"matt... unless im blind, no mixture screws....my booklet covers gt1100 and gt2100... the 2100 had mix. screws..." I doubt you're blind, but I might be a moron. I totally forgot to look at my dad's trimmer over the weekend. I'm sorry about that. Nonetheless, it sounds like you know what to look for, so you must be correct. Plus, it sounds like you're close to getting it running just right, too. Keep up the good work.

I have a Craftsman 917.255810 42" 19 HP Briggs & Stratton Fast Auto TurnTight® Riding Mower equipped with a General Transmissions RS800 CVT (constant variable transmission). It was purchased on Black Friday, Nov 24, 2017. I also purchased the correct Craftsman 9 bushel, 3-bin bagger to fit the mower. I used the mower to 'get up' leaves 3 times in the fall of 2017. I stored the mower in a shed, out of the weather, until this spring. I have used the mower 2 times to mow my lawn. Basically to knock down the onions and dandelions. There was little or no 'real' grass to mow yet. My front yard has a slope that I run side to side on. The CVT started sticking, becoming difficult to change from forward to reverse and back, in the fall. In the Spring it became an issue to the point I contacted Sears Service and they sent out a service technician. He was a contractor for Sears and had enough work with Sears that he didn't do anything else. One of the common problems with this CVT is debris jamming the exterior workings, ie. Variator Levers, Inversion/Variation Control lever (forward/reverse), Drive Variator (variable pulley), etc. The Sears Tech said that my CVT was one of the cleanest he'd ever seen (I attribute this to the few times I had a chance to used it & blowing it off with a leaf blower.) and was not a debris problem or issue. The short of it was that the CVT was failing. The Tech said that the GT CVTRS800 was one of the main issue on most of the calls he was dealing with. He said that Sears & Kubota had gone away from it and were mainly using a hydrostatic transmission again. He did say that John Deere was using it in their new 'consumer grade' mowers sold at big box stores like Lowes & Home Depot. My options were to continue to call Sears Service for 2 years while the mower was still under warranty, then purchase a yearly Service Contract for about 1/2 the cost of replacing a CVT, or try to sell the mower and purchase something else. The Tech did say that he had worked on one CVT RS800 equipped mower that didn't have these issues. It was used on a yard that was about an acre or less and as flat as a 'golf course putting green'. The Tech is coming back in a few days to replace the CVT at no cost to me. The Tech said that the CVT was originally designed to drive the blades and wheels of snow throwers/blowers and it did fine at that. GT tried to repurpose it for Lawn tractors to less than mixed results. I guess I'll ride this horse for two years and then try to sell it to someone with a pool table flat lawn. I'm also with toefungus wondering if there will be a Class Action Lawsuit as a result.

Three summers I was in a squeeze and needed a trimmer that accepted a cultivator attachment, I needed it pronto and it had to be cheap. Quickest place was home depot, I forked over the $89 for a Ryobi 25cc balanced crank two-stroke. I'm no stranger to two-stroke powered tool. I own and have repaired many top brands out these such as Echo and Stihl, I'm always fiddling with some small engine. I've become very proficient at using Dremel cut-off discs to bypass the EPA carb needles. Lol! I love Ryobi 18V tools, IMO they are the best value out there, especially the impact driver, I actually use them every day as an electrician, but I had bad experiences with past Ryobi gas powered tools(non-ethanol related). Anyway, I wasn't expecting much with the trimmer, To my surprise, it's actually a powerful, reliable trimmer/"power head". As soon as I took it out of the box I took one look at the non-adjustable carb (grrrr!) and figured it would rear its ugly head at some point but so far it hasnt. One thing I think that's really made a difference is right before the fall/winter months I switch from 50-1 gas/oil mix and start using pre-mix fuel. I just keep the pre-mix in the tank for the slow months. In the spring when I start using it bi-weekly again I switch over to reg gas with 2 stroke oil. It really does start on the second or third pull every time. Its a great value for a home owner. Just make sure to use the pre-mix fuel in the can before storing.

Thanks for your information & comment. To answer your question, I really did not have a question for my specific case, since the fix had been positively verified by actually accomplishing the repairs accordingly; however, the request to "help me refine this post" has been answered by you by helping me know where to post such material in the future. Thanks again. Concerning the fact that there are more causes for the indicated symptoms is understood and much appreciated. In accordance with my post, "Fix for all three: (In this case)" is meant to explain that, in this particular case only, the actions taken, as explained, completely solved my problems. As in my final "note" of the post, once again, I would like to give a big thank you to this forum for providing a great discussion that helped me find the "custom" solutions for my three Echo blowers. Thanks Again to Everyone ! Sincerely, Franklin Thomas (new forum member, May 8th, 2018 PM)