I can't even pull the cord

[toonfish]

My strikemaster seems to have seized up. It worked fine all year, then it sputtered out while drilling a hole. Wouldn't re-start. I tried to spray the carb with cleaner and when I was attempting to restart, I was messing with the compression release button and now I can't even pull the cord out. Ideas before I bring it in?

[jwmiller33]

I'd just bring it into strikemaster if I was you and not even try to mess around with a potentially seized motor. They have absolutely amazing customer service. Bring it to them in Big Lake and tell them the problem and they will take care of everything for you. Most of the time, customers are walking back out the door within 20-30 minutes with their auger being completely fixed, as well as tuned up.

[Pooh]

pull the plug yet? i would see if u can pull it over with the plug out, shouldnt take much pressure to pull it over with the plug out.

[JohnMickish]

There is the possibility of a hydraulic lock too, it has happened to me. If it was running poorly and way to rich, you could have excess fuel in the cylinder causing it to lock. Pull the plug and see what it does. Either way, it sounds like you will be taking it to the shop though. Good thing it's just about open water time.

[TruthWalleyes]

Had this happen to my Eskimo Barracuda this year. I pulled it and noticed some oil spraying out the exhause...the next pull the cord wouldn't budge.

Took it home and shook the auger with the exhaust down and it dripped out quite a bit of black junk - likely burnt oil/gas mixture...Pulled fine after that and ran fine. Only had to repeat that procedure once since then...Not sure what the cause was, but that seemed to cause enough pressure to lock up the cylinder.

[efgh]

I know on a chainsaw if the muffler gets pluged it is hard to pull the recoil out, the fix is to take the muffler off and clean it. I don[t know if a ice auger has a muffler or not. just a though.