Stihl 026 crank seals

[SuperDuty04]

I ordered a set of crank seals for my 026 and received them yesterday. The flywheel side was perfect and easily went in. The clutch side seal wasn't the right seal. After you remove the clutch, you have a seal with snap-ring attached to it. Can anyone point me in the right direction to what I need?

 

[Gord404]

Well remove the snap ring and try your fit again, just did an 026 a few months ago and those seals fit about 4 different saws, can't quite remember but i believe the snap ring is for you worm to ride on.

 

[SuperDuty04]

Well remove the snap ring and try your fit again, just did an 026 and those seals fit about 4 different saws

I guess I should have clarified, I removed the snapp ring and it had a seal that easily came out but was nowhere near the same size as what came in the package. There was a pressed on seal down deep but it didn't look anything similar to what came in the package...

 

[irhunter]

I ordered a set of crank seals for my 026

What brand did you buy?

 

[pioneerguy600]

Buy OEM from a servicing Stihl dealer, in all likelyhood you will get the correct seals, 96400031600 clutch side, 96400031190 recoil side.

 

[SuperDuty04]

Buy OEM from a servicing Stihl dealer, in all likelyhood you will get the correct seals, 96400031600 clutch side, 96400031190 recoil side.

Thank ya sir!

 

[irhunter]

I suggest, asking the dealer about the cost of the gasket/seal kit versus just the two seals. Sometimes, the kit can actually be cheaper.

 

[94 wrangler]

On crank seals, use Stihl OEM or those made by Stens. Stens I have found out over the years to be of excellent quality for any and all after market parts for mowers, chainsaws etc. Be sure you have the Stihl part number before ordering any part from any source. You can do a on line search for "Stihl 026 parts diagram". The one I use is from the UK under a link that starts out "DYI". All is good except for the prices. I only use them for the parts numbers and pictures of the parts I need. Use those numbers on eBay or at your Stihl dealer.

 

[ihookem]

Funny this thread came up. I just sent my 026 to a real good Stihl mechanic. One young buck from another shop said it was a crank case seal. Its a bit off the subject , but what is the cost of a repair at a shop? We will see what is wrong with it and I will get back to you all. This saw has not run good in 15 yrs.

 

[teacherman]

Does Stihl still carry seals for these saws?

 

[irhunter]

Does Stihl still carry seals for these saws?

Yes, any dealer can get the seals or the gasket/seal set. I have not run into any 026 parts which are NLA. Not to say, there is no such thing.

I have encountered a couple NLA parts for the 038.

Roy

 

[94 wrangler]

Does Stihl still carry seals for these saws?

Well yes and no. The Stihl dealership where I retired from didn't stock anything for non current models. It took a lot of effort for the counter people to look parts up and it was just easier to say, parts for your old saw are no longer available! Oh, btw, they're out of business today. The next closest Stihl dealer to me told me long ago that parts for the older Stihl's are no longer available. Bottom line is this, THEY WANT TO SELL YOU A NEW SAW! So it depends on your area's dealership and that is why I go straight over to eBay! I'm too old to get the run a round from KIDS who work the dealership parts counters! OEM air filters for the older 026's are getting hard to find. If your 026 has a round knob on the air filter cover, know this, a OEM air filter is a little harder to come by and pricey if you do. Stay away from the Chinese knock offs! Believe me, lessons learned hard are lessons learned well!

 

[pioneerguy600]

I also have heard the NLA story at the smaller dealers in my area, when I go looking for parts I have the parts numbers with me. When the less desirable dealers tell me NLA ,I go to the biggest dealer in my area, the furthermost from me and most often they get me the parts, they really appreciate me having the parts numbers so they don`t have to look up the model first and read through a bunch of revisions, just enter the parts numbers, sometimes the numbers have been superseded by new ones but that comes up automatically and it takes less of their time. If the parts come in incorrect then they could blame me for having the wrong numbers, hasn`t happened yet but I would just suck it up if it was my fault.

