Hi folks.
I was messing around last night with a little Super XL that I had found in one of my dad's outbuildings. Actually, he had a pair of the little guys, so I took good parts off of one to put on the other...
Anyway, I had been missing a throttle link, so I never really got it going. Eventually I ordered the link, and put the project on the back burner.
So last night I finally popped the link in to make the throttle work, gassed it up and pulled on the cord a few dozen times. Eventually, it started to fire... then I eased off the choke, gave it a little more gas to clear out the cylinder...
when I heard a loud BANG and the saw jerked in my hand. I heard something flying across the garage. I let the saw slow down, don't remember if I switched it off or if it died. I looked down and...
I had started it up with the drum off of the clutch. The clutch on these is an S-shaped piece of steel, weighted on the ends to expand outwards onto the drum to engage it. Only with no drum on, when I revved the motor, the weighted ends of the "S" went flying off... Thankfully, the magnesium clutch cover shattered and protected my right hand (which was only inches away from the clutch, this is a tophandle). And the other piece must have flown out the bottom and (also thankfully) missed hitting me.
The other good news is I have enough extra parts to replace the broken castings (the case/clutch cover AND the bottom end cap on the motor (had a cast tab break off). The bad news is I don't have another clutch (the other one had a broken end, too) so this project is going back on hold indefinitely...
I was messing around last night with a little Super XL that I had found in one of my dad's outbuildings. Actually, he had a pair of the little guys, so I took good parts off of one to put on the other...
Anyway, I had been missing a throttle link, so I never really got it going. Eventually I ordered the link, and put the project on the back burner.
So last night I finally popped the link in to make the throttle work, gassed it up and pulled on the cord a few dozen times. Eventually, it started to fire... then I eased off the choke, gave it a little more gas to clear out the cylinder...
when I heard a loud BANG and the saw jerked in my hand. I heard something flying across the garage. I let the saw slow down, don't remember if I switched it off or if it died. I looked down and...
I had started it up with the drum off of the clutch. The clutch on these is an S-shaped piece of steel, weighted on the ends to expand outwards onto the drum to engage it. Only with no drum on, when I revved the motor, the weighted ends of the "S" went flying off... Thankfully, the magnesium clutch cover shattered and protected my right hand (which was only inches away from the clutch, this is a tophandle). And the other piece must have flown out the bottom and (also thankfully) missed hitting me.
The other good news is I have enough extra parts to replace the broken castings (the case/clutch cover AND the bottom end cap on the motor (had a cast tab break off). The bad news is I don't have another clutch (the other one had a broken end, too) so this project is going back on hold indefinitely...