Husqvarna 450 seized 16" bar?

[Impalervlad]

I have a 450 Husky with a 16" bar that seized up in the middle of a cut. I'm just trying to figure out what happened and whether I should trust that bar again.
My 450 came with a 20" bar and I picked up an extra 18" and 16" bar for it. I had some wood to buck up and ran the 16" bar for about a half hour last week through mostly fresh cut oak.
This week I started out cutting up some smaller stuff with an Echo 310 and switched to the Husky 450 for some bigger but not huge stuff. I use my 460 Rancher with a 24" bar for big stuff. I started a cut in a piece of maybe 14" oak and got 90% through it when the saw stalled out. I tried starting the saw, checked the chain brake and tried to see if I could lift the chain from the bar to see if the chain was too tight. I couldn't pull the chain out of the bar even when I took the bar off the saw. It was like it was jammed in the groove all around. The end sprocket also wouldn't turn. Once I got the chain out, I put the 18" bar on the saw and continued cutting. Bar oil was spraying off the tip of the 18" chain so I'm pretty sure I don't have an oiler problem.
I took the bar, chain and saw to the shop and they said the bar was full of "sawdust". They freed up the bar sprocket and got it spinning pretty free. I wasn't sure if I could trust that 16" bar so I picked up another one. What I noticed in the new 16" bar and the new (I never used that bar before) 18" bar was that they both had a sprocket that would barely move. The shop said sometimes they have so much paint on the bars that it takes a while to wear it off and get the sprocket spinning freely.
All of these bars are Husky brand. The shop ran the saw with the bar that was acting up and the new 16" bar. They did say and I could feel it that the acting up bar seemed a little warm from just starting and revving a bit but I never paid attention to how hot a bar gets before because I never had a problem like this.
So, what do you think happened to the 16" bar that cut fine before and couldn't finish the cut this time? Did it overheat somehow? It wasn't pinched and the bar is straight and the grooves have returned to normal width. I check for chain tension everytime I cut and it seemed fine when I started the cut. The reservoir for the chain oil was full.
Anybody want to take a shot at solving the mystery?

 

[deepsouth]

Also depends what you're cutting.

I was bucking up a green Eucalypt recently and fibrous crap jammed the tip on my 24" bar. Freed it with judicious force backwards on the edge of the trailer sheet metal.

Finished another couple of tanks no worries.

One thing - check your chain gauge matches the bar.... You're not trying to run .058 in a .050 bar are you?

 

[watsonr]

And that the oiler is working properly.

 

[Impalervlad]

Also depends what you're cutting.

I was bucking up a green Eucalypt recently and fibrous crap jammed the tip on my 24" bar. Freed it with judicious force backwards on the edge of the trailer sheet metal.

Finished another couple of tanks no worries.

One thing - check your chain gauge matches the bar.... You're not trying to run .058 in a .050 bar are you?

I'm too anal to do something like run the wrong chain in a bar. I guess I shouldn't say it wouldn't happen but, as it works out, all my chains are .050. Plus, this is the chain I bought from the Husky shop when I bought the bar and they are very careful - to their credit.
As wrong as this may sound, I'm happy to hear this happened to somebody else. I have been cutting for forty years and this never happened. I was just thinking, I just started greasing the sprocket since I got a couple of new saws. I never bothered before but all I ever used to use were Homelites - Super XLs and a 150 that I just gave away. I bought a mess of chains from Bailey's maybe 15 or 20 years ago and still have some new in the box for the Homelites and never worried about gauge before but I do now.
You don't think the grease on the tip attracted sawdust that gummed things up - do you?

 

[Impalervlad]

And that the oiler is working properly.

I don't know what was happening when I was running the bar that jammed but, when I switched bars to keep cutting, the oiler was working on the new bar.

 

[Philbert]

The inside of a bar nose sprocket is a busy place, with lots of little pieces that could fail. Let's assume that since it is a genuine Husqvarna bar, it was well made and you don't have a quality issue.

I have had little pieces of dirt or wood get jammed in there that stopped things from turning. Can usually work them out by moving the sprocket back and forth, using blasts from an air compressor, probing with sharp things, etc. In one case I had to drive out the rivets and remove the sprocket because a piece of string got wrapped up in there and was not coming out on its own.

The 'Grease' / 'Don't Grease' thing has been discussed many times in length. If you are greasing your tips, you need to do it on a regular basis to keep pushing any gunk that accumulates out.

I would try the bar again if it the sprocket is now turning freely. Worse case, you have the other bars to use.

Philbert

 

[Chris-PA]

I've had it happen a few times too, mostly when using a nasty older bar with too much slop up at the tip sprocket and it jammed between the sprocket and the bar, or when the chain was too loose and junk got packed into the groove under the chain. Noodling also may have been involved when it happened to me.

