XL 12 Overhaul

I picked up this real nice XL12for $5. Saw is lightly used, has orig homelite bar and good paint. The problem? Piston is locked solid in the cylinder and its corroded beyond repair. I decided the saw was worthy of a re-build since there are a million XL12's out there and donor saws are cheap. Thanks to Calvin (lawnmowertech) I got an engine in pretty good shape. So far Ive torn down the donor saw and have the crankcase, and P&C apart. The Cyl. was pretty good, but I polished it up with some emory cloth. The piston and rings were in good shape. There was alot of carbon buildup on the exh. port so i took the dremel to it. I pulled the rings, and polished the piston up real nice. Today I tore down the other saw and boy what a mess! I though I could salvage the crank case. No way. More to come.
<a href="http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww294/joe25da/?action=view&current=saws415.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww294/joe25da/saws415.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
partially torn down
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the parts
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Ugly. Any ideas?
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<a href="http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww294/joe25da/?action=view&current=saws435.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww294/joe25da/saws435.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Homlite

That looks poor Joe. Saw looks pretty nice though, he must have dropped it overboard or left it outside one winter!!! Good thing you have that other lowerend. If you need any bits extra, I may have what you need. PM me if you need anything. Good luck, looks like more of a project that you thought!!

glad to help joe

Cantdog said:

That looks poor Joe. Saw looks pretty nice though, he must have dropped it overboard or left it outside one winter!!! Good thing you have that other lowerend. If you need any bits extra, I may have what you need. PM me if you need anything. Good luck, looks like more of a project that you thought!!

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It always is more work than you think. If you saw that XL 12 youd never know it wasnt perfect. until you tried pulling it over or looked in the muffler. I think Im good with the parts. The only thing id like to do would be the clutch side seal and base gasket. Wheres the best spot to get those?

joe25DA said:

It always is more work than you think. If you saw that XL 12 youd never know it wasnt perfect. until you tried pulling it over or looked in the muffler. I think Im good with the parts. The only thing id like to do would be the clutch side seal and base gasket. Wheres the best spot to get those?

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i may of came across them after i sent that saw off

lawnmowertech37 said:

i may of came across them after i sent that saw off

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Yep, for new gaskets and seals I was gonna suggest Calvin. I just have a few parts XL 12s and Super XLs series saws. I hate it when they look so good and are so beat internally. For $5.00 that's the way mop flops as they say. As you said there a bunch of parts saws out there with usable internals but look awful. When you are done she'll be good AND look good!!

Looks like a neat project.
Got a bit of corrosion.
I haven't seen one that bad yet.
Otherwise the saw looks nice for
one of the ole blue ones.


Lee

Yeah. Its nasty. It looks like someone dumped a half cup up salt water mxed with chlorine into the plug hole then shook it up good to really ruin it.

joe25DA said:

Yeah. Its nasty. It looks like someone dumped a half cup up salt water mxed with chlorine into the plug hole then shook it up good to really ruin it.

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Almost resembles a MTD rider I worked on couple year ago lady left it on a hill bank in front of the river and guess what happened next lets just say costed her a new engine and some tractor parts

By the way a set of rings was found n my parts box

I've never been inside of an XL, that looks like a thrust bearing on the crank shaft. Can anyone explain the theory?

Mark

heimannm said:

I've never been inside of an XL, that looks like a thrust bearing on the crank shaft. Can anyone explain the theory?

Mark

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Mark I may be all wet here but I think the older homeys had roller mains and the thrust bearings control crankshaft endplay. BUT I have never been that far in either.

Just by looking at it I would say we are looking at the clutch side, in which Homelite decided to use a needle roller. That being said, they used the thrust bearing for the needed side to side crank play.

This is the clutch/pto side. This is my first look that deep into one of these. Thankfully my "new" crankcase is in good shape. the bearings seem fine. Any special way to prep the bearings/crank?

forgot to mention this in my first post. I used a steam cleaner for the P&C and I must say it did a fine job or getting carbon, grease and grime off. If any one has one, I reccomend it for saw cleaning

joe25DA said:

This is the clutch/pto side. This is my first look that deep into one of these. Thankfully my "new" crankcase is in good shape. the bearings seem fine. Any special way to prep the bearings/crank?

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Only thing that crankcase was missing was the throttle body its other half is here locally on a red xl -12

Thanks for the steam cleaner idea will have to try that out on these around here .