hello. resident of the mid florida gulf coast here. last year we had a very rainy summer, and the back of my property was flooded for about 8 or 9 months.
at the lowest spot, the almost 4-foot-high wood fence between properties was under water. I still have a small amount of standing water and summer is well under way again. as a result, I now have 22 dead and falling apart oak trees.
the little husky 340 I've had for the last 20 years or so has been a great saw. very reliable, always starts right up even when I've ignored it for a while (no ethanol used and I dump the fuel when I know it will sit). for its low hp, it's actually a zippy little saw. I used it last week and dropped the 3 smallest dead trees, cleaned them up. burned the branches and stacked some fire wood. then I decided that the 340 isn't up to the rest of the task. most of the remaining trees I have to remove are 20 to 24" and about 75 to 80 feet tall. I know that isn't huge (I grew up and lived in oregon until I was in my 20's) but they look big to me lol.
I wanted a little bit bigger saw (not a huge one as I'm 69 years old). I like quality old tools and found an 036 on craig's. drove about an hour to check it out. seller was an older guy and didn't come across as a guy who would be using a chainsaw. he said he bought it 10 years ago to cut down one tree and it had sat in the case since then. he had a receipt from Everglades Power Equipment dated 5/22/22 where they had worked on the saw to get it running again. fresh fuel, new fuel line and new tank vent it said. the saw started right up, idled nicely but didn't rev cleanly at high rpm. I took the muffler off and the piston and cylinder walls looked new. I gave him 300 bucks and drove home. I know that's a lot for a 24 year old saw but I liked it and figured I could tune it to run clean.
I checked it over the next morning and sharpened and adjusted the chain and when I was cutting some 12" oak into lengths the saw had very little power. I raced motocross most of my life and still ride in the woods so I'm pretty good at tuning 2 strokes and have rebuilt many. I still have 5 bikes in my garage and they're all 2 strokes. I could not get this saw to run right. I adjusted the low jet first to get a snappy trigger response with a good idle but could not get the high jet to make the saw rev high enough or cleanly. when I turned the idle screw in way too far the saw seemed to have a lot more power but ran worse and would not idle. when I went back to the recommended settings it would idle all day but power was weak and it would break up at high rpm.
I downloaded the Stihl owner's manual and service manual and read through them. one strange thing is the service manual says to turn both high and low adjustment screws out 1 turn but on the saw it says H out 3/4 turn and L out 1/4 turn. neither of those settings improved things.
so. after doing a bunch of reading I did some disassembly. so much easier than a dirtbike. love it. the cylinder looks new and does not appear to have any markings on it. I can't really see if there are any markings on the base next to the flywheel as both of my dirtbike flywheel pullers are too big. I ordered a puller and it should bee here friday. the piston has no carbon on top. the carb is a stock Zama and says Stihl on the bottom. at this point I believe that the cylinder and piston are relatively new aftermarket. I called the PO and he seemed surprised and said it must have been done before he bought the saw 10 years ago and he only used it once. who knows.
compression is at 160 psi.
will be doing pressure and vacuum tests in a day or so as having to screw the idle screw way in makes me suspect the crank seals. I ordered the following parts: gasket set with crank seals, carb kit, impulse line, flywheel puller, air filter and NGK plug.
any thoughts, ideas or advice you might have on this will be welcome. sorry about the manuscript I just wrote. got carried away. I love 2 strokes.
at the lowest spot, the almost 4-foot-high wood fence between properties was under water. I still have a small amount of standing water and summer is well under way again. as a result, I now have 22 dead and falling apart oak trees.
the little husky 340 I've had for the last 20 years or so has been a great saw. very reliable, always starts right up even when I've ignored it for a while (no ethanol used and I dump the fuel when I know it will sit). for its low hp, it's actually a zippy little saw. I used it last week and dropped the 3 smallest dead trees, cleaned them up. burned the branches and stacked some fire wood. then I decided that the 340 isn't up to the rest of the task. most of the remaining trees I have to remove are 20 to 24" and about 75 to 80 feet tall. I know that isn't huge (I grew up and lived in oregon until I was in my 20's) but they look big to me lol.
I wanted a little bit bigger saw (not a huge one as I'm 69 years old). I like quality old tools and found an 036 on craig's. drove about an hour to check it out. seller was an older guy and didn't come across as a guy who would be using a chainsaw. he said he bought it 10 years ago to cut down one tree and it had sat in the case since then. he had a receipt from Everglades Power Equipment dated 5/22/22 where they had worked on the saw to get it running again. fresh fuel, new fuel line and new tank vent it said. the saw started right up, idled nicely but didn't rev cleanly at high rpm. I took the muffler off and the piston and cylinder walls looked new. I gave him 300 bucks and drove home. I know that's a lot for a 24 year old saw but I liked it and figured I could tune it to run clean.
I checked it over the next morning and sharpened and adjusted the chain and when I was cutting some 12" oak into lengths the saw had very little power. I raced motocross most of my life and still ride in the woods so I'm pretty good at tuning 2 strokes and have rebuilt many. I still have 5 bikes in my garage and they're all 2 strokes. I could not get this saw to run right. I adjusted the low jet first to get a snappy trigger response with a good idle but could not get the high jet to make the saw rev high enough or cleanly. when I turned the idle screw in way too far the saw seemed to have a lot more power but ran worse and would not idle. when I went back to the recommended settings it would idle all day but power was weak and it would break up at high rpm.
I downloaded the Stihl owner's manual and service manual and read through them. one strange thing is the service manual says to turn both high and low adjustment screws out 1 turn but on the saw it says H out 3/4 turn and L out 1/4 turn. neither of those settings improved things.
so. after doing a bunch of reading I did some disassembly. so much easier than a dirtbike. love it. the cylinder looks new and does not appear to have any markings on it. I can't really see if there are any markings on the base next to the flywheel as both of my dirtbike flywheel pullers are too big. I ordered a puller and it should bee here friday. the piston has no carbon on top. the carb is a stock Zama and says Stihl on the bottom. at this point I believe that the cylinder and piston are relatively new aftermarket. I called the PO and he seemed surprised and said it must have been done before he bought the saw 10 years ago and he only used it once. who knows.
compression is at 160 psi.
will be doing pressure and vacuum tests in a day or so as having to screw the idle screw way in makes me suspect the crank seals. I ordered the following parts: gasket set with crank seals, carb kit, impulse line, flywheel puller, air filter and NGK plug.
any thoughts, ideas or advice you might have on this will be welcome. sorry about the manuscript I just wrote. got carried away. I love 2 strokes.
Have fun!
