remove woodruff key carcass from flywheel?

[heyduke]

We have flat land low altitude Kansas crew working in our area and all their auto tunes won't run...even after being reset. The GF and the crews aren't real happy about it. We're only 3500 to 6000/6500 ft in elevation and their having fits with equipment.
Call me old school but I hate "black boxes" too.....

i need a saw that you can repair on your tailgate, and if that won't get it then back in the shop. we don't have a husqvarna dealer within 200 miles of here. i think there are only on or two in our entire state. so you're on your own, which is just fine. the best dealer close to me is the dolmar guy but he's up in the air with all the makita/dolmar rebranding issues and their recent deteriation of parts supply service. pretty much any town with a population of 2k or more has a stihl dealer. they vary in quality from mediocre to bad. but they have great ads.

yeah, we've beat that woodruff key issue to a pulp in this thread. i'm still in the pro-key minority. i've seen them slip, probably due to chainbrake operation. i've seen saws with poor timing because a guy who's great operating a saw isn't necessarily a highly skilled mechanic, he's lucky if he remembers the 2stroke oil. if you're installing a nonstandard module that doesn't match your flywheel, you don't have a lot of choice though. i'd wager that i could take a keyless flywheel of the shelf and put it on a 70cc saw, torque it to 25ft/lbs and make it slip.

Yep, my older saws start and run fine when I have a tuning screwdriver.

I just heard from a guy on another thread that I've been starting my 550 wrong when it's hot. I need to push the lever to choke position, then back off choke so I've got a fast idle setting WITHOUT choke. Can't wait to try it. Headed out the door to work now.

let us know how it turns out.

 

[buzz sawyer]

i certainly respect your skill and experience but i've worked on saw that arborists and firewood guys use. and i've found sheared keys. if it's an integral aluminum key, i order up a new flywheel.





so if tapered shafts don't slip, why were you working in there? was there a sheared key? i know you can slap a new piston in an old 029 and use the old flywheel with a toasted key, send it out the door for a couple of benjamins, but did you really check the timing after it cut 20 cords? i've known a lot of mechanics who never replace as many fasteners as they removed, but i do. it's my values and my craftmanship. also, i don't leave the key out to advance ignition timing because i think that's snake oil 90% of the time. prove me wrong with real hard data (not anecdotes) and i'll eat crow, done that before. sometimes i think that 75% of the work i see on my bench is due to someone else's sloppy work or ignorance. not trying to bust anybody's chops. you do it your way. i'll do it frank's way... er my way.

I didn't leave the key out of my 125, McCulloch did. I can pull the clutch and see there is no sign of slipping on the tapers.

 

[heyduke]

I didn't leave the key out of my 125, McCulloch did. I can pull the clutch and see there is no sign of slipping on the tapers.

i'm not familiar with that saw. does it have a chain brake?

 

[buzz sawyer]

i'm not familiar with that saw. does it have a chain brake?

later models did. This one did not. http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.n...8f3f282a75b10ab688256c2f00198ba9?OpenDocument

 

[heyduke]

later models did. This one did not. http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.n...8f3f282a75b10ab688256c2f00198ba9?OpenDocument

View attachment 508988

yeah, that's what i thought. my theory is that what causes most flywheel key failures (and slipping unkeyed flywheels) is when someone operates the chain brake while the saw is revving. you can go from 12k rpm to zero in a few milliseconds. sometimes the flywheel takes a little longer.

love your saw, a few weeks ago i picked up a low hour 80cc mcculloch 300, $35. it looked pretty new except the starter looks like it was repainted yellow to match, the old paint is olive drab. whoever did it did a nice job. when i got it home i figured out why it hasn't been run much and maybe why it needed a new starter. the thing requires some cajones to get it started. i don't have any problem drop starting my stihl 084 without punching the compression release but the mcculloch is a challenge. the day after i got it my neck and shoulders were feeling the burn. i was going to use it to build a wind vane for the shop but it runs and sounds great, still has the original 20" bar and never sharpened .404 chain.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Thanks. I'm really glad the 125 has a compression release. Good deal on the 80cc!

 

[heyduke]

Thanks. I'm really glad the 125 has a compression release. Good deal on the 80cc!

i'll try to post photos. except for garage dust it's almost pristine. the chain is really unusual too.it's too loud but has a beautiful sound. maybe a 6000 rpm red line.