 

[irhunter]

It has been my experience that age of the parts guy has nothing to do with quality. My worst-ever Stihl dealer is my age (67), and my current parts guy, who is first-rate, is about 25 years old and is totally a saw guy.

YRMV.

Pioneerguy: +1 for parts numbers. I call the numbers in, and they call when the parts are ready.

Recently, I have had some parts show-up as back-ordered...but, they come in as fast as the other parts in the order.

At least some dealers will shove your parts into a flat-rate box, and mail them to you...if you live a long way from a good dealer.

I commonly see currently-available OEM parts on Ebay for more than they cost at a dealer.

Roy

 

[teacherman]

Funny this thread came up. I just sent my 026 to a real good Stihl mechanic. One young buck from another shop said it was a crank case seal. Its a bit off the subject , but what is the cost of a repair at a shop? We will see what is wrong with it and I will get back to you all. This saw has not run good in 15 yrs.

The seal puller made by Stihl is still available sometimes on FleeceBay, and it is well worth having. I noticed the other day that Holzforma the Chinese knockoff company now sells an imitation of the same tool, and from what I can tell they look identical.

It's kind of a weird process, but these things work, and given that the rubber ring of the seal is in contact with hot metal rotating at well over 10K rpm for many hours, a crank seal replacement needs to be a normal service item for any older saw.

Another possible culprit might be the impulse line, which over the years can harden. Easy enough to replace with some disassembly.

 

[94 wrangler]

I have the Chinese Holzforma Stihl clone and have had very little success using it. As for the impulse line, I simply replace them on the 026 / 024 using curved forceps. Impulse lines go "south" more than people know and I have found them to be defective on most saws that hit my bench with scored cylinders and pistons. I suspect that time and heat are the main reason they go bad along with excessive vibration from worn out AV buffers.

 

[altatim]

If you haven't gotten it yet, the gasket set that includes the seals is: 1121 007 1050

 

[Mad Professor]

Funny this thread came up. I just sent my 026 to a real good Stihl mechanic. One young buck from another shop said it was a crank case seal. Its a bit off the subject , but what is the cost of a repair at a shop? We will see what is wrong with it and I will get back to you all. This saw has not run good in 15 yrs.

We used to have a real good longtime servicing dealer, in a two man saw shop. If you bought in a clean saw with clutch and flywheel off, he'd sell you a gasket set to source the seals and $15 labor.

Those types of dealers seem to be extinct now.

 

[firebox40dash5]

I commonly see currently-available OEM parts on Ebay for more than they cost at a dealer.

Ebay ain't free, and neither is shipping... even shipping on ebay isn't free, since they started charging fees on shipping to close that loophole years ago.

I bought a bunch of little stuff last year, from my kinda-local favorite dealer. A little fixing up my old 260, a little swapping parts on my new 400, a lot of stocking up parts I figured I should have in the toolbox. Called with part numbers, told them it was absolutely no rush, throw it on your stock order, call me when it's all in & I'll come get it.

Called me a week later & said it was all in... turns out when I got there it was half in. And they hit me with about $10 shipping. Came back the next week to get the rest... and paid another $10ish shipping for the other stuff they shipped in separately for some reason. Obviously I get that that's dealer dependent... but that was the card I drew.

For giggles I checked one of the major Stihl new part sellers on the 'bay... he had everything I'd bought, with shipping it was about $10 less than what I spent, and a couple things he sold in larger lots than what I'd bought. I'm not even anything remotely like far from this dealer, but even if they hadn't charged me any of the shipping they did, and I hadn't made 2 trips, I'd have spent an hour driving there to save $10 over having a little more stuff dropped on my porch. As it is, I spent $10 more & spent 2 hours making 2 round trips... probably waited longer too.

 

[irhunter]

Even the worst Stihl dealer I have ever used, didn't charge shipping.