Thanks to my new enablers, Husky 44 resurrected

Hey everyone,

Thanks to all for your help bringing an inherited Husky 44 back to life. Through asking questions directly (thanks for the answers) and from studying bunches of posts on this site (thanks for the collective wisdom), I believe I've conquered the beast & gotten a good running saw out of the deal.

In the end it needed a new fuel line & filter and a carb rebuild kit. After that it was still bogging down & wanting to die when sawing into wood, and it refused to idle regardless of my attempts to adjust idle & H & L. Eventually I found a manual for the HDC carbs & decided that the metering lever was out of adjustment - too low. It was also then that I found the throttle screw/stop were scarcely moving the butterfly at all. So I brought the lever back to spec & had to bend the throttle stop a bit to get it to actually open the throttle valve a touch. Looking back, I know this wasn't good troubleshooting - probably better to adjust the metering lever first, test the saw, then address the throttle stop if necessary. I don't *think* I wrecked anything . . .

Whatever the case, the critter now runs pretty dang well & has a reasonably responsive throttle. It cut a dozen 10" cookies without bogging down like it did before. It would probably perform better if there weren't a 20" bar on this thing; I think that's pushing its limits. I've adjusted the idle & low mix to get as good of throttle response as I can by ear, and this weekend I'll address the high end using a .wav file I found.

Anyway, this has really been fun and I wanted to thank y'all because you've contributed a lot to it. This weekend I'll finish a top-end rebuild on an 011 too, which means by Sunday I'll be looking for a new project.

Cheers,

Mark

Good to hear you got it going. That's how I learn on here. A lot of reading and once in a while a specific question. There's always at least one person who can help. My friend has a 44 Rancher he's had since the 80's. Good saws, he's cut a lot of fence posts with it.

20" bar is definately pushing it, step back to 16", and use the 20" one as a spare.....

Nice to hear about your old 44. I just got mine up and running good again also. I t was always a handy little saw. I had to put a new fuel line in mine. Mine always seemed tough on fuel lines for some reason. Madsen's just got me 2 of them, but Randy's Small Engines on ebay has them also. Bit of a pain to install because you have to go from the tank up and not much room to work.
I have always run a 16" .325 .050 chisel on mine, a 20 would be a bit much like SawTroll stated. Mine has always been a little screamer but I just opened the muffler and its even better.
I used this saw up in trees in the old days and it held up to a lot of abuses. There are part saws on ebay from time to time.

Cadenfarm

44

I have cut a lot of wood with my 44. I got it more or less free from a friend of mine, it was my only saw for several years(till CAD fever kicked in). One thing I noted on mine, the plastic air intake cowel plugs up with crud pretty easily, restricting air inflow. I wish I had done a better job keeping it clean, as I believe this contributed to my ignition going bad.

Cadenhill said:

Nice to hear about your old 44. I just got mine up and running good again also. I t was always a handy little saw. I had to put a new fuel line in mine. Mine always seemed tough on fuel lines for some reason. Madsen's just got me 2 of them, but Randy's Small Engines on ebay has them also. Bit of a pain to install because you have to go from the tank up and not much room to work.
I have always run a 16" .325 .050 chisel on mine, a 20 would be a bit much like SawTroll stated. Mine has always been a little screamer but I just opened the muffler and its even better.
I used this saw up in trees in the old days and it held up to a lot of abuses. There are part saws on ebay from time to time.

Cadenfarm

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Yeah, the fuel line is a pain. I fabricated a tool out of two plastic chop sticks taped together, but the toughest part was getting reasonable leverage to pop the line through the hole.

Is this chain/bar combo similar to what you run? I don't know much about choosing chain, so some input would be greatly appreciated.

And can you elaborate on the muffler mod? Maybe post a pic?

Mark

SawTroll said:

20" bar is definately pushing it, step back to 16", and use the 20" one as a spare.....

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I'll do that for sure - I'm eager to get it performing as good as possible. But just curious: what are the consequences of running a bar that's too long? Overheating? Premature failure due to . . . ?

That combo will work fine and you will be surprised how quick the 44 is. I like the chisel without any of the anti kickback junk so I can take the rakers down when they need. 66 dl is correct.

I just did a simple muffler mod straight out the front. I just drilled three holes in the shape of a triangle. When I go out to the shop later I will tell you what drill bit size. You don't have to do anything inside at least not on the muffler that is on mine. Take the muffler off to drill holes and make sure all the shavings are out. I am going to add a screen behind the holes so not to suck anything back in.

44 Muffler Mod

[/IMG]Here are a couple of pictures of the muffler I did for my "Resto Rocket" Husky 44. ( A ported 44 sorta documented on Youtube & another site.)
I personally like it better than drilling holes in the front and it's almost as easy. Just a Dremal & some duckbill pliers. Seems to work well!
An internal screen is a good idea for the woods but lets not get that
"SUCK BACK" thing started again.......Bob...

Cool - sounds like either muffler mod wouldn't take much to pull off. Does the muffler simply pop apart? Mine's given no indication that it wants to come apart on its own.

Bob - I see you live on the McKenzie. That's beautiful country. I used to live in a small cabin on the river just east of Leaburg, overlooking a nice little trout hole. I also ran a few river trips with a whitewater outfit (now defunct) in Nimrod and another out of Springfield. Yeah, I'd live there again. Nice river, nice place.

If that was NCat whitewater then you would know my daughter and son in law. I'm at Hendricks Park on the river..... 44's are very nice little saws and have a good combination of speed and power stock. With a few mods they are really fun to run. Little screamers!!!.....Bob

Ma Barker said:

Is this chain/bar combo similar to what you run? I don't know much about choosing chain, so some input would be greatly appreciated.

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A 44cc saw should pull a narrow kerf 16" very well. I'm thinking of buying a 62cc John Deere and putting a 20" NK bar on it, should outcut a MS-361 that way. (yes, JD specifies .325 sprockets on Efco's 60cc saws)

Farley9n said:

If that was NCat whitewater then you would know my daughter and son in law. I'm at Hendricks Park on the river..... 44's are very nice little saws and have a good combination of speed and power stock. With a few mods they are really fun to run. Little screamers!!!.....Bob

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Cool pic. Mine looks like the one on the right, but without the chain brake - it's the Practica model. I'd like to retrofit a chain brake, assuming it's possible. Been searching eBay for one.

I remember the name NCat, but I'm not sure that I ever met that crew. I guided a full season for the Springfield outfit and then just the occasional day trip for Northwest Safaris between about 1992 - 95. Jeez that was a long time ago.

taxmantoo said:

A 44cc saw should pull a narrow kerf 16" very well. I'm thinking of buying a 62cc John Deere and putting a 20" NK bar on it, should outcut a MS-361 that way. (yes, JD specifies .325 sprockets on Efco's 60cc saws)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the confirmation - and thanks to you, I now understand what the NK designation means. Little by little I'll get this stuff figured out.