ones a lot after you are convinced you have them on properly, because you never do have them on. One trick the professionals tend to do with some of those items is to lubricate the rubber before fitting it. Friction between grommet and plastic is the main reason it is so reluctant to sit in place properly.

If you are getting leakage even when the grommet is properly put on the tank, then the parts don't fit together. Your tank might have been damaged along the way, or is an unfortunate case of an odd size that is so nearly a standard size that everyone thinks the standard sized part fits it.

I doubt the problem is in the fuel or oil you are using. If that were the problem, the parts would fit together and not leak at first, they just wouldn't last very long.

Yeah your right grumpy, the recent attempts to fix this problem have resulted in immediate leaks whereas with the first and only successful replacement it was several years before leakage was again evident. I,m guessing then your other observation of it being a non standar size is most likely to be the case, although with this last disarster some damage is noticeable now that I have removed the part from the tank. It seems the only replacement parts for this model are aftermarket so may not be true to specification, but what I intend to do is buy another assembly and fit it myself using perhaps a light machine oil to lubricate the grommet first.
Thanks for all you advice, it's always helpful to get other ideas and tips, especially from someone that has "been there, done that".
Cheers
Bob