tomcatbubba
ArboristSite Lurker
Hi all. I was running my 6 month old Stihl MS362 the other day and I had a little kickback issue. I've never had the saw kickback before as I have been cutting for the last 25 years and know enough to try and avoid those situations. This time I was about halfway through a 12 inch diameter piece of hickory and the saw bucked a little. I always stand off to the left side of the cut and never directly in line with the cut. When the saw bucked (no the rakers are not set too low), I felt my left hand pop the kickback bar but the chain kept running. I made it through the cut and went to set the kickback mechanism before I set the saw down (habit pattern) and low and behold, the plastic down near the screw was cracked all the way through and the handle was hanging only by the right side of the mechanism (I know it happened just then because I use the mechanism religiously and it was not broken before the cut). It seemed the plastic wanted to break before the mechanism kicked in which kind of scares me. The rep at my dealer has it in for warranty now and she stated she needed to call Stihl to let them know, and that they would check the kickback mechanism before they returned it to me. After thinking long and hard, I'm not so sure I want the saw back considering their check will be to engage and disengage the handle without putting it through a true kickback. Am I off base on this? Something doesn't quite seem right, which (after my days as a fighter pilot) usually means things aren't right. Thanks.