It seems as the the Ryobi brand name on trimmers and blowers can create some confusion for those looking for parts.  There are two distinct Ryobi lines of products and they are different.  The original line of Ryobi products was an off shoot of Ryan and IDC.  These products were produced until 2000.  At that time, TTI purchased the Ryobi company, but only had an interest in the Ryobi brand name along with the hand held power tool line.  Since TTI already owned an handheld power equipment line in Homelite, they sold the manufacturing plant and products of the old Ryobi line to MTD.  MTD continues to manufacture these trimmers under the Bolens, Cub Cadet, Troy Bilt, Yard Machine, and MTD brands.  These are commonly found in Lowe’s.  The Ryobi brand that you see today (commonly in Home Depot) are manufactured by TTI and Homelite.  The easiest way to tell the if you have an MTD or Homelite manufactured Ryobi trimmer is by the color of the shaft.  Yellow shafts indicate that it is made by Homelite.  Note that we will be adding a full line of factory remanufactured products from TTI, including power tools (drills, saws, routers, etc.) made by Rigid and Ryobi, Homelite and Ryobi trimmer, chainsaws, blowers, pressure washers, etc, and maybe even some vacuum cleaners from Hoover and Dirt Devil.