bcorradi
Arboristsite.com Sponsor
Here is an update. I have never done this before, was interesting to say the least.
I made a vacuum/pressure tester. Real work of art, looked like ER.
Anyhow the saw would not hold more than 3 inches of vacuum, no obvious leaks. So I did the pressure test using some pressure testing fluid, no obvious leaks, covered the whole saw with fluid. But searching I had read some posts of Lakesides on leaky flywheel side seals. And some others on saws that had a hard time staying tuned as this one did. Well I dont have a Stihl puller so cant see in there.
What to do??? So I sealed up all the orifices and dunked the saw in a five gallon bucket of water, it was under pressure at this time. and low and behold I get bubbles from the flywheel side seal. So will have to get that done. Should I do both seals?? Bearings seem fine.
If you wanted to be proactive I guess you could change the clutch side seal also, but in all honesty I haven't seen a tremendous amount of clutch sides go out vs the flywheel sides. You can pickup a flywheel puller from your dealer fairly reasonable...or else there are a few home brewed techniques to getting them off if you wanted. Also, you will be able to buy the whole gasket set which includes all the gaskets (crankcase, cylinder, exhaust, and both seals) for cheaper than buying two individual seals if i remember right. So you may want to just buy the whole kit and change the flywheel side seal now and keep the other stuff for future use.