Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I have a Stihl HS-45 trimmer that is a few years old. When I went to start it this spring it floods. It would start and run if you set the choke open and held the throttle wide open. It has a Zama carburetor that I have had apart. I can see nothing wrong in the carb and after putting it back together it ran as it should for a few minutes then went right back to flooding. My question is can you replace the carb with something other than the POS that came with it? From reading around it seems that Stihl has quite a problem with their carburetors. I have a blower and trimmer of the same brand but have not had any problems with them.