You summed it up nicely. I've worked on my fair share of vehicles and light 2 stroke maintenance, but this is my first experience doing major work on a saw involving the piston and crankcase. I got the kit because I wanted to learn more about saws. I figure if I need to screw up learning how to do something, it might as well be on something parts are pretty cheap for, and something that I don't feel bad about if I mess up.
I thought most of their "quality control" problems was missing parts. With all the saws I've worked on lately I think I'd rather someone else have the "experience."
Not for me. Out of the whole kit so far, all I have been missing is a measly circlip. I can't complain. As for experience, I don't mind assembling the crankcases, but I wish they would leave out the pre-installed oil seals.
I suppose you have to freeze the crank to get it to fit into the bearings? I've bought piston/cylinder kits from them that sometimes had the circlips missing also.
Forget freezing you need controlled heat. A heat gun and a laser temp gun to measure the temp. Heat the area to 250f and it will slip in
Yes, I did have to freeze the crank, and I heated the cases. It goes in fine, but the oil seal are a bit tricky. As for which you should buy, they just came out with ms440 kit so that may be a fun one to do. Little more expensive, but I think it is worth it. Had it come out sooner, I would have gotten it instead of then the 361
I initially used the frozen crank and heated case technique. However, after screwing around with the one oil seal (crank was room temp, other case half was heated), I agree that needing to cool down the crank is unnecessary. I was unable to tell the difference between sliding the crank in frozen vs at room temp.
