MS250 bar and oiling issues

[junkyard]

I solved the problem today. I listed it at lunch time online, it was gone two hours after I got home. Now I've got $250 to spend towards my next saw.
It probably should be a Stihl, since I've now got a couple spare bars and chains here. I'm not sure if I want to chance another MS250. What else will the same 18" bar and chain fit? (I sold it with one of the original bars and chains). I also have an orange Stihl case that will handle up to a 20" bar.

I've also considered something rechargeable but they ain't cheap enough yet. Its a toss between either forking over more cash for a different Stihl, a cheap Echo, or a Chinese kit saw for real cheap.

 

[AmateurSawer]

Your bars fit an MS 251,250,230 or smaller so,if you are looking at something else,you may want to list them,too. My neighbor has a 170 he likes.My 250 has been flawless.Maybe you just got a bad 250.
When I bought mine last year,I was looking at a 250 and a 251.The guy at the counter saw me comparing and told me I should put the 251 back on the shelf and take the 250,which I thought I wanted anyway.I figured he should know.

 

[sundance]

I solved the problem today. I listed it at lunch time online, it was gone two hours after I got home. Now I've got $250 to spend towards my next saw.
It probably should be a Stihl, since I've now got a couple spare bars and chains here. I'm not sure if I want to chance another MS250. What else will the same 18" bar and chain fit? (I sold it with one of the original bars and chains). I also have an orange Stihl case that will handle up to a 20" bar.

I've also considered something rechargeable but they ain't cheap enough yet. Its a toss between either forking over more cash for a different Stihl, a cheap Echo, or a Chinese kit saw for real cheap.

Did you tell the purchaser about the saw's issues?

 

[junkyard]

I drilled out the original bar's oil hole on an angle, gave it a shot of fresh paint, and threw on the original chain and sold it. I filled the oil tank with 10w30.
The thing looked good, the woman who bought it likely won't ever use it but it would push enough oil like that to get by.
I simply didn't want to keep a saw around that had 'issues' or needed to be modified to do what it was bought to do.

I'm leaning toward a new Echo with a 14" or 16" bar. I'm a bit gun shy now of Stihl.
The way I'm looking at it now, if even Stihl is all plastic now, what's the difference if it says Stihl, or something else on it.
I fully understand modern saws aren't what saws used to be but I have to say I'm more than surprised at all the issues with that MS250.
The thing pulled hard when it came to starting it, it at chains and bars, it had oiling issues that were obviously an engineering failure.
Something I did notice is that the bars on the brand new MS250's say made in USA on them, my original and second bar said Made in Germany.
The rest of the saw looks the same. Something I noticed after picking up and trying a couple different ms250's is that the compression felt different on every one? Some pulled so hard I had to stand on the saw, others pulled nice and easy.
A few of the new MS250's on the shelf were so hard to pull I thought they were locked up. The one I sold was hard to pull but no where near as bad as a few I picked up on the shelf. (They had five there ready to go, and one sold while I was standing there).

Meanwhile, I did answer and ad on CL for a minty clean Homelite XL Automatic in the old blue, the seller says it has no spark. I had one of those years ago and it was a great saw, but it eventually wore out and wouldn't run any more. The one on Cl looks like brand new. Maybe its a good option for cheap.

 

[HarleyT]

The thing looked good, the woman who bought it likely won't ever use it but it would push enough oil like that to get by.

Wow!

 

[HarleyT]

$250???

You can sleep at night?

 

[bubbajunk]

I can't blame you for dumping it, I did the same with both of mine after similar issues and hard starting. I got tired of almost ripping my knuckles out trying to pull start the things.

The 10w30 oil will let it pump better and the drilling of the bar likely solved most of the issues. But I agree, there's no good reason to have to monkey with stuff like that on a new saw. Get out from under it and move on.

$250 is a fair price if the thing was clean, and he likely had more than that into after all the bar and chain swapping.
If someone walked in off the street to the average saw shop here those things are $300, with no extras, plus sales tax. Who ever bought it did fine.
Not that I'd touch it with a ten foot pole, but the average saw owner will never notice whether its working right or not, just so it starts and cuts.
People see the Stihl name and think they got something special. They have no idea that even Stihl is building saws to a price point these days and building saws to compete with the lesser brands.

