A few moons ago I acquired a little Homelite LX-30 Bandit that never really ran right, but as long as you had some patience, it would run and cut. My patience has run out, so I started looking into why this thing starts hard and once it is warm, have to really work to keep it running. After running it for a while and it does stall, it is nearly impossible to restart.
I started with fresh fuel, cleaning the carb, new spark plug, and new filter when I first got it. Lately it has given me all sorts of problems starting; 15+ pulls later and some feathering of the choke, it will sputter to life. All the pulling is getting old. I always wondered about the compression but didn't check it until today. The spec I found for the family of Homelite saw to which this belongs is 115-145PSI. When I measured the compression on my saw, I got 90PSI cold, 85PSI once it was hot. So it seems that my compression is low...even below what many consider the minimum needed to even have it start and run at all.
I removed the spark plug and muffler, and did not find anything glaring. I did find a small burnt strip on the cylinder wall opposite from the exhaust port. The ring seemed free to move. I see no scoring or physical damage, but it is hard to see. Is that little burned strip enough evidence to support the low compression?
Thanks!
I started with fresh fuel, cleaning the carb, new spark plug, and new filter when I first got it. Lately it has given me all sorts of problems starting; 15+ pulls later and some feathering of the choke, it will sputter to life. All the pulling is getting old. I always wondered about the compression but didn't check it until today. The spec I found for the family of Homelite saw to which this belongs is 115-145PSI. When I measured the compression on my saw, I got 90PSI cold, 85PSI once it was hot. So it seems that my compression is low...even below what many consider the minimum needed to even have it start and run at all.
I removed the spark plug and muffler, and did not find anything glaring. I did find a small burnt strip on the cylinder wall opposite from the exhaust port. The ring seemed free to move. I see no scoring or physical damage, but it is hard to see. Is that little burned strip enough evidence to support the low compression?
Thanks!