From videos I thought chain brake installation was a walk in the park, compress the new spring with a screwdriver and away you go. But here are springs and there are springs. That idea quickly proved laughable on my Gen I 455 Ranchers. The saws never had brakes since I got/inherited them, thought I'd put brakes on to sell them. After the fact, I discovered plenty of chain brake install horror stories going way back on AS so found my experience was par for the course. I would have just bought an aftermarket clutch cover complete for cheap, but turns out they only make them for the Rancher II's.
After haplessly trying every tool I could find in my shop and getting nowhere, I clamped the cover to the edge of a work bench and used a pipe clamp to slowly and carefully compress it til I could push it down into the slot. The first time the linkage end jumped out of place a bit and I couldn't get it back in place and had to start over after wasting a half hour of frustration. I held the linkage end down with some vice grips so it wouldn't jump and then got the spring on again without too much trouble.
Was a bit baffled why it wouldn't go on the saw very well and align right but had not watched the videos through and didn't realize my brake band was in activated mode. Put it on with the handle pushed all the way forward, aligned it, and then pulled the handle back to deactivate the brake. The thing operates with a bear trap kinda snap, spring is unnecessarily heavy. Don't know if the OEM's were that bad, the cheap AM springs I got for it are super beefy. Definitely was not a repair I was expecting to be such a headache, but apparently brake springs on most old Husky's over 50cc have given people fits.
After haplessly trying every tool I could find in my shop and getting nowhere, I clamped the cover to the edge of a work bench and used a pipe clamp to slowly and carefully compress it til I could push it down into the slot. The first time the linkage end jumped out of place a bit and I couldn't get it back in place and had to start over after wasting a half hour of frustration. I held the linkage end down with some vice grips so it wouldn't jump and then got the spring on again without too much trouble.
Was a bit baffled why it wouldn't go on the saw very well and align right but had not watched the videos through and didn't realize my brake band was in activated mode. Put it on with the handle pushed all the way forward, aligned it, and then pulled the handle back to deactivate the brake. The thing operates with a bear trap kinda snap, spring is unnecessarily heavy. Don't know if the OEM's were that bad, the cheap AM springs I got for it are super beefy. Definitely was not a repair I was expecting to be such a headache, but apparently brake springs on most old Husky's over 50cc have given people fits.