Strange

A very wierd thing happened to a saw I was running today.First, let me say I was not under the influence of any mind altering drugs. It was an Echo 3400. I was in the middle of a trim, saw ran fine all morning. Then one time I started it and it fired right up but ran like crap. Choke was not out, plug wire was on, all looked fine to me. I only had a small cut to make so I tried to cut with it running bad. It wouldnt even scratch the bark. Looking more carefully I realized the chain was spinning backwards! I turned it off and started it again. This time it ran great and spun the chain correctly. Has this ever happened to anybody else?

Yur yanking my chain. :alien:

Our chains...

Cool! That would have been a little unerving!

Don't remember the model but we had trouble with some Olympic saws doing this. Had to change the ignition module.

If your spark advance is no more than 4 degrees before TDC I could possibly see it happening. It would probably run almost like a old hot car dieseling though. I doubt it would do more than hardly move the chain.

And it could possibly try to walk the clutch off the shaft.

Never With A Saw, But It Did Happen To Me In A Race Kart. A Freind Of Mine Started Me With An Electric Starter That Spins The Axle. Only Thing Was He Used The Wrong Side Of The Starter And Spun It Backwards. It Started Fine And I Put It In Neutral And He Set Me Off The Jack, It Was A Major Surprise When I Popped The Clutch And Took Off Backwards! Ended Up Squishing The Bodywork Into The Pit Wall At Mid-ohio. The Motor Was An Older Suzuki Twin Bike Motor, 350cc. Piston Port. Only Thing I Can't Figure Out Is How He Didn't Notice The Starter Spinning The Axle Backwards? Guess He Weren't Too Bright! Needless To Say, I Didn't Let Him Start Me Anymore.

Magnetism from high voltage cables. Were you any where near power cables.

Just a streetlight wire. Low voltage. I still dont understand how it happened, but I know what I saw. (bad pun intended) lol

So, WTH? Is this possible?

Kant be...

Backwards

On the early Husqvarnas with the Point ignition [ 65 & 77 models ] if the saw was getting older with a lot of hard use and had some carbon build up on the piston as the saw got hotter and the operator did not give it a firm fast pull sometimes it would start in reverse. The funny thing was that they would run and sound as if they were running normal rotation, you found out when you hit the wood and they backed you out that something was wrong. The early 1100 Huskies would do the same thing even when cold, if you pulled the saw over slow 2-3 times and then tried to start it they would backfire and just about pull your elbow in two. The factory recalled most of them and replaced the electronic ign. Some of the early Partners did the same thing. We had a contestant at the Mio show start his in reverse, stopped and looked at the chain then restarted and made his cuts.
Dave

Hey Dave!

I was wondering if perhaps it was the result of "limp-wristing" the saw while starting it.  You know, like when you don't hold an auto-loading pistol firmly enough to enable the action to cycle properly, resulting in stove-pipes/mis-feeds.

Did you get hammered with that snow storm the other day?

Glen

reverse

Had about 6 saws do it. Old style 020 and an 031. Modules cured them all.

Glens,
I would bet the limp wrist thing could be a cause, that and normal wear on the points. No we only got about 3 " of snow, I am ready for the robins to get here seems like a long winter with strange weather.
Dave

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=16618&highlight=running+backwards Try this link. I posted it sometime back about one of my saws.
Later
Bob

Maybe that is what happened to my Homelite

When I was reassembling the 450 I thought (well I will just put the clutch on hand tight because the crankcase rotation will seat it, first time it was in the shed and the echo off the walls loud so I shut it down and took it outside. Well it was still cold so I choked it and gave it a priming pull, shut the choke off and gave a tug and the cord came out of the starter, ( the knot wasnt big enough) and I saw the flash of the clutch drum flying out through the pasture. I maybe went 100 yards. Lucky I hit the kill switch and looked up to see where it landed. Still spent 15 min looking for it. And amazingly found all of the pices in between, clutch, bearing, spacer and washer. The drum itself must of met with a stone or the fencepost cause the edge of the rim drive was chiped, so when I bought the bar and chain I ordered a new drum. Thank goodness it didnt happen inside!!!!

echo 3400

topnotch

sorry for starting another thread without reading new posts first. anyways when my saw reversed it started perfectly fine. there wasn't any hesitation or warning that there was something wrong.

the reply about lack of full compression due to flywheel sounds interesting. i needed to put on a new pull handle, the original was worn at the base and the cord kept pulling through. i put on the new one but this shortened the pull length by approx. 4 inches. what's your feeling on this??

--in between evolution---

The saw is only a few months old and doesn't see much use. It only happened the one time and the saw has ran great ever since.