 

[HarleyT]

A brand new ms250 costs $300.
And tricking some poor lady into buying it,
is pretty damn scummy!!

 

[HarleyT]

But now, just looking back at it...

This member is just likely another troll.

 

[HarleyT]

Of course, any brand new member with "junk" in their username makes me wonder..........

Anyone else??

 

[farmer steve]

Of course, any brand new member with "junk" in their username makes me wonder..........

Anyone else??

I stihl think the chain was on backwards.

 

[farmer steve]

A brand new ms250 costs $300.
And tricking some poor lady into buying it,
is pretty damn scummy!!

Other words come to mind.

 

[drf255]

A brand new ms250 costs $300.
And tricking some poor lady into buying it,
is pretty damn scummy!!

With a new bar and chain IIRC.

 

[bubbajunk]

I'm not sure I see it that way, the guy says he sold it after drilling the hole in the bar and putting motor oil in it, if it oiled like that, what's the issue?
I list things on CL all the time for twice what they're worth because everyone wants stuff for free. If I expect to get $100, I list it for $200 OBO.
Every so often someone comes along and pays the asking price. That's not my problem.
The sticker price on a brand new MS250 down at the local dealer last week was $299.99, that is for the saw. No case, no extra chains, no bar oil, no 2 stroke oil.
Its got a big sign over top like its a sale price. They were $349.99 a while back.

The guy said he didn't have much use on the saw, so if it was indeed as clean as he said, I don't see why any would expect to get any less.

If I buy a new saw, bring it home, cut a couple boards with it and decide I don't like it, are you supposed to sell it for half of what you paid.
The store certainly isn't going to take it back after its had gas in it if its not defective.

With all that said, I didn't get anywhere near that when I dumped mine, one got sold to a guy who I see all the time, he loves it, he put some huge oversized handle on the saw and carries in the back of his pickup truck all the time. It looks like it fell out of an airplane from sliding around in the truck all the time. He gave me $150 for it two years ago and thinks I gave him a deal. It was a bit battered then but it ran if you didn't mind ripping your knuckles out trying to start it. The thing must have had 200 psi of compression.

The way I see it, the guy lost more than he made on that saw. With buying a couple of bars and chains, and it sounds like he also bought a case for it, he's likely in the hole a few hundred bucks or more even after selling the thing. If he gave the thing away he'd have lost even more. What he should have done was dump it from the start and not put a dime into it. Then he'd likely only be out the difference between what he paid and what he sold it for.

I think he got lucky and got out from under it, when I decided to dump mine, I had trouble getting half what they sold for new. I hated the saw, it felt like it had 200 pounds of compression, it took a gorilla to pull the rope. The guy who I sold the one too loves it, he tied a homemade wooden handle to the recoil rope and carries the saw with him everywhere he goes, its been sliding around in the back of his truck for over a year now. Everytime I see him he brags about how great a saw its been. To me, that thing was a mess. It didn't oil well, it was hard to pull, it lacked power, and the .325 chain never seemed to last very long. I owned that one for maybe three months and dumped it.

 

[junkyard]

I don't see where I did anything wrong, I sold her a saw with less than a few hours use on it for $50 less than she could buy a brand new one.
I even gave her the address of the dealer. Drilling the bar let it oil enough to survive normal use, but there was no way I was keeping something I paid good money for that needed to be modified just to make it useable. To me, it was a new saw that disappointed me, to the next owner, its a used saw that saved them $50.
I listed it $250 or best offer, she emailed, showed up, handed me cash and left. She didn't ask any questions, she didn't ask to hear it run, she didn't even really look at it. She tossed it in the back of her SUV and left.

How do sleep at night? Easy, I'm not worrying about how to fix that saw anymore.

What should I have done, thrown it in the trash or let it sit on the shelf till its an antique? Its out of here and I've moved on. Time to find a new saw.
I passed on the clean old Homelite with no spark, I just wasn't up for another project, especially one that may be hard to find parts for.

