Did something stupid, but survived.

[brages]

Hi folks.

I was messing around last night with a little Super XL that I had found in one of my dad's outbuildings. Actually, he had a pair of the little guys, so I took good parts off of one to put on the other...

Anyway, I had been missing a throttle link, so I never really got it going. Eventually I ordered the link, and put the project on the back burner.

So last night I finally popped the link in to make the throttle work, gassed it up and pulled on the cord a few dozen times. Eventually, it started to fire... then I eased off the choke, gave it a little more gas to clear out the cylinder...

when I heard a loud BANG and the saw jerked in my hand. I heard something flying across the garage. I let the saw slow down, don't remember if I switched it off or if it died. I looked down and...

I had started it up with the drum off of the clutch. The clutch on these is an S-shaped piece of steel, weighted on the ends to expand outwards onto the drum to engage it. Only with no drum on, when I revved the motor, the weighted ends of the "S" went flying off... Thankfully, the magnesium clutch cover shattered and protected my right hand (which was only inches away from the clutch, this is a tophandle). And the other piece must have flown out the bottom and (also thankfully) missed hitting me.

The other good news is I have enough extra parts to replace the broken castings (the case/clutch cover AND the bottom end cap on the motor (had a cast tab break off). The bad news is I don't have another clutch (the other one had a broken end, too) so this project is going back on hold indefinitely...

 

[sloch24]

I did the same thing.. you're not alone. I felt VERY stupid, yet I learned from my mistake.

In my case, I took the engine off of a Stihl string trimmer. I wanted to run it without the shaft to isolate vibration. Well, I isolated it alright. I still think I'm damn lucky not to have a hole in my head from that clutch. Luckily, I didn't get hurt. I blew a hole in the Soffit of my garage, and never did find all of the pieces.

 

[Banacanin]

Part of learning is making mistakes. By sharing this you might have saved someone from the same error and that is worth a lot in my books

 

[TRI955]

Been there, done that!!! There is still pieces of a 360 Shindaiwa clutch somewhere out in the yard.....maybe the neighbors yard....


Mike

 

[alinicoll]

Lucky you`re ok. That kind of thing is very easily done.

 

[Hddnis]

Here's to living to learn from mistakes.

Glad you are ok.

Can't say as I've made that particular mistake, I hope that because you shared this I will remember it and not have to learn the hard way.


Mr. HE

 

[joatmon]

Good lesson. Thanks.

I stihl have a pressure washer nozzle that being tracked by NASA.

ole joat

 

[john taliaferro]

dont forget to tell him thanks tonight.

 

[Hddnis]

Good lesson. Thanks.

I stihl have a pressure washer nozzle that being tracked by NASA.

ole joat

:agree2:

We used to stick a piece of pipe over the end of the wand and shoot rocks with pressure washer.

NASA isn't tracking those, but a few small furry animals won't be testifying against us.



Mr. HE

 

[Ma Barker]

Glad you didn't get hurt, and bummer about the project going on hold. I'm also trying to build a frankensaw or two out of some old 10-10s and I was only slightly smarter than you the other day. Clutch drum was on, and I even thought to put the clutch cover on before I started one up. What I didn't do was install a bar though, and the tolerances in there are tighter than I imagined. Started it up & it started shooting sparks out the front & bottom of the clutch cover when I revved the engine. There was no nasty sound, so I revved a few times before I discovered the sparks. Kinda stupid. I need to get a Mac bar before I can do much more fixing, tuning, or running of these saws.

Like someone else said, I learnt sumptin' that day.

 

[Evan]

i ounce exsploded a big needel bearing that came out of motocross bike steering stem in my hand i was cleaning it in the solvent tank and was holding it in my hand and blowing it off with the air well i was kinda playing at this point because the bearing was spinning interanaly makn a cool ziiiiiiiiiiing noise and the it finaly exsploded imbedding parts of the bearing in the hand.

ive never done that since

 

[yquem]

And I know what happens to a 026 if you do that. It wraps the chainbrake spring around the exposed clutch. but you can bend it back to original shape and get it working without any real damage, except for a few broken bits of plastic and metal that probably were just getting in the way anyway. or so I've heard.

 

[RED-85-Z51]

DId it on my racing kart a couple years ago, I was flogging the crap out of the thing and seized the clutch. I took the drum off and set it in some gas so I could clean it. I went back to the kart and cranked it to adjust the base idle mixture...it ran at idle for 2-3 minutes without a problem.

I knew I had the chain off...so I ripped it wide open, about 7500... it didnt take that many revs for the 6 clutch shoes to explode off the hub...I found 1of them in the ground under the kart...:censored:

 

[roncoinc]

Had a clutch come apart bounce a weight of my truck but never found it.did find one spring tho.

 

[Saw Dr.]

Glad you didn't get hurt, and bummer about the project going on hold. I'm also trying to build a frankensaw or two out of some old 10-10s and I was only slightly smarter than you the other day. Clutch drum was on, and I even thought to put the clutch cover on before I started one up. What I didn't do was install a bar though, and the tolerances in there are tighter than I imagined. Started it up & it started shooting sparks out the front & bottom of the clutch cover when I revved the engine. There was no nasty sound, so I revved a few times before I discovered the sparks. Kinda stupid. I need to get a Mac bar before I can do much more fixing, tuning, or running of these saws.

Like someone else said, I learnt sumptin' that day.

They're not all 10-10's..... I'd just use a couple of 5/16" washers on the bar studs, and then put the clutch cover on. I'll do this on ones I ship out sometimes to keep the clutch cover from flopping around.

 

[Ma Barker]

They're not all 10-10's.....

Yeah, I discovered that later. It was actually the 70cc mystery saw that shot the sparks. Thanks for the tip on the washers!

 

[056kid]

I had a clutch on a 056 explode in the cut, i didnt have any idea what had happend, just that it was bad!!