550 husky

[rupedoggy]

As some of you may have seen from my ad, I got three burned up 550s. Well nobody wanted them for my price so I got a couple of cheap Chinese pistons and started the rebuild. Well one thing they are not easy for me to work on. I figured these were the latest of the greatest. Full circle crank, captive side cover nuts, side cover chain adjust, good anti-vibe, no adjust carburetor, snap down top cover good stuff. Well the one I have running is powerful and high revving. I did a little tree trim and it does work well. Ok why is nobody singing the praises of this saw?

 

[newforest]

Those are originals? Not Mark IIs ?

I own and operate 2 of the Mk I / original; they are perfect for my particular/unusual cutting work. The first one has over 1000 hours on it now. When the Mk II came out I hunted out one of the last originals available new right then.

A friend of mine who swore they would have to pry his cold dead fingers from his 346 XPs is finally trying one now after ******** about “computer saws” for a decade. He came across a yard sale special 550 Mk I, cheap, picked it up and had his high volume, very pro saw shop rebuild it from the usual idiot abuse; they assured him that if he didn’t want the results they knew plenty of people who did and everyone involved could be slightly in the black on putting it back into daily use.

I still don’t know why they decided to add a little over a pound of weight to the Mk II design, but I don’t really care. My pair of 550 XP Mk I saws will last me the rest of my sawing life anyway. But at this point, four years on from the introduction of the Mk II, maybe a little gleam has come off the 550?

 

[newforest]

I can also note this, about these: if memory serves, the top cover was re-designed - heightened - to improve internal cooling. The first 550s could have a problem with vapor lock on a hot day. The 562 went through the same thing. So the shorter covers have that residual user complaint.

I rarely have to run saws in extra hot weather (I live in the north), but when I do I simply open the fuel cap as soon as the tank empties, for an additional bit of saw cooling while I cool down and hydrate, take a short break, etc. Has always seemed like a good idea on a hot day.

 

[mbrick]

I'll second, this is my go to saw. It rips.

I also have starting issues on a hot day. Any other day and it runs and re starts great.

 

[HumBurner]

They are light and sweet little saws when running right and not having mechanical issues.


I found the 550/562 series to be easy enougj to work on, though tighter space than others to work on.

 

[NSEric]

I rebuilt a straight gassed very low hr one for my buddy, it's a sweet running strong 50cc saw.
He like's loud saws so we opened up the muffler, it runs a little better and doesnt ever get hot and vapor lock now.

They're not real popular on forums as most are used by pros who dont use forums.