Kobalt 12" Lowes String Trimmer not releasing safety pull.

[Microman]

Daughter asked me to take a look at her weed eater. I finally got to it, and opened it up. To make motor turn , it requires the safety pull switch to be pushed which then allows the power pull to be pushed, engaging the motor.

Problem is that the safety switch doesn't move far enough to give the power switch the ability to move.

I could remove the safety switch, and just have the power switch,

I could shave off a little of the edge that is catching when safety is pulled but not clearing.

Or I could figure out why it is doing this. Cant figure out why its not moving far enough

[Microman]

So immediately after posting, I decided to round off the tip of that safety catch that should move to the right. Now it may move without the safety being held if you hit the power strong. But if you do use the safety it will work fine.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

My first guess is the safety lock arm has slowly bent under pressure of the spring under the arrow 'This should come up higher'.

I would have sanded down the part of the safetylock arm that stops it from rotating more (other side from the arrow labeled Safety Tock).

[C(-)ris]

In your second picture right above the"should move to the right" start of the arrow you can see the discoloring in the blue plastic where that arm has bent. That is what is causing your issue.

[TheTominator]

C(-)ris wrote:
In your second picture right above the"should move to the right" start of the arrow you can see the discoloring in the blue plastic where that arm has bent. That is what is causing your issue.

:agree:

I'm guessing that the safety lever bottoms out on the hard stop when fully depressed yet there is still a lot of the lever present that the operator's hand can depress instead of the lever submerging into the housing. This means the plastic is under constant pressure in use and deformed over time leading to this failure mode.

Design flaw.

[Microman]

I was working with replacing the Trimmer Line, and came across this video. One of the best DYI help on YouTube for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUDe0kTm47k

Currently trimmer is back together, and the safety switch push portion of the trimmer has no effect. So basically just hit the RUN or power it works.

I could take it apart and try to make the safety have some use, but don't see the purpose at this time.

How could not having the safety switch working be a problem? I assume it is a legal portion built in for a step towards safety.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

I think that any power hand tool with over a certain motor power needs an interlock so it won't turn on when setting it down, or if it falls over. I think this is Underwriter Laboratories area of responsibility. I could not figure out the right search terms to get a result.