stihl 029 issues

[Jetblack3]

Have an old stihl 029, almost 25 years old and it has seen a lot of service. Has always been rock solid til just recently. Since day one- full choke on, pull 8-10 times and motor pops - drop back to half choke and throttle it she jumps up to normal choke off and is ready to work. Saw will run for maybe 1/4 tank or little less and saw revs up like its about to run out of gas. Start playing the throttle and theres no saving it. She dies and will not restart until after sitting for 5 minutes or so. I have removed and cleaned air filter element, changed plug, changed fuel filter and shot carb cleaner thru carb. Acts like a fueling issue, hose from tank appears ok but I guess it could be collapsing. Can the fuel cap be causing this from a bad vent ? It doesn't seem like the fuel tank is building pressure.

 

[JStrunk]

Sounds like it’s going lean when it warms up. I had a saw that did this. Maybe loose muffler, bad gasket from carb to jug, bad jug gasket, bad crank seal? I sure there’re other possible causes. Mine was a combination of a few things. Be careful and don’t let it get too hot; it’s easy to trash piston and cylinder


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[grizz55chev]

029 is a clamshell, maybe tighte up the crankcase screws, been a while since I worked on an 029 but I think they’re accessible from the bottom. Replacement aftermarket kits are fairly inexpensive and you can upgrade to an 039.

 

[Jetblack3]

Will look it over next chance I can and try to tighten everything. It's been a great saw and it owes me nothing. Issue started about a month ago and has let me down now a handful of times since. After I cleaned everything it ran well for a couple tanks and then gremlin came back ?? I recently looked at upgrading this saw to a new 261 pro for more power and most of all less weight. According to specs I can gain a little more power but also drop about 4lbs. which is huge !! I picked up a new 362 pro last year for handling the bigger stuff and it is an animal, with 5 more inches of bar it only weighs 8 ounces more than the ole 029 farm boss. Still a pig though at 19.8lbs fueled up. I'll likely still upgrade to the 261 and replace the 029 anyway just for weight savings. I see that the pro saws are the german made ones which are suppose to be best but the 261 being the smallest pro saw is made here in the states. Anyone have any real world 261 experience ?

 

[Jetblack3]

Bit the bullet and bought the ms261 / Wow, should have done this sooner. All total it's 3 lbs lighter fully fueled with more power, I now feel like a certified log ninja.
After running the 261 for a couple loads of wood it's safe to say the 029 will never see another log with me behind it.