045 Super rebuild FINALLY conquered, 056 Super close behind

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Fingers crossed that after rebuilding both my 87cc Stihls from the ground up last year w new bearings, seals, pistons, cylinder, etc, I've finally gotten the 045 Super working like it was meant to. So many other folks have had those saws run dependably for them, I couldn't believe I was having so much trouble successfully completing rebuilds and keeping them going. Between the two saws and being a novice at rebuilds, problems included bad initial seating of bearings and some bad seal installs, failing ignitions, stuck rings, and a few other hiccups that have kept them from sustained running to date. Got a new aftermarket Saegenspezi ignition for the 045 Super from Germany after being unsure whether the Foggysail-fixed Bosch was really working right. Put new Caber rings in to replace the ones that had gotten stuck, got a little more compression by doing just a high temp grey RTV gasket, and after some initial difficulty getting it started, got the thing screaming like a scalded cat. It's got the dual port muffler on it, too. For once it's working at the carb settings it should, proving that my carb rebuilds were fine the whole time and it was other problems keeping it from running right.
The only thing keeping the 056 Super from working right is the coil to chip wire keeps breaking in the older Saegenspezi ignition to the point I can't repair it anymore now as it's broken off flush with the coil now, so I'll likely just order another ignition. For the periods of time the wire held together, that saw was running pretty good. Will be such a relief to stop spending any more time on these, and spend my time on better things. Like getting my newly acquired mid-60's Mac 250 running as good as it can lol. Was glad someone called out my compression readings as not sounding right, because I've come to realize my new-ish Bosch tester is consistently reading at least 40 psi low. That definitely hasn't been helping my diagnostics.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

For the 056 Super, I got the idea after some failed soldering attempts to repair the Saegenspezi ignition to try the coil off my OEM Bosch ignition on it that I had Foggysail-fixed but the soldering had fallen apart. Pretty sure the coil itself is fine. Looks the same and mounts the same as the Saegenspezi one. Crimped a connector on it to attach it to the chip wire and put it together on the Saegenspezi ignition plate. Only concern is it sits a fraction recessed from the edge of the ignition plate when if anything it should protrude a fraction beyond to be close as possible to the magnets on the ignition cover. I tried spark testing it and definitely got spark but the tester light seems like it's usually brighter for strong spark. So think I need maybe to enlarge the mount holes just a bit so the coil sits a little further out on the plate. Will save me $75 for a new ignition if works.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

So was flooding the plug a lot again and getting nowhere on the 056 Super til I switched out a newish spark plug that had gotten a little mangled and crudely rebent into shape for an old one with proper gap. Got sputter from the old one but kept flooding. Thought I'd cleaned it up as I'd been cleaning up other plugs I'd been working on but apparently not. When I sanded it clean and reinstalled it she fired right up and seemed to run decent after some jet tuning. Still need to get a bar on it and test it under load. So the coil does seem to be pretty much interchangeable between the Saegenspezi ignition and the OEM Bosch, though as coils are almost never the problem, the only reason you'd ever want to switch them out like I did is if you broke the wire off the coil that goes to the trigger mechanism of the ignition. But saved me from wasting money on another ignition.

One thing about the Saegenspezi for the odd person that is ever trying to install one and comes across this issue: You need longer screws to mount it than the OEM plate uses, for one, but more importantly they make the connection from the coil to the trigger chip too long so it rides high and wide and will chafe against the spinning ignition cover. I actually ended up unscrewing the chip from where they mount it on the plate and rotating it all the way around to use the right hand side ignition plate mounting screw to hold it down. That way it stays flat and well in from the edge of the plate. Also rotate the plate clockwise as much as you can in the mounting slots when you mount it to advance the ignition a little.

 

[kyle1!]

You are learning by trial and error. It can be extremely frustrating at times but the aw ha moment can be such a confidence booster.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

You are learning by trial and error. It can be extremely frustrating at times but the aw ha moment can be such a confidence booster.

Definitely. Has never been as much trial and error on any other small engine I've ever worked on, but these models were transitional large saw models where Stihl was trying out some new technologies that didn't work out, so they come with more quirks than a lot of other saws, certainly than the straightforward 046/460 066/660 designs. From the moment I bought the problematic 045 Super nearly a decade ago, and then got the 056 Super for parts before deciding to rebuild as its own saw one day, as much as anything I've been battling the ignitions in them the whole time. Having only one aftermarket ignition available for them in the world that you have to buy from Germany, not all that well designed itself, certainly makes things harder. The Foggysail fix on the OEM is great if it works, but my soldering abilities leave something to be desired and something always seemed to come loose.