 

[Woodsman1]

I had that happen with my 455 when it was new. Seized up suddenly in oak. Took the chain off, worked the sprocket loose, oiled the crap out of the sprocket, never happened again.

 

[PJF1313]

Those sprockets USUALLY jam up when cutting dirty/drug wood. And it's not just Husky, Oregon, Stihl, etc.; I've had a couple of Totals and Sugihara's do the same thing.

Just clean/work out the junk in the sprocket, blow out w/compressed air, and grease/not grease the tip. (I personally do not grease)

 

[Impalervlad]

Thanks for all the replies. Everything you guys said makes sense. I really appreciate the blowup of the sprocket that Philbert provided. It must be good if SawTroll liked it.
The guys at the shop used compressed air to blow out the sprocket and "worked" it somehow so it was spinning really free. I could have just taken the bar and walked out - I was actually impressed with the way the saw ran with the 18" bar - but, I felt guilty for the help the shop gave me and decided it wasn't a bad thing to have a spare bar so I got the new 16". I guess I should put my compressor somewhere where it is more accessible so I can use it more.
I'll be doing some more cutting this weekend and we'll see how things work out. I don't know if I should just use the new bar or try using the "fixed" bar to see what happens. I'll get back on here after and let everyone know what went on.

 

[RED WOOD]

I have a 450 Husky with a 16" bar that seized up in the middle of a cut. I'm just trying to figure out what happened and whether I should trust that bar again.
My 450 came with a 20" bar and I picked up an extra 18" and 16" bar for it. I had some wood to buck up and ran the 16" bar for about a half hour last week through mostly fresh cut oak.
This week I started out cutting up some smaller stuff with an Echo 310 and switched to the Husky 450 for some bigger but not huge stuff. I use my 460 Rancher with a 24" bar for big stuff. I started a cut in a piece of maybe 14" oak and got 90% through it when the saw stalled out. I tried starting the saw, checked the chain brake and tried to see if I could lift the chain from the bar to see if the chain was too tight. I couldn't pull the chain out of the bar even when I took the bar off the saw. It was like it was jammed in the groove all around. The end sprocket also wouldn't turn. Once I got the chain out, I put the 18" bar on the saw and continued cutting. Bar oil was spraying off the tip of the 18" chain so I'm pretty sure I don't have an oiler problem.
I took the bar, chain and saw to the shop and they said the bar was full of "sawdust". They freed up the bar sprocket and got it spinning pretty free. I wasn't sure if I could trust that 16" bar so I picked up another one. What I noticed in the new 16" bar and the new (I never used that bar before) 18" bar was that they both had a sprocket that would barely move. The shop said sometimes they have so much paint on the bars that it takes a while to wear it off and get the sprocket spinning freely.
All of these bars are Husky brand. The shop ran the saw with the bar that was acting up and the new 16" bar. They did say and I could feel it that the acting up bar seemed a little warm from just starting and revving a bit but I never paid attention to how hot a bar gets before because I never had a problem like this.
So, what do you think happened to the 16" bar that cut fine before and couldn't finish the cut this time? Did it overheat somehow? It wasn't pinched and the bar is straight and the grooves have returned to normal width. I check for chain tension everytime I cut and it seemed fine when I started the cut. The reservoir for the chain oil was full.
Anybody want to take a shot at solving the mystery?

I have had this happen to me a couple of times, once with 18" Stihl rollomatic E bar, once on Husky 450 with 18" Oregon ProLite bar. Sprocket tip jammed full of chips and bar groove packed with chips to the point the chain would not move. Both had to be completely disassembled, bar groove scraped out with a knife, sprocket tip had to be pushed against something solid to get it to turn and work the chips out (Oregon bar tip was greased). Both times I was cutting in really cold weather (using winter grade bar oil) but still seemed like the chain oiler wasn't pumping as much oil as it normally does. Cutting mostly dry ash with both saws. What I will do now is if I notice the saw slowing down in the cut after a while I will finish the cut and rev the saw out of the cut for a few seconds to clear it out. You can watch the chips continue to fly out of the bottom of the clutch cover. Do this a few times to clear the bar groove and the sprocket tip then resume cutting. Also after done cutting for the day I remove the b/c and blow out the bar groove and spin the sprocket tip with compressed air to "fling out" all the chips and oil. It will really sing when it gets cleared out, but don't over rev it for too long! Make sure to blow out the oiler holes on the bar too.

 

[dsell]

Don't overlook the drive links on the chain. If the drive links are getting bad or the chain is stretched, it may be tightening up during the run since it's trying to jump the sprocket teeth. I assume your drive sprocket is good. Dad greased his bar tip on the Homelite 150 evertime he tightened the chain. I havn't been greasing mine and havn't had any issues.