Difficult saws to work on

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drf255

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Going through an MS270 and a 280 right now. Unfortunately, they need bearings and one needs a coil and flywheel. The seller from the trading post here was honest and did right by me.

In my somewhat limited experience, I've never met such a pain in the ass saw to work on. It's like they intentionally thought up a way to make a saw difficult to play with.

Large saw size for its displacement, 5cc more than an MS250 and 50% larger.

The AV mounts nearly impossible to disassemble without tearing. An odd AV mount that's through the handle and mounts to the jug via a small cable and plastic clip.

The saws case is half mag and half plastic. It has to be split to get at the jug. It's a kinda clamshelly kinda saw.

It uses a non standard 15 x 38 x 11mm bearings which, unlike the more standard 35mm bearing, are expensive and tough to find.

Rant over, I feel better now.

Any other PITA saws you'd like to complain about?
 
Clamshell saws are meant to work and be thrown away when something major breaks down if you ask me. =) I only own one and it is what it is, had to tear down a small husky once i know i had to pretty much tear everything apart to ge to the cyl off..
 
Going through an MS270 and a 280 right now. Unfortunately, they need bearings and one needs a coil and flywheel. The seller from the trading post here was honest and did right by me.

In my somewhat limited experience, I've never met such a pain in the ass saw to work on. It's like they intentionally thought up a way to make a saw difficult to play with.

Large saw size for its displacement, 5cc more than an MS250 and 50% larger.

The AV mounts nearly impossible to disassemble without tearing. An odd AV mount that's through the handle and mounts to the jug via a small cable and plastic clip.

The saws case is half mag and half plastic. It has to be split to get at the jug. It's a kinda clamshelly kinda saw.

It uses a non standard 15 x 38 x 11mm bearings which, unlike the more standard 35mm bearing, are expensive and tough to find.

Rant over, I feel better now.

Any other PITA saws you'd like to complain about?
Take some pictures of the assembly - I've never seen one and have been trying to figure out why they're such a PITA. Sounds like typical German engineering to me - take something simple and make it complicated!
 
I've worked on a lot of different saws and it seems like each one has something that makes it a bit difficult to work on. Some of the older saws are a PITA and then you have the new ones that are difficult by design. The best ones probably are the ones about 20 years old or so, in my opinion.
 
now you know why used 372s and ms440s bring such high prices and clam-shells don't!!
 
i sold a 290 because when i took it apart compared to my 372 or my sachs 111 I thought i would never get it back together
 
R&R an ignition module on an 029, a real treat. Makes you want to drill some holes in plastic, with a hole-saw.

Think long & hard before you agree to pull p&c on a 441C-M. World-class PITA. You can't even see there from here. Guess why I like Husqys and Dolmars. Minimal Goldberg there.
 
This model is a special kind of hemorrhoid.
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R&R an ignition module on an 029, a real treat. Makes you want to drill some holes in plastic, with a hole-saw.

Think long & hard before you agree to pull p&c on a 441C-M. World-class PITA. You can't even see there from here. Guess why I like Husqys and Dolmars. Minimal Goldberg there.
They're not too bad after a couple times. I'd rather work on a 441 than any clamshell.

My vote is for the Craftsman Roper 3.7. Never again.
 
They're not too bad after a couple times. I'd rather work on a 441 than any clamshell.

My vote is for the Craftsman Roper 3.7. Never again.

Which clamshell would top that list, Brad? Could it be 029/039? I got handed an 029 non-runner with compression to fix, because the dealer wanted nothing more to do with it. Stihl dealer-price on ignition module: $120. Got one from a company in KS for $20. Owner is happy having a spare, and absorbing education about some dealer tactic$. Love the soft plastic structure of that saw. :eek:

Wanna tell us about the Roper? Or clear the memory? :rolleyes:
 
My opinion of pain in the butt would be remington mighty might with built in sharpener. They were packed with everything and no room to re route any line in it they suck to work on i se why not many are around
 

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Don't personally find anything wrong with the clam shell saws I've worked on, well I don't care for the ms270/280 a whole bunch. The only issue with the 441 is the messy carb setup and how it all mounts up, it's just not a well thought out first generation saw, but still not all that bad. I had a McCulloch something here a month or so ago with an auto sharp setup, the chain cover was essentially designed so it could not be removed in the field. The mini mac isn't much better.
 
I seem to primarily work on clam shells, it's what most homeowners have, I very rarely get the chance to work on pro saws.

I find the 290 not bad, but like mentioned earlier, once you do one the rest get simpler.

I can't speak for the throw away Poulan's or macs, those to me are not worth fixing so I don't waste my time.

I know I dread the day of getting in a 450 or 460 Husky. I got a 460 in a while back that was smashed so I stripped it down to pillage the good parts.
That saw looked like a complete pain in the ass.

I've yet to work on a Mini-Mac, but I do have one on the shelf. I want to tear into it just to see how bad they really are.
 

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