The symptom pattern

The engine starts and idles fine, but the star-type hoes underneath turn weakly, hesitate, or stop responding properly to the clutch lever — noticeably less drive than the cultivator had when new. Einhell’s own troubleshooting table for the GC-MT 2236 lists this as “drive power falls,” with two possible causes.

What Einhell’s own table says

Section 9 names the clutch having too much play, or the V-belt that drives the gear unit coming loose. The remedies are asymmetric: for the clutch, “adjust clutch cable” — a real procedure given elsewhere in the manual; for the V-belt, “contact authorized customer service” — no owner-level fix offered.

The clutch itself is a Bowden-cable mechanism: pulling up the safety lever and pressing the clutch lever engages the star-type hoes, and releasing it should stop them — the manual notes that “if they do not stop, readjust the clutch cable,” which cuts both ways, since the same cable going slack is also why the hoes can stop engaging properly under load. Section 7.2.4 gives the actual procedure: “in the working setting it should be possible to push the clutch lever up to the push bar without this requiring much effort. If the Bowden wire is too taut for this, it must be extended… If the star-type hoes no longer rotate then the screw connector will have to be shortened again.” Both directions are the same adjustment — a lock nut and a screw connector on the cable — just turned opposite ways depending on which symptom is showing.

The V-belt sits behind the gear unit and isn’t something the manual gives a tensioning or replacement step for. Section 7.2.5 is explicit: “the gear unit can be repaired if this should become necessary. If repairs are necessary, please contact our customer service center.”

Working through it

Check the clutch engagement first, since it’s free and the manual gives an exact procedure: with the engine off, test that the hoes stop cleanly when the lever is released and engage properly when it’s pressed. If the cable’s too taut or too slack, adjust it at the lock nut and screw connector per Section 7.2.4 rather than guessing at tension. Only if that’s correctly adjusted and drive power is still weak does this become a V-belt question — and Einhell’s own documentation doesn’t hand that one to the owner.

Verdict

This is one of the more owner-friendly faults in Einhell’s petrol range precisely because the manual publishes a real adjustment procedure for the more likely cause. Check and adjust the Bowden cable first — it costs nothing and takes a few minutes. If that doesn’t restore drive power, the V-belt is the remaining cause, and Einhell’s own manual routes that to a service centre rather than giving a DIY procedure, so that’s the right point to stop rather than open the gear housing on a guess.