New b/c for my 070!!

I found a surprise in my workshop last night. My wife bought me a 30" Stihl ES large mount bar for my 070. I can't believe I made it a month since rebuilding it without trying it in wood. Anyway, there sat a beautiful 30" bar with 2 new 0.404" RSC chains.

All was great until I fit the bar on the saw. No go. The bar calls for 91 .404 drive links and I counted each one. The chain tensioner hole in the bar appears to be shifted to far rearward. Can anyone confirm that I have the right bar or maybe let me know if they suspect the tensioner holes are in the wrong spot?

Here's some pics of the chain adjuster all the way to the back. There's very little room to tighten the chain from there. Maybe 1/4". It was all the way to the back in all pictures.

Fear not all you have to do is redrill two new adjuster holes about 3/4" in front of the original ones, oil holes should be ok but while you have the drill out may as well open them up a little to take advantage of the high output of the 070.
When drilling put a bit of scrap steel, or old bar under the new one to absorb the heat so stopping the new holes going hard.
I can check the measurements in the morning as Ive done a few.

Drilling

Thanks Dave,

The bar definitely can be made to fit. As you say 3/4" should be about right. I've never had to drill a bar before. When I think about bar drilling I normally think about something you would do to get a Pioneer bar on a Homelite etc. Seems weird to modify a large mount Stihl bar to fit a Stihl saw that takes a large mount bar.

Lots of guys have 090's on here. Are other people drilling bars to fit their 090's?

Funny story on when I called to ask the dealer if I had the right bar. He asks "What kind of saw is the bar for?". I said Stihl 070. "Hmmm 070, Stihl doesn't make an 070". I'm being really nice and not trying to educate him that an 090 and 070 are almost the same except for the P&C. Didn't seem like the kind of guy that wanted to know the displacement difference between the two. Anyway I say "it's a pretty old saw similar to the 090. Does it say what bar goes on an 090?" He says "I'm telling you there's no such thing as an 070. You don't have an 070!" I politely said "OK, what bar does an 090 take?" He's still huffy and tells me I have the right bar for an 090 per the book. I could hear his eyes rolling. :msp_smile:

I could have told him to search 'Stihl 070' on ebay. He probably wouldn't have believed the search results anyway...

I think your problem is that the 090 and 070 have not been sold here for many years so the bars that fit them correctly are not likely stocked over here anymore. The 084 and 088 are likely the saws that are used most nowadays so the bars are likely made to fit them. All my 070 and 090 bars were made during the years those saws were sold here.

That makes sense Jerry. The bar I have says it fits on an 090 per Stihl but says nothing about the 070. Pretty hard for those two saws to have a different bolt pattern. Time for a bar mod I suppose.

Guess drilling the holes 3/4" forward is an easy enough adaption to do and the holes for a 090 and 070 would be the same.

pioneerguy600 said:

Guess drilling the holes 3/4" forward is an easy enough adaption to do and the holes for a 090 and 070 would be the same.

Click to expand...

I think I have the skills to make this happen. Time to cut wood.

I ended up drilling a hole about 1.25" forward of the factory hole. The oiler hole still lines up nicely. I probably could have added a link or 2 to the chain and it would have saved me a bit of bar length.

I love the look of these old saws with the bars tilted up a bit. The saw cut great. I'm running it a bit rich now. I had to lean on it quite a bit to get it to clean out in the cut. There's not bogging it in the wood around here with that bar!

Just as Jerry said, the 070/090 stand apart from the other large mount Stihls with the adjuster and oiler hole locations.

Here's the only picture I have showing the tail of a circa '70s Cannon for the large Stihls.

Chris B.

Chris,
So that Cannon bar hole setup will allow it to run all large mount Stihls? Distance between the holes looks about the same as mine. I would have thought Stihl would have multiple holes in their large mount.

I had to place the hole far enough forward to get the chain on but not so far back as to interfere with the drive sprocket. Made me wonder if there's a rule about how close to put the bar to the sprocket. It looked right where I had it. The chain looked like it would run smooth coming off the sprocket and onto the bar. No kinks or anything crazy.

When I bought a factory Stihl bar for my 075 years ago, it wasn't drilled for the 090 but it did have directions on the package to accomplish it.

And yes, the Cannon I showed will fit all large Stihls.

Chris B.

Ahhh, makes sense. They could even have a template on there. Mine didn't come in a package. Just the bar.

dave k said:

Fear not all you have to do is redrill two new adjuster holes about 3/4" in front of the original ones, oil holes should be ok but while you have the drill out may as well open them up a little to take advantage of the high output of the 070.
When drilling put a bit of scrap steel, or old bar under the new one to absorb the heat so stopping the new holes going hard.
I can check the measurements in the morning as Ive done a few.

Click to expand...

A+ and as the others said. Large mount Stihl bars seemed to be made for the 088-084.
I have cut the bar slots ALL the out-back to the tail completely.
I guess you could cut them forward. but if you drill the tensioner holes, it is nice to have the play, as these beast like to STRETCH the chains, especially new ones. I did have to drill a new oil hole in my last bar, believe it was a newer GB bar.

i got an 070 i found in my grandfathers shed. i also found an 36 original stihl bar with chain on it. with the old logo on it ill try to get a pic of it. one good find for me.

Teddy.Scout said:

A+ and as the others said. Large mount Stihl bars seemed to be made for the 088-084.
I have cut the bar slots ALL the out-back to the tail completely.
I guess you could cut them forward. but if you drill the tensioner holes, it is nice to have the play, as these beast like to STRETCH the chains, especially new ones. I did have to drill a new oil hole in my last bar, believe it was a newer GB bar.

Click to expand...

Good call on cutting out the bar slot if needed. That would have worked for me too if I wasn't so keen on cutting with the chain I had. Cutting the bar slot and adding a few links would have given me a bit more usable bar length.

ncsawguy said:

i got an 070 i found in my grandfathers shed. i also found an 36 original stihl bar with chain on it. with the old logo on it ill try to get a pic of it. one good find for me.

Click to expand...

Lucky you! I have an MS660 and the 070 is a completely different animal. I really have to try an 090 now. Get the pics up when you get them!

ncsawguy said:

i got an 070 i found in my grandfathers shed. i also found an 36 original stihl bar with chain on it. with the old logo on it ill try to get a pic of it. one good find for me.

Click to expand...

So....let's see a photo of that bar, and close-up of the logo.....thanks.

Reviving this thread, I have a 36” .404 large mount bar coming for my Stihl 076 super -

3002 000 9753

Will this require drilling to fit my Stihl 076 super? How many links are required? Thanks guys.

Thinking any adjustments that may be required, will be to fit the 070/090. The 076 mount is identical to current large Stihls. No worries there.

Ah perfect thanks!

For anyone that is coming to this post in the future, I can confirm with the above that the 3002 large mount fits the 076 super perfectly