drf255, thank you, thank you, my friend for sticking with this. I got my puller today. Pulled flywheel. Put oil on seal and watched it disappear into crank case under vacuum! It was awesome to finally find the issue, especially knowing that my local dealer wouldn’t even do a vac test. Now I need to replace seal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!!
Take multiple pics and try to measure depth, that’s the most important part of installing the seal. Also wanna make sure it’s square.
No need for a puller. Tap one side of the seal in with a punch and the other side will pop out. Then grab it with a pick and remove.
Lube the new seal up with 2T oil (inside and out) and slide it over crank with slight side pressure so that the seal doesn’t have any pressure on the crank key way. When you get it near the area it seats in, gently tap it in using a long shank socket to proper depth.
If it’s your own saw, AM seals are ok. The oem ones cost more individually than the entire gasket kit does, so I usually buy the kit. Personally, I own the oem seal install kit for 95% of all Stihl models. It makes it a fast no-brained job, but I do alot of saws.