No start 044

[3fordasho]

Coworker brought me his 044 that will not start after some work he did. He removed the clutch to try to fix the oil pump. He used the old rope down the spark plug hole as a piston stop trick but unfortunately the rope went out the exhaust port and when removing the clutch the piston wedged so tight on the rope that he couldn't get it loose again. He gave up and took to local small engine repair shop and the guy swapped a junk flywheel on to crank on to get it loose. Original flywheel re-installed but now won't start. Video shows exhaust port filled with a bit of oil and the leakage that occurs as I rotate through the compression stroke. I'm thinking damaged cylinder and or piston. I've successfully used Meteor pistons before, how is the quality of the Meteor cylinder/piston set?

 

[huskihl]

It can’t start if it’s full of oil like that. Piston and cylinder might be fine but it needs to be pulled apart and have the oil cleaned out

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Take the cylinder off and inspect from the big hole at the bottom, rather than the wee hole at the side. Could be the rings are jammed into the lands or the piston itself is damaged, pinching the rings into the lands.
Truth is, it might be a bit early to be buying new top ends when there might not be reason to be doing so.
Hell it might even be an ignition problem after the flywheel swaps.

 

[Crispexx]

Has a compression test been done?


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[Jasent]

First flush the oil out, then re set gap on coil. Then if no start pull cylinder. Looks like blow by probably damaged exhaust port. If so you may be able to do gasket delete and bring exhaust timing back up to stock or which ever you prefer. If cylinder is fine piston has problems.
Or just slap a metour p/c on it and send that slant fin my way!!!!

 

[J D]

+1 for the compression test (after flushing out that oil).
Have you confirmed there is spark? If someone has been swinging on the fly wheel it's not unlikely they could have damaged the coil or a lead. I'd also be checking the flywheel key... Just because they put a junk flywheel on it to wrench on doesn't mean they didn't have a go with the original one on it first (although I would expect there to be external marks etc if that was the case)

 

[ozziechainsaw]

I agree do a compression and spark test. If you have compression at 100psi and higher plus spark and it will still not start, then you will need to look at either timing or a fuel supply issues.

Justin

 

[3fordasho]

Yes, spark is good and the oil was just poured into the port to show better on the video. Prior to that I had cleared the cylinder and plug of excess oil and no start. Saw ran great before attempted oil pump fix.
I agree cylinder needs to come off for better inspection.

 

[3fordasho]

Piston damage on exhaust side caused by rope down spark plug hole. Slight deformation, rings are stuck on that side. Think I can get by with a piston and rings. Cylinder looks fine.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Do I get the old piston for a prize?

 

[stihl86]

New piston assy. Rough up the cylinder. Good for another 1000 hrs.
Too bad the oem piston is so $$$$$.
I’ve had some luck using a piece of v belt instead of the rope.
Rope seems to work better on some. Not so good on others.

 

[J D]

I suspect if you very carefully freed up the rings, cleaned everything up & put it back together it would run again. Not advocating that as a perminant fix... just sayin.
When I use rope as a piston stop I usually double it over & feed the doubled over bit in... It tends to splay apart inside so it's much less likely to find it's way into a port (& you spend half the time feeding it in)

 

[Jasent]

I suspect if you very carefully freed up the rings, cleaned everything up & put it back together it would run again. Not advocating that as a perminant fix... just sayin.
When I use rope as a piston stop I usually double it over & feed the doubled over bit in... It tends to splay apart inside so it's much less likely to find it's way into a port (& you spend half the time feeding it in)

I like to double the rope over aswell

 

[KASH]

Years ago I jambed one in a freshly rebuilt Rotax single cylinder snow mobile motor I had to take the fly wheel off to reset the timing. Being young and dumb I forced it and broke the rings now I roll the flywheel up to just about TDC and feed in my rope.
Kash

 

[Yukon Stihl]

Ditch the rope..
Leave the spark plug in and use a impact wrench

 

[J D]

Ditch the rope..
Leave the spark plug in and use a impact wrench

I've had saws with clutches the impact wrench just wouldn't shift (maybe I need a bigger one). I've also seen cranks I suspect failed due to the last guy being heavy handed with the impact wrench

 

[Northerner]

Ditch the rope..
Leave the spark plug in and use a impact wrench

What I do as well. Works great on the smaller saws. Use my little Milwaukee M12 impact a lot for chainsaw work, handy and not as likely to over tighten something as the bigger impacts can.


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[3fordasho]

Ditch the rope..
Leave the spark plug in and use a impact wrench

This is what I did on my 2172 and worked fine. I'm telling my coworker to buy a Stihl replacement piston/ring set, looks to be a little over $80 from Baileys. He'll be tickled pink to get it fixed for that, the small engine shop that removed the rope thought the crank was bent and it would be cheaper to buy a new saw.

 

[HarleyT]

We always go back to the same issue, about the correct way to remove a flywheel or clutch. And the folks that never have any problems at all are the guys that use an impact wrench/impact driver, yet the piston block/rope guys usually fark up the saw. And they guys that told them how to fark up their saw, just skip away merrily.

 

[Vintage Engine Repairs]

We always go back to the same issue, about the correct way to remove a flywheel or clutch. And the folks that never have any problems at all are the guys that use an impact wrench/impact driver, yet the piston block/rope guys usually fark up the saw. And they guys that told them how to fark up their saw, just skip away merrily.

Do you impact them back on too Harley, or use rope and torque to spec?