Right now I'm between buying something battery powered or just buying the cheapest thing I can find, that way if its crap, I won't be disappointed.
There's also Hutzl but the shipping costs there sort of kill any sort of deal they claim to have.

 

[rupedoggy]

I also noticed that it started to melt the outer cover a bit during the last run.

Here's a pic of the inside of the cover, the brown spot is where the plastic has burned right near the sprocket. The whole cover is getting hot, its melted a bit away at the rear and the area where the bar clamps has an indent from where the bar burned into it.

Doesn't sound like a good used saw

 

[bubbajunk]

Sounds like he fixed that issue at least in part by drilling the hole in the bar.
He did say it was spraying oil on the chain, so the pump was working. It just wasn't getting under the chain.
The combo of thin oil and drilling the bar likely cured that.

Would I want to own it, not a chance, not even for free I suppose, but I sure wouldn't want to be the one to take a beating on it.

No one sells something they really like or aren't fed up with for some reason or other.
That's why we have used cars, used saws, and places like CL and FB.

With the way some things are built these days, a known good proven and working saw may be worth more than a new one.

I hated my MS250's, so they got sold. I would never sell either of my 036 Pro's or my 032, and I'd likely never part with my original 029.
The time to sell something is before it blows up or costs you big money, not after.
If I put $5k into my truck in a new engine, then I'd feel obligated to get that $5k back out of it over the next 10 years. If I didn't want to put out $5k, or didn't like the thing, I'd dump it buy something else. The same thing with saws or any thing that we own.

For, my time with anything is gauged by how much aggravation is causes me. If a saw is giving me grief, its out of here. New one's are far less expensive than high blood pressure or worse dealing with something that's trouble from day one. If its not right, I'll dump it and buy one that is.
The name of the game is to find someone who is more willing to deal with the aggravation than I am. They make new one's everyday.
My attachment to anything mechanical ends the first time it lets me down or costs me money. I try not to own anything that's about to let me down.

Has anyone ever traded in a perfectly good used truck? I sure haven't. Of course, I'd never 'trade' anything in, I sell it outright and keep that part of the profit myself. There's no way I'd let some dealer give me peanuts for something they're going to turn around and sell as caviar.

 

[holeycow]

Most folks would have brought that thing right back to where they bought it and let THEM sort it out.

I won't even get into how wrong it was to sell it for 250 .... to a girl who obviously bought it in good faith (without disclosing anything about it.)

 

[holeycow]

What goes around comes around..

i think this whole thread is staged BS.

or my BS meter is pegged for some other " thread of Canada" reason, ha!

 

[junkyard]

Most folks would have brought that thing right back to where they bought it and let THEM sort it out.

I won't even get into how wrong it was to sell it for 250 .... to a girl who obviously bought it in good faith (without disclosing anything about it.)

I couldn't bring it back to where I bought it, I got it from a going out of business/retirement sale from a shop where I used to live back in 2015. It sat on a shelf here till a few months ago untouched. When I bought it, I didn't really need it, I figured if I decided I didn't want it or found something better I could always sell it. When I bought the thing I also bought a factory Stihl case, a tool kit, a sharpening kit, a gallon of Stihl bar oil, and a case of Stihl 'High Performance' 2 stroke oil.
I still have the case, tools, and oil. I offered the woman who bought the saw the 2 stroke oil but she didn't want it. The case cost me $25, the case of oil was around $50, and the bar oil was another $25, plus the sharpening kit, and other tools. I also bought a pair of hard hats with a face screens and ear protection for $15 each.

Not to mention the extra bars and chains I ended up buying for it and what I paid the saw shop here to try and fix it. I lost money, and the worst thing is I'll likely end up buying another Stihl to fit the case and tools I still have. It just won't be an MS250.

The woman who bought the thing didn't ask any questions, she didn't stick around to talk, she handed me cash and left. With how hard that thing was to pull start, there's no way a 100lb woman is ever going to start it anyhow. It could have been seized up and she wouldn't have noticed. She never so much as pulled the cord or looked at the saw. She didn't even take the box it came in or the operators manual.