346XP NE Refuses To Start.

[clayman]

I used the saw about two weeks ago to cut up a dead oak I felled in my yard and it did fine. Today I had another one to cut out on the edge of a field so I loaded up my stuff in the tractor cart to get the job done. When I was ready for the saw I put in fresh gas and bar oil and tried to start it and I never got a pop at all. I went over the starting procedure to make sure I had not overlooked something simple (I have been known to do that). What I do is set the choke at full, pump up the fuel bulb, and give it a pull or two, and usually it will pop, then I set the choke at at half and it starts to run then I take the choke to off, and it's running ready to cut, but today nothing at all. It's either not getting spark or fuel. I pulled it quite a bit and never smelled fuel, and I had cleaned out the air filter.

How do I go about solving this riddle?

 

[DSS]

Dump a little mix down the carb and see if it fires. If it does, you got a fuel problem. If it doesn't, you have a spark problem. Try a new spark plug. Easy things first.

 

[zogger]

Well, pull the plug, turn saw over, yank several times to make sure your saw is not still flooded, most likely it is. Inspect plug, is it wet fouled? if so, you can air it out, hit it for a few seconds with a lighter. Put plug back in plugboot and ground to the cylinder, pull it over, do you have spark? No spark, try a known good plug instead. Start from there.

Wild card is muffler on small engines, had a mud dauber nest once that they built within a couple weeks on a good running trimmer. Never would start until I found the extra clay ballast in there and cleaned it out.

With the muffler off you can inspect the piston and cylinder.

Not much to these things, basically the simplest engines you will find, only thing simpler is two stroke diesels

With your saw, good spark at the right time, proper fuel air mix in the combustion chamber, decent compression...she'll fire. Any one of those things wrong, no workee.

 

[SawTroll]

I used the saw about two weeks ago to cut up a dead oak I felled in my yard and it did fine. Today I had another one to cut out on the edge of a field so I loaded up my stuff in the tractor cart to get the job done. When I was ready for the saw I put in fresh gas and bar oil and tried to start it and I never got a pop at all. I went over the starting procedure to make sure I had not overlooked something simple (I have been known to do that). What I do is set the choke at full, pump up the fuel bulb, and give it a pull or two, and usually it will pop, then I set the choke at at half and it starts to run then I take the choke to off, and it's running ready to cut, but today nothing at all. It's either not getting spark or fuel. I pulled it quite a bit and never smelled fuel, and I had cleaned out the air filter.

How do I go about solving this riddle?

What do you mean by "set the choke at half"? The is no halv choke setting on those saws.

 

[sunfish]

Like ST said, there is no half choke. After the pop, push choke all the way in.

The only trouble I've had out of my 12 year old 346 is bad fuel lines, need to replace about every 3 years. I'd check that first. Never had mine flood, but that could be what you have there.

I ran mine all morning, has not been run since mid April, been sitting with mix in it. Pop on the second pull, was able to get the choke in before it died. Set over two months, running on the second pull, Love it!

 

[clayman]

What do you mean by "set the choke at half"? The is no halv choke setting on those saws.

Really, that's funny! Funny to me because when my saw was new I was having trouble starting it. It would start and die, and then if I had the choke off it would not start. I was getting exasperated, and was having to pull the start rope way to much for a new saw. I posted the problem on here and "someone" wrote "once it pops, just push the choke half in, and pull again and it will run, and it worked like a charm, and I have done that ever since. I know there is no half way stop position, but it does work.

I have been out working on other things, but I will try all the suggestions and report progress when I have the time.

The saw has been used very little since early summer of last year. My wife fell victim to a mysterious, and very rare illness, and nearly died. When we finally found out what it was, thank the good Lord there was a treatment for it, and it worked. About all my time, since then, has been devoted to getting her back on her feet, and that involved a lot of prayer, and some very good doctors. She is 9 months out of the hospital now and very near back to normal. Enough so that I feel I can get back to cutting a little wood now and again. I am thanking the Lord for that (her recovery, not the sawing), everywhere, and every time I can.

Thanks fellas

 

[SawTroll]

Really, that's funny! Funny to me because when my saw was new I was having trouble starting it. It would start and die, and then if I had the choke off it would not start. I was getting exasperated, and was having to pull the start rope way to much for a new saw. I posted the problem on here and "someone" wrote "once it pops, just push the choke half in, and pull again and it will run, and it worked like a charm, and I have done that ever since. I know there is no half way stop position, but it does work.

....

It should be pushed all the way in at that point, and don't touch the "trigger" before making the next pull(s). That way, the saw will be in "high idle", which is the correct setting.

 

[clayman]

It should be pushed all the way in at that point, and don't touch the "trigger" before making the next pull(s). That way, the saw will be in "high idle", which is the correct setting.

That makes me wonder if the settings on my new saw were right. I could get it to run the way you suggest, but not without pulling it many times, which I thought could not be right, but the other way worked for me with about three pulls and when it started on the third, quick push the choke all the way in.

And I did not "invent" that method, but another member here did who must have encountered the same problem I was having with the 346 XP, and I guess we are not talking about what "should have worked" but what did work. I was really grateful for the advice, for I am an old guy (75) with only so many pulls left in him.

 

[RedneckChainsawRepair]

Try this if it has been a problem since new. Open the L side up some (counter clockwise). If it isnt against the stops, if it is remove tab for full adjustments.

 

[SawTroll]

That makes me wonder if the settings on my new saw were right. I could get it to run the way you suggest, but not without pulling it many times, which I thought could not be right, but the other way worked for me with about three pulls and when it started on the third, quick push the choke all the way in.

And I did not "invent" that method, but another member here did who must have encountered the same problem I was having with the 346 XP, and I guess we are not talking about what "should have worked" but what did work. I was really grateful for the advice, for I am an old guy (75) with only so many pulls left in him.

If you have to resort to non-standard methods, it is very likely that your carb is not set right - and that always if the first thing to check, if you have starting or running issues.

 

[clayman]

Well, went out this morning intending to work on the saw; I set up a work table and then went to the shed and got the saw. Before I started anything I thought maybe I ought to try it one more time. I pulled the rope and it fired right off :msp_biggrin:, then died as it always does. I pushed in the choke, pulled again and I had a running saw. I remember I wrote in my first post that the saw was running fine about a week ago, but when I gave it more thought I realized it really wasn't. I had trouble with it bogging down a lot.

So I am off to the the field to cut down that other dead oak (about an 18" tree). The dead oak I had cut down the week before had done a rocking chair on me (first time I ever had that happen), but it finished falling before I had to do anything else to it (got lucky I guess). Anyway, I didn't want to see that again, and I remembered a member wrote about doing a plunge cut in the felling cut to prevent that. I notched the tree and cut most of the back cut then plunged the saw in the center of the cut, and Bingo, down went the tree as pretty as you please.

So I am cutting up the rounds and again the saw is bogging down. Maybe I need to adjust the carb I thought (I have never done that on any saw in 30 years of wood cutting). I took off the cover and air cleaner and did not see any apparent adjustment screws. But I did notice the choke mechanism looked funny. It did not seem to be fully open. I messed with it a bit and got it to flip up into the fully off position. That solved the bogging down problem. But now I wonder why it did that?